The Beatles-While My Guitar Gently Weeps

The Beatles - The White Album (1968)

The Beatles self-titled 1968 release, known most famously as The White Album due to its white cover was one of the first double albums to be released by a prominent artist in popular music. This album was recorded during a turbulent period for the group, with the sessions dominated by in-fighting and disinterest, while Ringo Starr also quit the group for a brief period before being enticed back. Despite the recording of this album being un-harmonious and tense, the music was in no way affected and in fact what the band lay down on this album was some of their best work, resulting also in one of their best albums.

The White Album is an incredibly diverse album musically, containing a whole range of different styles across the two sides. There is seemingly something for everybody on this album with the genres on display including folk, rock and roll, alternative, avant-garde, music hall, pop, country, blues, heavy metal and even a child lullaby, and that’s not even everything. This album probably more than any of their others also highlighted strongly their overall musical talents, as on this release they played most of the instruments on the album relying on session musicians only on the odd occasion. The band would taken turns playing lead and rhythm guitar, bass, drums, percussion, keyboards, piano, harmonica and even saxophone and flugelhorn, interchanging across all sorts of instruments. Part of the reason for this was because many of the songs were recorded as solo pieces with minimal effort from the other band members. This highlighted the tension that was building within the band, as well as the desire for each individual to have their own song recorded and recorded the way they wanted.

The majority of the songs on The White Album were written on acoustic guitar while the band was in India studying transcendental meditation. Although the songs as usual were credited to Lennon-McCartney, this is by no means correct with most of the songs individually written and only a few co-written. When listening to the album you can even get a clear picture of who wrote what based on the different styles of each song. John Lennon tended to write more experimental and heavier tracks, while Paul McCartney wrote more pop oriented and somewhat softer songs, although there is the odd exception such as McCartney’s “Helter Skelter”. What makes this album an incredibly enjoyable listen and a very interesting album is the themes and ideas on display within the songs, of which many contain a subtle quirkiness and underlying humour. Just some of the themes that appear include a hunter named Bungalow Bill on “The Continuing story of bungalow bill”, Paul McCartney’s dog on “Martha My Dear”, the Maharishi on “Sexy Sadie”, and of all things Eric Clapton’s chocolate addiction on “Savoy Truffle” – weird I know. Interestingly enough in connection with the song themes, the band helped to fuel Paul is dead conspiracy theorists on this album with subtle clues appearing to stoke this infamous conspiracy. These included the famous line “the walrus was Paul” on “Glass Onion”, as well as the supposed hidden message on the end of I’m So Tired” which if played backwards sounds like “Paul is dead miss him miss him”.

I just love the satirical and ironic nature of some of the songs on the album where they appear in many ways to mock the very style or theme of the song, something which critics derided them for after the album was released. “Yer Blues” is in many ways a pisstake of blues rock with its heavy reverb and distortion, as well as the all out solo where the band just let rip. On “Rocky Racoon” a country styled track, McCartney starts the song in a mock fake American country accent, while on “Piggies” a song about corporate greed, Harrison sings the chorus in a posh English accent. It’s these little things which make some of the weaker songs on the album musically an enjoyable listen. Despite this, incredibly enough some of the contemporary reviews of the album slated the band for not being serious enough and not writing songs about the political and social climate of the time. In one especially ridiculous comment, critic John Landau said that ‘the band used parody on the album because they were afraid of confronting reality and the urgencies of the moment’, a bizarre comment if there was one considering the previous year they were on a global telecast singing “All You Need is Love”. At the end of the day if they felt like writing social or political they would have done, and in fact three songs “Blackbird” “Revolution 1” and “Piggies” all had underlying political/social ideas in them, which then makes you wonder if people like Landau were expecting an all out protest album or something in a similar vain.

Although there is occasional filler material such as “Wild Honey Pie” and “Don’t Pass Me By”, while the less said about “Revolution 9” the better, I find it hard to criticise much about this album. It has great diversity and an eclectic mix of styles across both discs which keeps me interested throughout, from the opening track “Back in the USSR” to the final track on side two “Good Night”. Double albums often end up failing because a lot of the material is second rate and is simply there to fill a side meaning the listener can lose interest very quickly. This is not the case on The White Album with the really good tracks such as “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” evenly spaced out with what might appear to be weaker tracks musically but often more quirky and satirical such as “Bungalow Bill”. And in fact it is many of those lesser tracks which make this album such a quirky mix throughout, from half songs to unfinished songs of which anything less would take away the albums uniqueness and magical qualities.

The White Album is one of The Beatles best albums and certainly one of their most successful. It has gone on to sell over twenty million copies and was listed as the tenth best album of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. It is one of my favourites Beatles albums and is definitely to me their most diverse and interesting offering musically, with its range of styles and song themes ensuring that it is a standout album from The Beatles back catalogue and a must listen.  

A+

- Sam

Simon & Garfunkel - Bookends (1968)

There’s a strange, almost mythical image of folk duo Simon & Garfunkel, one which I used to share until I began going through their discography – it’s of a quiet, unassuming pair from (mostly upper-class) Forest Hills, New York that comprised of one guy (Paul Simon) strum-humming about marbles and promises while the other (Art Garfunkel) rocked back and forth on a petit stool with a vacant expression, occasionally singing a word or two. This particular image, I am glad to say, was more or less broken by the time I sat through Sounds of Silence (1966) and was completely shattered after listening to and digesting their fourth studio album Bookends, released in 1968.

Cultural champions after the providing the soundtrack for the film The Graduate in 1967, Simon & Garfunkel shortly returned to the studio to complete additional recording for their upcoming album. On the surface, Bookends appears to continue the duo’s tradition of packing Simon-penned acoustic pieces around pushed singles (in this case, “Mrs. Robinson”) but the album is really a story in two parts – these are purposefully separated by Side A and Side B. The album’s first half could be loosely described as a concept piece, covering themes of birth, life and death in 60s America, and the second half is mostly Simon flexing his newly acquired influences, and doing so much better than on the largely forgettable preceding effort Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme from 1967.

Beginning with the brief, breezy acoustic “Bookends Theme”, the album truly announces itself with “Save the Life of My Child”, opening with a surprisingly thick, ethereal moog synthesiser, completely breaking tradition from the pair’s previous releases. The duo break the mould even further, as additional sounds and voices flood the aural atmosphere, from distorted synths to snippets of “The Sound of Silence” (released two years prior) complete with almost ghostly wails while Simon sings the refrain “Save the life of my child / Cried the desperate mother”. Showing just how far Simon had come as a songwriter, the track is a greater reflection on particular attitudes within American society at the time, depicting a boy who is on the verge of plunging to his death, and rather than assisting him the adult population instead blame his actions on drugs and a lack of respect.

Following a smooth transition, “America” is perhaps the first indication in Bookends of Simon’s growing admiration for British music, featuring drum fills that sound like they were pulled straight from The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” (courtesy of legendary Wrecking Crew session musician Hal Blaine) along with psychedelic-tinged keyboards and incessantly pleasant double-tracked acoustic guitar, all providing a backdrop for vocal harmonies by the pair which range from soft and airy to emphatic and prolonged. It’s the first song with a real and distinctive sense of character that the pair had recorded, pulling in a range of influences but not really sounding like anybody else. The next track does sound like Simon & Garfunkel however, but not completely – “Overs” is a bare, pure acoustic piece which separates the two’s vocal duties, including a verse of Garfunkel singing solo, which is a rarity to hear. A sombre number, the track deals with a sort of helplessness and inevitability that usually accompanies a dying relationship, in this case being Simon’s lover Kathy Chitty, who was earlier referenced in “America”. Then there’s “Voices of Old People”, a track that has me completely stumped as to why it was included – it’s literally two minutes of recordings that Garfunkel had made, interviewing elderly people from (I’m assuming) his neighbourhood. I can appreciate what they were both trying to accomplish here, as the whole ‘concept’ approach (thanks Sgt. Pepper’s) was all the rage in 1968, but leading in from the superb “America” and “Overs”, it disrupts the flow of the album, acting as a bizarre and unnecessary segue into the sentimental, dreamy acoustic ballads “Old Friends” and “Bookends”.

Kicking off Side B, “Fakin’ It” is evidence that Simon also found a lot to like in particular strands of American popular music, in this instance borrowing heavily from the psychedelic-folk sounds of Love’s Forever Changes, making use of a strong, recurring acoustic riff as well as handclaps and brief, otherworldly bursts of horns and strings. A track that is littered with aspects of British psychedelic-pop, “Punky’s Dilemma” is a finely crafted happy-go-lucky piece that includes lines like “I wish I was an English muffin / ‘Bout to make the most of a toaster / I’d ease myself down / Coming up brown / I prefer boysenberry / Than any other jam”, and is really just Simon tipping his hat to groups like Small Faces and The Zombies in a very appropriate and charming way. Undoubtedly the album’s biggest audience puller, the endearing, folk-pop staple “Mrs. Robinson” is still a classic track, one that has probably been most associated with the pair, and deservedly so. Originally titled “Mrs. Roosevelt” but reworked to fit the narrative of The Graduate, the upbeat sing-a-long nature of the song belies Simon’s lyrics, who pines for the loss of American icons and role models, as well as being disillusioned with the political climate in the late 60s – “Going to the candidates’ debate / Laugh about it / Shout about it / When you’ve got to choose / Every way you look at it you lose”. A chart-topper through and through, “Mrs. Robinson” hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968 and later earned the pair a Grammy, in the form of Record of the Year. The album’s last pairing; “A Hazy Shade of Winter” and “At the Zoo” encapsulate the very nature of Bookends, or at least its second half, with the former imbuing the same driving, cheery vibe as “Mrs. Robinson” and the latter signing the album off by superbly balancing soft, quiet acoustic passages with verses in the style of a children’s song, and an incredibly infectious one at that.

With only a few glaring shortcomings, Bookends is a delightful offering of folk-pop, sure the vague concept in the album’s first half isn’t particularly well orchestrated, but the individual songs (not interview recordings) are still melodic, brilliantly composed and meticulously arranged. Not bad for a pair that I once thought of as guys that sat on stools and hummed a bit. Along with Sounds of Silence and their last studio album Bridge Over Troubled Water, it’s basically essential listening for anyone who, like myself not long ago, don’t exactly rate Simon & Garfunkel or aren’t aware of their true musicality – chances are your image may be shattered too, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

B+

-Karl

Listen to Bookends on Grooveshark

Blur - For Tomorrow (1993)

Blur - Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993)

Released in 1993, Modern Life Is Rubbish was Britpop band Blur’s second studio album. As a release it was the moment they began to move away from the baggy-influenced shoegazing style that they had explored on their debut album, towards the Britpop sound that would make them one of the biggest bands in the UK during the mid-90s. This album musically speaking in many ways was a homage to classic British 60s pop, with bands such as The Kinks and Small Faces having a significant influence on the material of this album both lyrically and musically. The change in musical direction was brought about by singer-songwriter Damon Albarn who had decided to go down a more melodic pop route, this after the bands disastrous 1992 tour of America. This change can largely be put down to Albarn’s experiences on this tour which left him dismayed by American audiences, in particular their interest in grunge and often hectic behaviour at gigs. The result of this was a feeling of dislike towards everything American within the band especially Albarn and in turn produced a greater love of England and everything English, something which would heavily influence the recording of Modern Life Is Rubbish.

Musically the sound of Modern Life Is Rubbish is by in large guitar based pop in the style of bands such as The Who, The Jam, and as I have already mentioned The Kinks and Small Faces. The band draw on a variety of different styles on this album in what is an eclectic mix of punk rock “Advert”, psychedelic rock “Chemical World”, 60s pop “For Tomorrow” and even English vaudevillian music hall “Sunday Sunday”. Although the band were moving in a different direction musically from their debut album, an alternative rock/shoegazing influence still exists on several tracks especially in the guitar playing of Graham Coxon. One such example was the experimental guitar driven track “Oily Water” with its layered psychedelic guitar drawing comparisons to bands such as My Bloody Valentine and Ride. Coxon’s playing is a definite standout on this album especially with his use of delay, reverb and distortion in creating a heavily layered sound which dominates many of the tracks on the album. His playing on this record shows why he is one of the best guitarists to ever come out of the British indie scene and how he is more than just a guitar player, but also a composer and inventor on the six-string. The band also experimented with different sounds on this album, sounds that were outside of the traditional rock band model. A woodwind section can be heard on “Star Shaped”, while brass comes to dominate “Sunday Sunday”. Vocally the band also experiment, with Small Faces-like choruses of la, la, la’s and Damon Albarn even singing in a fake cockney accent on some tracks, something that definitely contributed to the overall Englishness of the album.   

Damon Albarn’s desire to create an English influenced record comes to the fore more through the lyrics of the songs than the music. And although the music is a vital cog in this overall thematic concept, the songs on this album are in many ways little stories of contemporary English life based on Albarn’s own experiences, as well as what he perceives to be as traditional England.  With his song writing on this album, Albarn draws on the likes of Ray Davies, Steve Marriott and Paul Weller for influence as he gives a social commentary and often humorous take on 90s England suburbia, celebrating middle class existence as well as disdaining it. There’s the track “Colin Zeal” which is a humorous take on a London office worker called Colin Zeal. This is a man “who knows the value of mass appeal [while] “keeping his eye on the news and his future in hand”. And then there is the track “Sunday Sunday”, a song about traditional English Sunday activities such as having a roast and walking in the park. These are just two examples from the album where Albarn does a fantastic job with his lyrics in painting pictures for the listener of English life in a way which is not to dissimilar to what Ray Davies did on The Kinks seminal album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society.

On its release Modern Life Is Rubbish was a modest chart success despite being lauded by critics as the album that helped to usher in Britpop in the UK. Despite not being an overwhelming smash, Modern Life Is Rubbish was significant in rejuvenating the band after their failure in America and helped also to set the tone for what would become their decade defining album and smash-hit Parklife the following year. The overall concept of celebrating England and Englishness was a good one for the band to explore and it definitely lent itself well to the majority of the material on the album. My only major criticism would be around the length of the album which I feel would have benefited strongly from being trimmed a little bit as it tends to lag on the second half and probably runs for two too many songs, but this is just a minor aberration more than anything. Overall though Modern Life Is Rubbish is a great 90s album and one of Blur’s best. I thoroughly recommend it to those into British indie, Britpop, or simply those who are looking for 90s nostalgia.  

B+

- Sam

Tom Waits - Drunk on the Moon (1974)

Tom Waits - The Heart of Saturday Night (1974)

The Heart of Saturday Night was the second album by American singer-songwriter Tom Waits. Released in 1974, this album saw Waits begin to branch out musically from the more L.A. singer-songwriter style he explored on his first album Closing Time to a more jazzy/bluesy style, or what I like to describe as sleazy night club jazz. Waits take on jazz as seen on this album was a style which he would perfect throughout the seventies and that would bring him notoriety amongst music critics and fans alike.

The jazz/blues sound of The Heart of Saturday Night is characterised mainly by Waits gradually developing gravelly voice, something that would become one of his biggest assets and musical trademarks, although there is still a lighter texture to his voice on this record in comparison to his later records. His voice combines nicely with jazz arrangements that include piano, double bass, drums, horns and even strings on the more sombre pop tracks. Ultimately it is this combination that gives this album that seedy night club/backstreet ally way feel that conveys to the listener scenes of drunks, hookers and bohemians, or should I say the outcasts of American society. One track “The Heart of Saturday Night” even contains sound effects of a car horn and traffic. It is this setting which Waits also addresses in the lyrics with the songs in a way appearing like little poetic depictions of the world of late night bars and city streets. “Depot, depot what am I doing here”, “looking for the heart of Saturday night”, and “tight-slacked clad girls on the graveyard shift” are just some of the lyrical examples which Waits conveys to the listener to describe the underbelly of 1970s America. Jack Kerouac and the beatniks are also an influence on the material on this album, with Waits on a couple of tracks “Diamonds on My Windshield” and “Ghosts of Saturday Night” not singing but instead reciting the verses backed by jazzy accompaniments. The music on this album and indeed later releases would be heavily influenced by beatniks such as Kerouac, with Waits especially taken by the idea of fusing spoken word and jazz together.

Although the overall jazz feel of this album flows quite nicely, there are a few tracks which standout for me on here. Opening track “New Coat of Paint” is very jazzy and a contender for best song on the album, while it showcases Waits ability on the piano with a style of playing reminiscent of Fats Domino. “San Diego Serenade” is a beautiful ballad which captures Waits at his most soulful, while “Fumblin with the Blues” is probably the bluesiest track on the album. Finally album closer “Drunk on the Moon” is a souring jazz song which features delicate piano playing and a mid-song free jazz jam in what is definitely a fitting song to end the album.

This album set the tone for the rest of the decade for Waits during his beatnik/jazz period, although it is stylistically very different from his more experimental work of the 80s and 90s, in fact almost unrecognisable if you compare the two periods. Music critics seemingly also warmed to this album, with Rolling Stone magazine placing it at number 339 in its list of the top 500 albums of all time, Waits highest placing on that list. Musically it is a very nice listen highlighting his interest in the beat generation and jazz, as well as showcasing his ability as a singer, songwriter, and arranger. In conclusion then, The Heart of Saturday Night is well worth a night time listen with wine in hand, and is a good place to start for those who want to get in to this great musician.

A-

- Sam

Dave Brubeck Quartet - Blue Rondo a La Turk (1959)

Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out (1959)

The Dave Brubeck Quartet’s album Time Out was quite a revolutionary album within the jazz genre. Released in 1959, the album was the first jazz album to explore non-traditional jazz time signatures such as 9/8 and 5/4 time, whilst it also incorporated eastern musical influences. Musically, this album was in the style of cool jazz which emerged in the post-WWII period and as a style was based on more relaxed tempos and lighter tones as opposed to the more upbeat bebop style. Although this album contained the track Dave Brubeck became best known for in one of the most famous jazz pieces of all time “Take Five”, there is a whole lot more to this album than this one track alone with so much going on musically to keep the listener interested throughout.

As I have already mentioned this album was revolutionary for its exploration of unique time signatures of which some traditional jazz critics derided Brubeck for breaking with traditional modes and methods. However this move was a great decision on the part of composers Brubeck and Paul Desmond and gave the material a different feel from other jazz records of the time. Opening track “Blue Rondo a La Turk” my favourite track on the album and one of the greatest jazz pieces of all time employs 9/8 time in its famous Turkish influenced opening motif. A flourish of piano and sax in unison in the form of a 2-2-3 subdivision was taken from Zeybeck dance music, a traditional form of Turkish folk music of which Brubeck encountered while on a tour of Eurasia. When listening to this opening motif you immediately think this is quite different and in no way typical jazz but more Spanish/Middle Eastern in nature. The motif lasts for nearly two minutes before finally the cool jazz which dominates the album comes in, slowing things down to a more traditional jazz tempo with sax and piano playing off each other with double bass and drums in support.

There is so much going on, on this album musically for the listener to keep interested throughout whether it’s the soloing, little motifs within pieces, or the subtle rhythmic and tonal qualities of the individual pieces which vary from track to track. This is completely down to the musicians on this record who were some of the premier jazz musicians of the day, and are still held up as masters of their craft. Dave Brubeck the band leader was an amazing jazz composer and arranger – one of the best – while his piano playing is premier, particularly in his ability to mix his up his style of playing between soft flourishes and heavy outbursts of keyboard pounding. Paul Desmond’s alto sax playing is one of the highlights of this record, playing that draws the listener in with its warmth and feeling. He can lay claim to having written and performed one of the most recognisable saxophone parts in the history of music as heard on the fabulously innovative “Take Five”, while throughout this album his light melodic tone on the sax floats effortlessly along over the other instruments. Joe Morello’s drumming is also an album standout for me, particularly his amazing touch and feel as a drummer, and also in his ability to hold down many of the complex beats that the compositions on this record have. His dexterity as a drummer is seen on tracks like “Take Five” and “Three to Get Ready” where he plays some seriously innovative and complex drum patterns, and where as a listener I sit in amazement as to how he can keep time so immaculately to the point where you wouldn’t even need a metronome. Interestingly enough on the track “Kathy’s Waltz” if you zone in and isolate the drum sound his drumming actually sounds like a steam train travelling along the tracks, peculiar yes but not surprising considering this man’s touch with the sticks in hand.

Time Out was a great commercial success on its release reaching number two on the Billboard album charts, while it was the first ever jazz album to be certified platinum. It also went on to become the first jazz album to sell a million copies and is now one of the most well known and critically acclaimed jazz albums of all time. It is one my favourite jazz records and is no doubt one of the best ever to be released; it is also very accessible as a jazz record for all music listeners largely because of its laid back nature and intimate sound. I must also say that it is this laid back nature of cool jazz that means albums like this one can be listened to in a wide variety of social settings whether it be over dinner, having a quiet night in with a wine, or as background music while entertaining guests. The sky’s the limit really when this music is concerned as it is all encompassing, and without sounding pretentious transcends time and space with its beauty. A must listen for anyone who can appreciate good music and musical skill.  

A

- Sam

An Introduction to Jazz Rap

Rapper C.L. Smooth and producer Pete Rock

“You could find the Abstract listening to hip hop / My old man said it reminded him of bebop” is how A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory, an undisputed jazz rap classic, kicks off. Through that record, and many others in the same period, a strong case is made for the connectivity between hip hop and jazz. Many performers and producers in the jazz rap scene through its boom during the late 1980s-mid 1990s either grew up listening extensively to jazz records, or were accomplished jazz musicians themselves. During its peak, jazz and hip hop even collaborated directly, with Gang Starr’s Guru fronting a side-project named Jazzmatazz that featured recognised musicians such as Roy Ayers, Donald Byrd and Lonnie Liston Smith. Other groups, such as Digable Planets and The Roots, went a step further and dedicated entire albums to the jazz rap style without the use of samples, preferring to construct beats organically.

The extensive use of sampling in hip hop went largely unnoticed through most of the 1980s, but by the 1990s copyright laws were adapted, making the sampling of recognised numbers (anything by James Brown, for example) much more difficult, forcing producers to hunt for unknown, obscure tracks that could be altered or manipulated in order to mask their origin. This led to the term “crate-diggers” being coined for producers who would spend hours trawling through record bins looking for anything to use that was both rare and usable. As a result, producers that worked on the more renowned jazz rap releases were more or less forced to be innovative and meticulous. One of the great producers of this period, Pete Rock (a jazz aficionado and enthusiast), was in particular a rigorous crate-digger and an incredibly sought-after producer, crafting some of the finest beats in hip hop history.

Of all of hip hop’s offshoots, jazz rap is undoubtedly the coolest, and by far the most accessible to get into. The beats are often immersive and well-produced, the rapping is eloquent and lyrical, and a fair amount of the albums recorded during the jazz rap era consistently rank among hip hop’s finest achievements, and for good reason. The remainder of this post is merely to serve as a taster for jazz rap, and is by no means a definitive list – it’s simply what I would consider to be a suitable introduction to the genre, and I encourage anyone unfamiliar with these groups to dedicate some time checking out the albums I have listed in brackets next to the tracks.

A Tribe Called Quest – “Jazz (We’ve Got)” (from The Low End Theory, 1991)

Jazz samples featured:  “Green Dolphin Street” by Lucky Thompson’s quartet

Digable Planets – “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)” (from Reachin’, 1993)

Jazz samples featured: “Stretchin’” by Art Blakey and The Messengers

Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth – “They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)” (from Return of the Mecca, 1992)

Jazz samples featured: “Today” and “Deliver Me” by Tom Scott

 

Organized Konfusion – “The Extinction Agenda” (from Stress: The Extinction Agenda, 1994)

Jazz samples featured: “Rain Dance” by Herbie Hancock, “Moon Germs” by Joe Farrell

The Pharcyde – “Otha Fish” (from Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde, 1992)

Jazz samples featured: “Today” by Herbie Mann

Gang Starr – “Who’s Gonna Take the Weight?” (from Step in the Arena, 1991)

Jazz samples featured: “Parrty” by Maceo Parker

De La Soul – “Patti Dooke” (from Buhloone Mind State, 1993)

Jazz samples featured: “People Make the World Go Round” by Milt Jackson

-Karl

Jimi Hendrix ; Bold As Love (1967)

Jimi Hendrix - Axis: Bold as Love (1967)

Axis: Bold As Love was the second studio album that Jimi Hendrix released with the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Released at the end of 1967, it was definitely a more psychedelic rock sounding album in comparison to the more blues rock oriented Are You Experienced, while it was on this album where Hendrix began to utilise and experiment more with studio techniques and effects. Axis: Bold As Love was quite a pioneering album in this regard, with Hendrix drawing on the expertise of in demand studio engineer Eddie Kramer in utilising as many studio techniques as possible in an attempt to experiment with sound and song structure. Throughout this album you hear amongst other things backward guitar, fading, guitar feedback and stereophonic phasing. As well as these techniques this album was also significant in that it was one of the first albums which featured the wah-wah pedal for guitar, a new toy that Eric Clapton and Hendrix were beginning to use and what would become standard amongst rock guitarists in the years ahead.

Musically speaking, Axis is by in large a psychedelic rock album and contains heavily distorted guitar, quite out there lyrics about things as diverse as castles made of sand and travelling by dragonfly, and as I have mentioned the heavy use of studio production techniques. There is the odd exception to this psychedelic formula stylistically speaking such as the R&B influenced “Wait Until Tomorrow”, but even when Hendrix diverges stylistically into other areas these songs still tend to have a psychedelic touch to them. Hendrix guitar playing is the driving force throughout this album, although he tends to veer away from guitar hero like solos for a more rhythmic and melodic style of playing which locked  in with the drums and bass and allowed the use of studio trickery to take the listener on a journey. One of the limitations of having only three band members and only one guitarist is that sometimes the sound can feel a bit empty with the instruments often sounding isolated or exposed. This often means more work for the individual players in the band, or for the players to play their instrument slightly differently, something I feel Hendrix does quite well on this album with his playing appearing almost as a lead rhythm style in order to fill out the sound. It also helps to have a good rhythm section of which the Experience did in the form of Mitch Mitchell (drums) and Noel Redding (bass) who combined nicely to give the songs a rich thickness to them. Mitchell in particular shines on this album especially in his ability to move between different styles of drumming such as jazz on “Up from the Skies”, R&B on “Wait Until Tomorrow” and finally wild heavy rock on “You Got Me Floating”.

Stand out tracks for me on this album include the heavy rock of “Spanish Castle Magic”, the sweet psychedelia of “Little Wing” and the soulful rock of album closer “Bold as Love”, one of my favourite Hendrix songs and definitely one of his best. Despite the presence of some clearly stronger, overall this album flows nicely together as a coherent whole and unlike many albums lacks any filler of significance which disrupts the listener. Even on really good albums you still on occasion can come across a couple of tracks which feel out of place or that get a reaction from the listener in the form of what were they thinking here, but on Axis this is not the case with this album being a nice listen throughout.

Axis: Bold As Love is a great little 60s psychedelic rock album that established Hendrix as a major figure in 60s rock. I say little because it is quite short, running in at around thirty-odd minutes, but also because it is often overlooked in the Hendrix cannon in favour of his debut album and his studio masterpiece Electric Ladyland. This I feel is unjust as this album holds up very well alongside these two other works and was also a significant moment in Hendrix’s career as it was on this album where the world first saw a first major glimpse of Hendrix the creator, composer, and studio innovator. It was also a revolutionary album for the time in its use of studio technology and how sound-wise it definitely channelled the cultural atmosphere of the period in the form of psychedelia and the Summer of Love. Finally in summing up this album I would say it does a good job in showing what you can do with three musicians and a studio and also how you don’t need a cast of millions to record good music, and record good music they did.

A

- Sam

The Replacements - Tim (1985)

Perhaps the most significant collection of misfits to emerge in the 1980s, Minneapolis-based The Replacements were a group unquestionably deserving of crossover success, at their peak releasing a series of albums that screamed mainstream appeal which never really eventuated. From their early snarling and hissing punk-laden beginnings, the group matured surprisingly quickly with the sublime release Let It Be in 1984, an album that gained so much acclaim that the group was granted an inevitable major label contract with Sire Records, leading to the release of their fourth album Tim in 1985.

Originally intended to be handled by Big Star’s Alex Chilton, the production duties on Tim were instead managed by punk contemporary Tommy Ramone, and with the financial backing of a major label, Tim sees a vast technical upgrade over the rather sparse, budgeted Let It Be. True to the band’s style, the opening track “Hold My Life” wastes no time setting the tone of much of the album, roaring into life with a mess of heavy guitar, crashing drums and pounding bass, along with lead vocalist Paul Westerberg howling with the spirit of a young Bruce Springsteen, but with an indifferent, adolescent edge – “Hold my life until I’m ready to use it / Hold my life because I just might lose it”. Slightly more refined but just as emphatic, the following “I’ll Buy” is a rollicking number that not just evokes 50s Rock ‘n Roll, but references it (“Movies are for retards like me and Maybelline”) and it’s here that the album’s higher-end production style becomes its greatest asset, with Westerberg’s vocals jumping from prolonged wails of “Anything you want, dear” and “Everything you say, dear” to powerful reverberating bursts of  “fine, fine, fine, fine” and “buy, buy, buy, buy”.

An endearing, backhanded ballad to unfriendly flight attendants, the thumping, folk-driven “Waitress in the Sky” is among the album’s highlights, as Westerberg cruelly points out “You ain’t nothing but a waitress in the sky”, later comparing the term ‘air hostess’ with other professions that are somewhat unsavoury (“Sanitation expert and a maintenance engineer / Garbage man, a janitor and you my dear”). The closer of the album’s first side, “Swingin Party” presents itself as evidence of the band’s ability to shift in tempo, featuring delightfully breezy, jangly guitar along with prolonged, heartfelt and pained vocals by Westerberg. It’s a track filled with so much self-deprecation and insecurity that it’s almost unbearable, as Westerberg laments his future (“Quittin’ school and goin’ to work and never goin’ fishin’”) as well as bleakly putting his faults on display (“If being wrong’s a crime I’m serving forever / If being strong is what you want I need help with this here feather”)

Completing a superb one-two punch of track sequencing, the opener of the album’s second half “Bastards of Young” is without a doubt the ultimate rambunctious punk anthem, with Westerberg continuously screaming over relentless, blistering guitar work by Bob Stinson. As gnarly and hard as this track is, the poignancy of Westerberg’s lyrics are remarkably striking and hard-hitting (“The ones who love us best are the ones we lay to rest / The ones who love us least are the ones we'll die to please”) all the while chastising the state of Reagan’s ruthless, competition-driven America – “God what a mess on the ladder of success / Where you take one step and miss the whole first rung”, and the refrain “We are the sons of no-one / Bastards of young” typifies a sort of confused, adolescent sense of marginalisation. This track was fittingly chosen for the band’s network debut on Saturday Night Live, which has since become infamous not just for its raucousness, but also the band’s conduct – Westerberg cursed on air and the band stumbled around drunkenly on stage after concluding the song. Although this wasn’t a huge shock to Replacements fans (they were notorious for their hectic live performances), it was a bit of a setback for the band, receiving a lifetime ban from the show and probably hurting their chances of further mainstream exposure.

After the adrenalin-infused college radio staples “Lay It Down Clown”, “Left of the Dial” (the title itself a reference to college radio) and “Little Mascara” is the down-tempo, miserable closing track “Here Comes a Regular”, featuring just acoustic guitar alongside Westerberg’s morose vocals. As the album’s final chance to impart anything on Westerberg’s generation, he warns against idly sitting in a state of procrastination and apathy – “The fool who wastes his life, god rest his guts” all in the context of a narrator in a bar, watching the seasons pass as the people around him come and go, while he just stays at home and endlessly drinks. I’ve always regarded R.E.M. as America’s counterpart to The Smiths, but after hearing tracks like this, I’d say The Replacements are probably more fitting of that comparison – particularly when considering Westerberg’s emotionally-driven, introspective lyrics as well as his undeniably emphatic presence as a vocalist, not to mention chaotic and captivating displays by Stinson, who resented playing compositions similar to “Here Comes a Regular”, eventually being ejected from the band.

Overall, Tim is an astonishing, breath-taking record, carrying the listener through soaring highs and subterranean lows over indisputably passionate and energetic instrumentation, with Westerberg being the ideal spokesperson for a disillusioned generation of young Americans, his grizzly, throaty voice at times furious, other times forlorn. It’s a flawless collection of songs from a band that flew far too low under the radar, but as a consolation their output has been consistently ranked by critics as among the greatest achievements of the era, and deservedly so. Simply put, Tim is the quintessential rock record, easily a must-have for any music fan.

A+

-Karl

Listen to Tim on Grooveshark

Steely Dan - Black Cow (1977)

Steely Dan - Aja (1977)

Considered by many to be the bands magnum opus, Steely Dan’s Aja was recorded over a seven month period in 1977 in what was an example of obsessive perfectionism on the part of band leaders Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. The recording sessions for this album not only took forever, but also had a cast of millions and in total involved a staggering thirty session musicians including six backing vocalists, five keyboard/piano players, six guitarists, a whopping ten horn players and seven drummers. With this the case there can be no doubt that Fagen and Becker were going for studio efficiency and perfection over everything else on this album as they sought a heavily sophisticated jazz rock sound. Fagen and Becker (the only remaining original members) had already been heading in this direction and seemingly had been preparing to make this album for a few years. They had already relieved the other original band members of their duties in 1974 in favour of studio musicians, whilst also turning the band into a studio only act in 1975 when they decided to stop touring. The result of these decisions manifested itself in the recording and subsequent release of this album, with the results being definitely worthwhile to the listener at least.

As I have already mentioned, Aja has a slick jazz rock sound to it or what I like to describe as cocktail jazz. The reason being is that when I listen to this album the music ridiculously produces images of me sipping cocktails in a New York bar in downtown Manhattan; the music definitely has that nightclub feel to it. Musically, the sound of this album is sexy with amazing sax solos and horn harmonies; it is jazzy with a rhythm section of drums and bass holding down the backbeat, whilst the keyboard and piano playing is smooth in nature with little melodic runs and jazzy sequences. Throughout there is a strong emphasis placed on structure, harmony and carefully placed solos whether they are keyboard, guitar, or horn. Careful attention is also given to the sound of each instrument, with the final mix ensuring that all instruments are heard clearly with no one instrument getting more scope than the other. This slickness and careful construction of the instrumental backing is due to the quality of the session musicians, many of whom were the best in the business in terms of playing jazz and would have clocked up many hours of studio time themselves playing on many records during the period.

The songs on Aja are highly textured and include multiple layers of instruments resulting in quite a sonic sound and a very warm feel. In terms of structure the songs are quite like classical pieces in that they have different parts and sections with an example being the title track Aja that starts with the main motif of the song then has a middle free form jazz section, before moving back to the motif and finally finishing with another jazz flourish. With this amount of attention placed on song structure and jazz arrangements you get the feeling it would have taken hours and hours to get these songs right, with multiple takes probably being the order of the day during the recording sessions. Multi-tracking would also have been significantly important considering the complexity of some of the songs and without it the dense layering of the instrumentation would have been very hard to produce on record. Meanwhile lyrically the subject matter of the songs is classic Steely Dan, very eccentric, witty and often sarcastic in tone and content, whilst by no means pretentious or serious in any way. These guys didn’t really write love songs, instead they wrote songs that were highly narrative usually about New York and Los Angeles where the band was based, that included fictional and often real characters with interesting lyrical constructions of great depth to the point that they sometimes even confused the listener. What results in is an interesting and sometimes entertaining listen even if you can’t quite work what they are singing about.  

Aja was a great success for the band both critically and commercially. It went on to become the groups bestselling album, and was ranked 145 in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. As an album it was definitely more slickly produced than much of their previous work and it seems Fagen and Becker were going all out for absolute perfection in the studio, but this didn’t matter as the songs themselves were fantastic sounding and some of the bands best. There can be no doubt that Aja is one of the Dan’s best albums and if not their most complete sounding work. It is a must listen for jazz rock fans as well as those into classic 70s rock.

A

- Sam

25 Albums That Changed Hip-Hop Forever

NME are celebrating hip-hop in their latest edition, and in support of this, they have compiled a list of 25 game changing albums in the genre.
http://www.nme.com/photos/25-albums-that-changed-hip-hop-forever/315600/1/1#25

- Sam

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Ramble Tamble (1970)

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo's Factory (1970)

Released in 1970, Cosmo’s Factory Creedence Clearwater Revivals fifth studio album at first glance appears as somewhat of a greatest hits collection, with many of the bands most well known songs appearing on this album. But as an album it really is more than just a collection of hits and to me represents a journey through the music of America whether it be rock and roll, country, or roots rock. The array of styles on display on this album shows off the uniqueness of CCR and how their music is an eclectic blend of American music styles, something that in itself is significant considering that at the time many American acts were more influenced by the drugs they were taking than paying homage to the music of their homeland.

The songs on Cosmo’s Factory stick primarily to the heavily charged roots rock feel the band were famous for and are based largely around the traditional formula of guitar, bass, and drums. This means the ragged almost grungy-like lead guitar of John Fogerty, as well as the gigantic sound produced by the rhythm section of Doug Clifford on drums and Stu Cook on bass, two very underrated players I must say. Vocally, Fogerty is on fire throughout the album mixing up his delivery between that famous raucous Southern gravel of his on songs such as “Ramble Tamble”, and a slower but still hard edged vocal on songs such as the classic “Long as I Can See the Light”. It was this ability he had to move between faster and slower numbers but yet still retain that Southern feel to his voice that made him so distinct and recognisable as a singer, and ensured he became one of the most popular vocalists of the late-60s period.

Another feature that came to the fore on this album was Fogerty’s strength as a songwriter; something that I guess has been often overlooked. Just some of the subjects he touches on include a parade passing by on “Looking Out My Back Door” a supposed drug song that was actually written for his son, and gun proliferation in the US on “Run Through The Jungle” which in itself has been mistaken as an anti-Vietnam war anthem. In my opinion Fogerty’s calibre as a songwriter should not be ignored and is certainly worth a mention especially when you consider he wrote many of the anthemic songs of the 60s.

One minor criticism I have of this album is of the cover songs, which seem weaker in quality compared to the other very good original tracks. One of these covers includes the eleven minute meandering version of Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”. Why the band did not put the single edit version of this song on here instead is beyond me as I feel they do a good job on this song. However eleven minutes is too long and the extended jamming that goes on, on the studio album version appears to me like a band going through the motions remembering also that this is a time when long endless jamming and solos began to seep into rock music sometimes to the point of absolute boredom for the listener. But this is only a minor irritant that is made up for by the outstanding original tracks which Fogerty serves up.

Cosmo’s Factory as an album is probably the archetypal, quintessential CCR album and to me best represents their unique take on traditional American music styles. It has also been viewed as arguably their best album critically and certainly their most successful commercially, topping the charts in six different countries. In conclusion then, if you are after something of CCRs other than a greatest hits compilation then this is the album for you. The well known songs are still there, but there are also a couple of lesser tracks which are just as good quality-wise to some of the hits in turn equalling a great early-seventies album.

A-

- Sam

Digable Planets - Blowout Comb (1994)

Emerging in the early 90s after the buzz of Native Tongues affiliates had somewhat dissipated, Brooklyn group Digable Planets were self-styled revivalists of the thoughtful, soothing style of hip hop pioneered by groups like De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest, undeterred by entrenched and dominate West Coast-based gangsta rap and g-funk acts at the time. In 1993, their debut release Reachin’ (A Refutation of Time and Space) contained an unlikely hit in the form of “Return of the Slick (Cool Like Dat)”, a jazz-infused revamp and tribute to the East Coast “jazz rap” scene, and their efforts continued in 1994 with the follow-up and ultimately final album Blowout Comb.

Where their debut release was mostly sample-based, Blowout Comb features live instrumentation mixed with samples, creating a vibrant, organic atmosphere resembling a live performance probably situated in a dark, dusty club somewhere in the streets of Brooklyn. Often it’s difficult to differentiate between genuine, organic sounds and sampled beats in this album, a good example being “Black Ego”, a brilliantly produced number that combines a slightly sped-up, mesmerising guitar sample of “Luanna’s Theme” by Grant Green with a cymbal-thrashing drum track from The Meters’ “Here Come the Metermen”, aided by a very subtle, unobtrusive cello, an instrument not particularly commonplace in typical hip hop releases at the time. It’s also one of the album’s longer tracks, running in at 7 minutes, but almost seems to pass like a breeze – likewise, the album closer “For Corners” acts as a superb representation of what the group were trying to create in this album, overlaying the sounds of Brooklyn (people shouting, cars zooming in and out of earshot) with a jazz-blues-tinged Shuggie Otis sample, an understated drum track from Skull Snaps, and a sedated Roy Ayers horn sample, all combining in a 7-minute snapshot of the group’s home while they give shout-outs to the people and places they identify with and respect, for better or for worse.

There’s a remarkably relaxing, carefree feel to Blowout Comb – not just in the soundscapes, but none of the three MCs sound particularly rushed or anxious during delivery, each throwing down verses somewhat lackadaisically, shaping the album in the vibe of a mammoth spoken word/poetry jam session. A lot can be said for a rapper’s flow, and this group ride these beats perfectly, and surprisingly even guest rappers Guru and Jeru the Damaja (known for their slightly harsher, emphatic rapping) match the low-key, chilled nature of the tracks they feature in. Where some groups rely on particularly strong personas to grab the listener (think Wu-Tang Clan), Digable Planets truly operate as a group with no sense of contest between the three, all working together with the same purpose, promoting the same positive, socially conscious messages. Only through close attention does it become apparent that ringleader Ishmael “Butterfly” Butler dominates the microphone, but so often he makes way for his fellow MCs (Craig “Doodlebug” Irving and Mary Ann “Ladybug Mecca” Vieira) that it’s almost impossible to notice, with at times the three rotating verses indistinguishably and in quick succession.

In that sense, as you may have guessed, lyrically Blowout Comb doesn’t barrage the listener with insanely complex, spitting verses. Instead, the laid-back sounds of the album are beautifully matched by simplistic, direct lyrics that reference jazz legends, afrocentricity, coping with adversity, or just describing the streets of Brooklyn, simultaneously constructing an image and soundtrack of their environment, making it as easy as possible for the listener to appreciate and understand the vibe of the album. In this way Blowout Comb acts as an important counterweight to the macho, aggressive hip hop that dominated the mid-90s, dealing with similar subject matter but approaching it in an eloquent, calmer fashion with just as much focus and passion.

It seems that Digable Planets should have been poised to spearhead the second wave of jazz rap, but with creative differences within the group and hard-nosed, confrontational hip hop dominating the mainstream airwaves (not just from the West Coast – 1994 saw the rise of Nas, Notorious B.I.G. and Gravediggaz) it just wasn’t to be. Still, the concept of producing studio-based, organic sounds didn’t completely die off, with The Roots debuting in 1993 with a record unsurprisingly titled Organix, in a way owing much of their success to the work of groups like Digable Planets, with albums like Blowout Comb acting as a sort of blueprint or foundation for this particular offshoot of hip hop.

But set aside an hour, leave your preconceptions at the door and prepare to feel as mellow as mellow gets when listening to Blowout Comb, easily one of the most hypnotic, immersive albums I’ve ever heard. Asked about the album’s title in 1994, Butterfly responded with “It means the utilisation of the natural, a natural style”, in the same interview he referenced hearing George Clinton discuss how things that are initially inaudible for the listener add indefinite replay value to an album, something that is unmistakably apparent in Blowout Comb – it won’t necessarily strike on the first, second or third listen like you may expect from a hip hop release, but it deserves close attention and as much recognition as any other seminal release from the period.

A

-Karl

Listen to Blowout Comb on Grooveshark