Regularly updated blog charting the most important albums of the last 50 years
Thursday, November 20, 2008
739. The Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen (1993)
Track Listing
1. If I Were Going 2. Gentlemen 3. Be Sweet 4. Debonair 5. When We Two Parted 6. Fountain And Fairfax 7. What Jail Is Like 8. My Curse 9. Now You Know 10. I Keep Coming Back 11. Brother Woodrow/Closing Prayer
Review
The Afghan Whigs give us a perfectly nice album, which is clearly influenced by Grunge as much as by soul and R&B. This makes for an interesting mix at times, but I really don't think they reach their full potential here.
In theory the album is quite a bit better than in practice. It just doesn't sound that exciting... anyway I think that happens often with what are supposedly "cutting edge" bands in the 90s. This might simply be a result of over-exposure to the musical style and the never-ending rip-offs.
I know that the Afghan Whigs have a big cult following, this usually means one of two things, they are genuinely amazing and so original that their time, or any time, wasn't ready for them or they might just be sub-par. The Afghan Whigs fall somewhere between the two... at times they are very unimpressive and at other times you really think their stuff deserves a wider audience... depends on the track.
Track Highlights
1. Be Sweet 2. Gentlemen 3. What Jail Is Like 4. Brother Woodrow/Closing Prayer Final Grade
8/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
The Afghan Whigs signed to a major label, Elektra Records, and in 1993 released another album, Gentlemen. Although the singles “Debonair” and “Gentlemen” were fairly popular, the album failed to launch the band into the mainstream.
Beside regular appearances on MTV's playlists, their track "Fountain and Fairfax" also appeared on the television series My So-Called Life in 1994
Gentlemen:
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
738. Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville (1993)
Track Listing
1. 6'1" 2. Help Me Mary 3. Glory 4. Dance Of The Seven Veils 5. Never Said 6. Soap Star Joe 7. Explain It To Me 8. Canary 9. Mesmerizing 10. Fuck And Run 11. Girls Girls Girls 12. Divorce Song 13. Shatter 14. Flower 15. Johnny Sunshine 16. Gunshy 17. Stratford-On-Guy 18. Strange Loop
Review
Liz Phair is a dirty, dirty, woman... I like it. With a vocal style that falls somewhere between Suzanne Vega and Kate Rusby and a lyrical style that reminds one of Ani Di Franco, Liz Phair is despite all that a true original.
Phair has a perfect union of lyrics that are at times acidic, at times bittersweet, often just bitter with music that is more often than not sweet. She may be less famous that her contemporaries in the female singer-songwriter business, that may be for the simple fact that a lot of the lyrics are even more confrontational than her colleagues. Listen to flower if you don't believe me.
So, yeah another album to stick in my iPod, for those days when I feel like I have changed gender and have PMS. It's one of those rare albums that works at all levels and for that it should be cherished. Get it.
Track Highlights
1. Fuck and Run 2. Flower 3. Help Me Mary 4. Gunshy
Final Grade
9/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
Phair commented in interviews that the album was a song-by-song reply to the Rolling Stones' 1972 album Exile on Main Street. Some critics contend that the album is not a clear or obvious song-by-song response, although Phair apparently sequenced her compositions in an attempt to match the song-list and pacing of the 1972 album.
Flower, with lyrics NSFW:
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
737. The Auteurs - New Wave (1993)
Track Listing
1. Show Girl 2. Bailed Out 3. American Guitars 4. Junk Shop Clothes 5. Don't Trust the Stars 6. Starstruck 7. How Could I Be Wrong 8. Housebreaker 9. Valet Parking 10. Idiot Brother 11. Early Years 12. Home Again
Review
Here we have another one of those formative albums in the development of Brit-pop that is coming just around the bend. And this one is better than Suede's self-titled effort.
I can't say that this album is homogeneously good, but there are enough good to great tracks here to push it up a notch. Again the influence of glam-rock is very obvious, albeit in an updated version, in fact some of the tracks here seem like they could have come from the soundtrack to Velvet Goldmine.
Interestingly this album was never a big sales success, which goes to show that people are stupid. They chose to give Suede the place that was rightfully this album's. New Wave's influence has been recognised later and it has fortunately, now, achieved the place of a classic that it deserves... well at least in the context of early Brit-pop. Track Highlights 1. Bailout 2. Junk Shop Clothes 3. Valet Parking 4. How Could I Be Wrong
Final Grade
9/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
New Wave (1993), was nominated for a Mercury Music Prize and saw The Auteurs associated with the emerging Britpop genre.
However this association never sat well with Haines who frequently made derogatory remarks about his peers. After New Wave, the band remained on the fringes of the music scene.
Now, The Smashing Pumpkins are very much one of those love them or hate them bands. I am in the first camp but I completely understand and sympathise with the arguments of the second camp. Particularly the argument that baldy is whiny and annoying, as is his voice. Yes, I agree, but I still really like them.
A good reason for liking them is this album. Not as sprawling as Melancholy and just generally better than anything else they ever did, it is the perfect introduction to them. When heard in historical context they come across as particularly fresh, not only by moving away from the prevalent grunge scene, but because they are essentially creating a new musical style here.
One of the first things you notice is the quiet/loud dynamics of the album. The album is anything but relentless, therefore when the heavier elements kick in they kick in with particular strength. When you do a whole album which consists of relentless noise you can't go anywhere, when you temper the noise with melody then you have somewhere to go. So the Pumpkins mesh the sounds of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath with the wall of sound of shoegazing and the quiet psychedelia of Pink Floyd. This gives them a varied swatch to take their sounds from and it is in this variety that their music has power. Pretty great album.
Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan felt "this great pressure to make the next album set the world on fire." The immense pressure to succeed intensified an already problematic situation. Drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was undergoing an increasingly severe addiction to heroin, guitarist James Iha and bassist D'arcy Wretzky had recently ended their relationship, and Corgan, aside from battles with weight gain and suicidal depression, was suffering from his worst-ever bout of writer's block.
Disarm:
Sunday, November 16, 2008
735. Paul Weller - Wild Wood (1993)
Track Listing
1. Sunflower 2. Can You Heal Us (Holy Man) 3. Wild Wood 4. Instrumental One (Part 1) 5. All The Pictures On The Wall 6. Has My Fire Really Gone Out? 7. Country 8. Instrumental Two 9. 5th Season 10. The Weaver 11. Instrumental One (Part 2) 12. Foot Of The Mountain 13. Shadow Of The Sun 14. Holy Man 15. Moon On Your Pyjamas 16. Hung Up
Review
Paul Weller does some great retro-stuff here, mixing the psychedelic rockyness of Traffic with the folksiness of Nick Drake. Although that description might sound derivative, it is anything but. Weller creates a distinctively British form of retro-folk-rock which would be extremely influential through the rest of the decade and beyond.
The retro qualities of the music are precisely what make this album age well, it sounds like it could come from pretty much any time from the mid 60s onwards. Then there are some pretty amazing folk songs like Wild Wood or Country which show him at his best as a lyricist.
Weller is great at re-inventing himself from the Jam to Style Council and now in his solo career he does what is possibly his most successful reinvention since the Jam, an album of great musical variety which is successful at every style he attempts. Pretty great.
Track Highlights
1. Wild Wood 2. Country 3. Shadow Of The Sun 4. Sunflower
Final Grade 9/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
It made it to number 2 in the UK charts, and contained two UK hits: "Wild Wood", which reached #14 in the UK charts and "Sunflower", which reached #16.
In 2000 Q magazine placed it at number 77 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.
A two disc deluxe edition was released on 22nd October 2007.
