979. Mylo - Destroy Rock & Roll (2004)

Track Listing

1. Valley Of The Dolls
2. Sunworshipper
3. Musclecars
4. Drop The Pressure
5. In My Arms
6. Guilty Of Love
7. Paris Four Hundred
8. Destroy Rock & Roll
9. Rikki
10. Otto's Journey
11. Muscle Car (Reform Reprise)
12. Zenophile
13. Need You Tonite
14. Emotion 98.6

Review

Sometimes to make a brilliant dance album all you need is a sense of rhythm a PC and free time on your hands. That is exactly what makes this album so good. Not much has gone into it and therefore it has the sheer joy of music making.

You can tell that Mylo really enjoyed making this, it is full of jokes and sheer fun. The whole thing is pretty minimalist because it really doesn't need much more. It can therefore seen as pretty much a basic dance music album.

And it is basic. And again that is what makes it good, paring down dance music to its bare essentials in such a way that it doesn't become artsy, just a really good mainstream dance album. Nice.

Track Highlights

1. Drop The Pressure
2. In My Arms
3. Paris Four Hundred
4. Muscle Car (Reform Reprise)

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Mylo attended George Watson's College, Edinburgh before graduating in philosophy, psychology and physiology from Brasenose College, Oxford, he subsequently gave up studying for a philosophy Ph.D at UCLA to return home and produce music. Mylo released his debut album, Destroy Rock & Roll in 2004, on the Breastfed Recordings label, which he co-owns. Mylo produced the album on a computer in his own bedroom.

Drop the Pressure:

978. Björk - Medúlla (2004)

Track Listing

1. Pleasure Is All Mine
2. Show Me Forgiveness
3. Where Is The Line
4. Vökuró
5. Öll Birtan
6. Who Is It (Carry My Joy On The Left, Carry My Pain On The Right)
7. Submarine
8. Desired Constellation
9. Oceania
10. Sonnets/Unrealities XI
11. Ancestors
12. Mouth's Cradle
13. Midvikudags
14. Triumph Of A Heart

Review

So Björk does not disappoint in bringing us something completely different. Not just different in her own repertoire, but as usual different from whatever anyone else does. Björk firmly holds on to the "last of the true originals in the mainstream" title here.

So this is an album almost all composed of the human voice in different varieties, from beat box to throat singing to choirs to a lot of processed voice. There are almost no instruments throughout the album and sometimes what sounds like an instrument is actually processed voice or someone who can make weird effects with their own voice.

For such a high concept album you would think that songs would sound sparse, and they do in a way, in the same way they did in Vespertine, but this is a heavily worked on minimalism and at times the sounds sounds really rich indeed. An exploration into the possibilities of the human voice in another truly inventive Björk album.


Track Highlights

1. Oceania
2. Vökuró
3. Where is the Line
4. Mouth's Cradle

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The album consists almost entirely of human vocals and a cappella arrangements; only a few musical instruments are featured: a bass synthesizer on "Who Is It", piano on "Ancestors", a gong on "Pleasure Is All Mine" and a synthesizer on "Mouth's Cradle". However, the vocals are sometimes processed or sampled: for example, the atmospheric haze that dominates "Desired Constellation" was created from a sample of Björk singing the phrase "I'm not sure what to do with it" from "Hidden Place" on her previous album, Vespertine. The album features beatboxing, choral arrangements and throat singing, as well as guest appearances by such artists as Mike Patton, Robert Wyatt, Tagaq, Rahzel (formerly of The Roots), Shlomo and Dokaka.

Oceania:

977. Morrissey - You Are The Quarry (2004)

Track Listing

1. America Is Not The World
2. Irish Blood, English Heart
3. I Have Forgiven Jesus
4. Come Back To Camden
5. I'm Not Sorry
6. The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores
7. How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?
8. The First Of The Gang To Die
9. Let Me Kiss You
10. All The Lazy Dykes
11. I Like You
12. You Know I Couldn't Last

Review

Yet another album by Morrissey! Will they ever end? THEY HAVE ENDED! It's the last one! Hurray! Well that being sad it isn't a bad album as Morrissey goes... it is of course still annoying.

However there is a pleseant retroness to the whole thing brought about by the fact that this sounds exactly like his earlier shit. Fortunately it doesn't sound like his most terrible shit, in fact it is kind of good, I am sorry to say.

So it has some quite good songs, the lyrics are generally competent even if often annoying Morrissey style. So I get to say goodbye to Morrissey without particularly hating him but being glad to see him go.

Track Highlights

1. Irish Blood, English Heart
2. America Is Not The World
3. The World Is Full of Crashing Bores
4. Let Me Kiss You

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Throughout the late 90s, Morrissey was treated with contempt by the British music press and subsequently became a pariah with respect to the Britpop movement, turning to progressive rock in lieu of his usual indie pop. With You Are the Quarry, Morrissey returns to the musical mainstream. Because it was his first studio album in seven years, the critics and the public were more willing to give him a chance and offer a tabula rasa. As such, the first single "Irish Blood, English Heart" became his highest charting single in the UK at #3 and received significant airplay in the US, going to #36 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.

Irish Blood, English Heart:

976. Scissor Sisters - Scissor Sisters (2004)

Track Listing

1. Laura
2. Take Your Mama
3. Comfortably Numb
4. Mary
5. Lovers In The Backseat
6. Tits On The Radio
7. Filthy/Gorgeous
8. Music Is The Victim
9. Better Luck Next Time
10. It Can't Come Quickly Enough
11. Return To Oz

Review

Scissor Sisters infuse pop with a much needed sense of fun... however it does unfortunately end up being more a novelty album than an actually substantial work. Fun dancy music banking on a certain exuberance which makes the music catchy and accessible.

This being said the album is a bit too over the place, attempting to fit in as many sexually ambiguous influences as possible in an album form the Bee Gees to Elton John, and the references are often a bit painfully obvious. Take Your Mama and Mary are obvious Elton John "tributes" and Comfortably Numb is one in the recognisable style of the Bee Gees.

There was not much more that Scissor Sisters could milk in this particular style and so this album remains as a pretty fun album that gets a bit tiring after repeated listening but which works pretty well in a cluby context.

Track Highlights

1. Mary
2. Take Your Mama
3. Laura
4. Tits on the Radio

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

It reached number 1 on the UK and Irish album charts, and was the best-selling album in the UK for the year 2004. Since its release it has gone 7x Platinum in the UK selling over 2,500,000 copies in the UK alone. In Ireland it has been certified a close 5x Platinum. The album was not as successful in their native USA, peaking at #102 on the Billboard 200.

Mary:

975. Rufus Wainwright - Want One (2003)

Track Listing

1. Oh What A World
2. I Don't Know What It Is
3. Vicious World
4. Movies Of Myself
5. Pretty Things
6. Go Or Go Ahead
7. Vibrate
8. 14th Street
9. Natasha
10. Harvester Of Hearts
11. Beautiful Child
12. Want
13. 11:11
14. Dinner At Eight

Review

So we start our gay musicians triptych with Rufus Wainwright, and if ever an artist deserved the epithet of "fabulous" this is it. This is particularly true of both Want One and Two, two amazing albums of pretty unique musical pieces tied together by huge emotional honestly and musical bombast.

Rufus is clearly influenced by musicals and not so much opera but operetta, his music uses arrangements to great emotional effectiveness in a way that was practically absent from his contemporaries. Interestingly enough he does this by giving each track its unique identity.

This is one of those rare albums that hardly ever gets tiring, even while they are clearly songs by the same artist they are also completely distinct from each other. While his nasally voice might be somewhat distracting for those making first contact with him, the sheer artistry and epic scope of his "pop-songs" will soon win almost anyone over. A truly great album.

Track Highlights

1. Dinner at Eight
2. I Don't Know What It Is
3. Oh What A World
4. Go or Go Ahead

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Want One features guest vocals from Martha Wainwright, Joan Wasser, Teddy Thompson and Linda Thompson, as well as a banjo solo in "14th Street" by Wainwright's mother Kate McGarrigle.

Dinner at Eight: