712. Morrissey - "Your Arsenal" (1992)

Track Listing

1. You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side
2. Glamorous Glue
3. We'll Let You Know
4. National Front Disco
5. Certain People I Know
6. We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful
7. You're The One For Me Fatty
8. Seasick Yet Still Docked
9. I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday
10. Tomorrow

Review

Let's get one thing out of the way. Morrissey is a horrible person, whatever you might say about his music, whether you like it or not, he is a horrible person, and the lyrics here reflect that more than in other of his albums. So yes, he's a vegetarian... let me think if other evil famous vegetarians...I get nothing. Oh he is also a right-wing bastard who wants Britain for the British let me thing of other famous nationalistic racist vegetarian bastards... I get nothing.

So I pretty much put hipster fans of Morrissey in the same bag of hipster fans of Ayn Rand, when I am king they will be first against the wall. Yes I am a bleeding heart liberal, left-winger and also an emigrant in a foreign country. So Morrissey offends me more than most other people I am sure.

All that being said... musically this isn't bad, but I just want to throw up at parts of it. We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful... do we? No, you do Morrissey because you are fucking horrible sub-human waste. "England for the English"? Who the fuck are the English anyway? Start by kicking all the Normans out. But then I find myself singing along to some of the tracks and I want to kill myself. And then he has a song making fun of fat people... that is just great. So your problems are with foreign people, fat people, people who eat meat and your friends. But glamorising the National Front and Hooliganism is fine. And you clearly have no problem with looking like a reject from Take That.

As I said the music isn't terrible, but I hate him. He would of course say the songs are all misunderstood, but really his actions and statements on and off-stage and on and off-record say the opposite.

Track Highlights

1. We'll Let You Know
2. National Front Disco (horrible, but catchy)
3. Glamorous Glue
4. I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Some tracks from the album were lyrically controversial, although much of the controversy was stirred up by the New Musical Express, who had turned against Morrissey by this time. "Glamorous Glue", though a personally conflicted and ambivalent song, was accused of anti-Americanism, while the similarly ambiguous "We'll Let You Know" was accused of defending football hooliganism. "The National Front Disco", meanwhile, was accused by some of glorifying the British National Front, a far-right group, and the ambiguity of lyrics such as "England for the English" was criticised.

While the album represents a consistent collection of songs, there was no standout hit single. The first song released from the album, "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful", peaked at number 17 in the United Kingdom. It also hit number two on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart. While this was an improvement from the singles from Kill Uncle, it didn't match the success of his earlier singles.

Despite this, a great number of singles were released from the album. The UK saw the release of "You're The One For Me, Fatty" (#19) and "Certain People I Know" (#35). In the United States, "Glamorous Glue" and "Tomorrow" reached #13 and #1 on the Modern Rock chart, respectively.

We'll Let You Know:

711. Koffi Olomide - Haut de Gamme/Koweit Rive Gauche (1992)

Track Listing

1. Papa Bonheur
2. Desespoir
3. Koweit Rive Gauche
4. Qui Cherche Trouve
5. Elixir
6. Porte-Monnaie
7. Conte De Fees
8. Obrigado
9. Dit Jeannot

Review

I am sure this was very original for people who have a solely Western musical diet. If you are Portuguese like me, however, you have listened to this kind of music for a long time, actually long before 1992. The Portuguese language singer that sound more like this to me is the Angolan Bonga, who has been around considerably longer than 1992.

In the late 80s Bonga was doing stuff very similar to this. So this does not sound original to me at all. Koffi Olomide, in the Democratic Repulic of Congo (not much of a democracy or republic) is working in a well established Sub-Saharan African tradition of music, his particular version is Tcha Tcho and he was incredibly popular... but that doesn't make it particularly good.

I would much rather listen to more Senegalese music. The use of synths here is a bit maudlin and tacky, the songs are clearly love-songs and some work better than others which sound a bit cloying. As an interesting footnote one of the songs is called Obrigado, which means thank you in Portuguese... I can also recognise some kind of Portuguese creole in the track, including the word "desculpa" meaning "sorry"... Well it was interesting to me at least.

Track Highlights

1. Papa Bonheur
2. Obrigado
3. Porte Monnaie
4. Qui Cherche Trouve

Final Grade

6/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

He went to France to study. While in Paris, he began playing the guitar and writing songs. On his return to Congo he was a member of Viva la Musica, Papa Wemba's band. Koffi repopularized the slower style of soukous, which had fallen out of fashion. He dubbed this style Tcha Tcho, and it gained popularity outside Congo. Koffi's music can be quite controversial, taking on current events and topics considered taboo in some conservative societies. He has also participated in the salsa music project Africando. Koffi has won four Kora Awards in South Africa and also won the best artist in central Africa. He is married and the father of four children.

Papa Bonheur:

710. Arrested Development - 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life of Arrested Development (1992)

Track Listing

1. Man's Final Frontier
2. Mama's Always On Stage
3. People Everyday
4. Blues Happy
5. Mr Wendal
6. Children Play With Earth
7. Raining Revolution
8. Fishin' For Religion
9. Give A Man A Fish
10. U
11. Eve Of Reality
12. Natural
13. Dawn Of The Dreads
14. Tennessee
15. Washed Away
16. People Everyday (Metamorphosis Mix)

Review

Well this is a different hip-hop album. It moves away from straight rapping into a more melodic style. This gives it just a little bit of an R&B feel which would be so popular with later hip-hop. Still, despite being less aggressive, it is still great hip-hop.

It is Southern hip-hop, which would probably have been the second best trend in "regional" hip hop to have achieved mainstream success... right after East Coast rap. But, as we all know it was West Coast gangsta rap that won it all. This is second best because it does not have the power of Public Enemy or the smart wittiness of the Native Tongues posse (De La Soul and Tribe Called Quest particularly).

Still, it is pretty enjoyable and fun stuff to listen to. It is not for purists, some of the songs are much too chipper for their own good (Mr. Wendel for example) but that also adds to a whole mood of positiveness in the album... although it is also a bit naive. That naivitè is one of the good things about it, it is endearing.

Track Highlights

1. People Everyday (Metamorphosis Mix)
2. Mama's Always On Stage
3. Mr. Wendel
4. Tennessee

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

It took the group three years, five months and two days to be offered a record deal, when Chrysalis Records sent A&R director Duff Marlowe to Atlanta's Bosstown Studios to meet with the group's manager Michael Mauldin. Arrested Development had already been offered a single deal for the song "Tennessee". Hence the name of the first album was 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life Of..., which produced several hit tracks. These included "Tennessee", "Everyday People", and "Mr. Wendal", which hit the Top Ten. The group won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist, and were also named Band of the Year by Rolling Stone magazine.

People Everyday:

709. Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (1992)

Track Listing

1. Xtal
2. Tha
3. Pulsewidth
4. Ageispolis
5. i
6. Green Calx
7. Heliosphan
8. We Are The Music Makers
9. Schottkey 7th Path
10. Ptolemy
11. Hedphelym
12. Delphium
13. Actium

Review

Two things about this album are particularly amazing. The first is the fact that it is almost impossible to create an electronic dance music album in 1992 and not make it feel terribly dated and tacky in 2008, and this manages that feat tremendously. The second astounding thing about it is that Mr. Twin would have been 14 in 1985 when some of these tracks were composed!

Composed is the correct term here. This is a collection of Ambient compositions which sound like Brian Eno on some weird mix of ecstasy and weed. In fact that is a bit unfair on Aphex, they sound like nothing that came before, although there has been plenty afterwards trying to mimic it.

This is the album that cements Aphex Twin's reputation as a genius, and even if this had been the only good thing he produced that reputation would have been amply deserved. I am always astounded when someone comes out of a basement with a new style of music, and Aphex did just that.

Track Highlights

1. Tha
2. Actium
3. Schottkey 7th Path
4. Xtal

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Although primarily an instrumental effort, many of the songs feature vocal samples. "Xtal" has samples of female vocalising, as well as alternating fantasy sounds in alternating measures, both repeated intermittently throughout the song. "Tha" has clips of two people (one possibly being James himself) talking, while "Actium" has samples of what sound like squeaking shoes in a hallway. "We Are the Music Makers" features a line of dialogue from the movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Some have mistakenly attributed James with the first use of this oft-used sample, but while James may have created track 8 with the quote at some time after 1985, the first use of it appeared on "Nephatiti" on ex:el by 808 State, the Manchester group that influenced James and its song “Flow Coma” that James remixed and appeared on 2003's 26 Mixes for Cash (disc 2, track 6). "Green Calx" contains samples from RoboCop: the dinosaur's popping eyes during the 6000 SUX TV ad, the ED-209 robot trying to go downstairs without success, and the sound of RoboCop browsing faces of criminals in the police archives computer. "Green Calx" also contains a faint sample of the vocal from "Fodderstompf" by Public Image Ltd.

You like train tracks? You like Tha from Aphex's Twin's 1992 effort Selected Ambient Works 85-92? Then this is the video for YOU!:

708. Pavement - Slanted And Enchanted (1992)

Track Listing

1. Summer Babe (Winter Version)
2. Trigger Cut/Wounded Kite at: 17
3. No Life Singed Her
4. In the Mouth a Desert
5. Conduit for Sale!
6. Zurich Is Stained
7. Chesley's Little Wrists
8. Loretta's Scars
9. Here
10. Two States
11. Perfume V
12. Fame Throwa
13. Jackals, False Grails: The Lonesome Era
14. Our Singer

Review

Ahhh, an album I really enjoyed. We haven't had one of these since Slint. As you can tell there is probably some kind of pattern to what I like, and this was a predictable one. Yes, Pavement is gud!

Life is too short to listen to music which does not sound like the artist really needed to do it. Music needs to have a certain punch, a feeling that it is coming from deep down in the artist's being. Pavement sounds like that, it is not jumping on any bandwagon, it can't even be called grunge, maybe fusing grunge with the Modern Lovers would be good description, and that makes for a great album.

Pavement seem like a distillation of a lot of what is good about music in the 20 years before it, from Velvet Underground, Modern Lovers, Wire, Television, Violent Femmes, Slint into something almost timeless in its music. It could have been done in the mid to late 70s or any time after that. This classic quality, like that of all great albums, is what will keep the album popular and fresh for the next 30 years or more.


Track Highlights

1. In the Mouth a Desert
2. Trigger Cut/Wounded Kite at: 17
3. Chesley's Little Wrists
4. Two States

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The album regularly appears at the top of lists of most important albums of the 1990s, despite relatively low record sales. The album was distributed to critics as early as 1991 before its original release and when the rest of Pavement joined the band, so when the album was released, the band had a bassist and Gary Young's drumming was so shaky that Bob Nastanovich kept time for him, as well as work as tour manager. In 2003, the album was ranked number 134 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

In The Mouth a Desert: