Anniversary Albums: Episode Twenty-six - Beck "Odelay" (1996)

This week on anniversary albums we take a look at American alternative singer-songwriter Beck's classic album "Odelay". Released in 1996, this experimental, genre-bending record is turning twenty this year. 

Beck - Odelay

Tracks Played 

- Devil's Haircut 

- Hotwax 

- The New Pollution 

- Sissyneck 

- Where It's At (If Time) 

- Sam 

Anniversary Albums: Edition Twelve - Radiohead 'Amnesiac' (2001)

This week on anniversary albums we take a look at Radiohead's 2001 release 'Amnesiac'. An album that continued where the band left off on 'Kid A' with more electronic, jazz, and Krautrock influences. 

Tracks Played 

'Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box' 

You and Whose Army' 

'I Might Be Wrong'

'Life in a Glasshouse' 

Radiohead - Amnesiac

- Sam 

Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Multi-Love (2015)

Unknown Mortal Orchestra, ex-Mint Chicks front man Ruban Nielson’s offshoot project are quickly generating a strong musical cannon, and with it a large following, as they continue to make diverse and interesting sounding indie and psychedelic pop. The band’s first two albums “Unknown Mortal Orchestra” and “Unknown Mortal Orchestra II” were two solid first up efforts, however, their latest release “Multi-Love” trumps both of these as they explore new sounds in the form of funk, jazz and soul.

“Multi-Love” has quite an old-school authentic vibe to it both in terms of its sound and instrumentation. It has a very strong rhythmic feel in the drums and bass, while the added addition of horns and keyboards means this album has quite a poppy, almost Motown feel to it in places. This is a different path for the band, as previously their music held firm to that indie pop/dreamy psychedelic line, which I might add they did very effectively. But this new direction they have taken on this album is so damn catchy and sound so, so good. This is a late-60s/early-70s sound to my ears, but produced in a very contemporary fashion, I guess also highlighting Nielson’s skills as a producer more than anything and his strong ability to get the right sound for each song he composes.

The album kicks off with the title track “Multi-Love”. This is quite a poppy song and in the opening vocals has shades of early Queen, while that piano riff which drives the whole song is so effective, indicating also straight off the bat the funkier direction this album will head down. This is followed by “Like Acid Rain” which takes a more lo-fi direction, and as a track is very similar to their previous work. Next are two of the catchier tunes on the album in the form of “Ur Life One Night” and “Can’t Keep Checking My Phone”. These two tracks are perfect for the dance floor and I can see clubs going off to these with their dance-heavy beats, funk grooves and pop melodies. At this midway point of the album, things change direction again with the alternative jazz of “Extreme Wealth and Casual Cruelty”. This is a great track which shuffles along nicely before suddenly out of nowhere the jazz horns come in and you are instantly hit by their infectiousness. This is UMO doing their take on 80s sophisti-pop, where saxophones reigned supreme, and although some might accuse Neilson of sax crimes here, I think the added presence of horns shows how Nielson is willing to try new sounds and experiment when the song demands it. This is followed by “The World is Crowded”, a track with a pounding funky bass line, and what I would call the weakest track on the album “Stage or Screen”. The album then winds down with the psychedelic funk of the fantastically good “Necessary Evil”, one of the best tracks on the album, and finally album closer “Puzzles”, another track which resembles more closely the sound of their past material.

“Multi-Love” is a fantastic record and I congratulate Nielson for again evolving UMO’s sound and experimenting on this album. There are some seriously good tunes here which might even attract the band some new followers, while I am pretty sure these new songs will be great when performed live. UMO seem to be getting better with each new release they put out and “Multi-Love” proves this yet again in what is one of the catchiest pop/funk/soul/jazz/psychedelia albums you will hear all year. Listen to it now, you will not be disappointed.

A

- Sam  

Blur - The Magic Whip (2015)

Band reunions are a thing these days, and if they don’t actually happen, every week some rumor or another pops up about the potentiality of a reunion happening. What you do not often see though, is new material, usually it’s just artists living off past glories and churning out greatest hits sets left, right and center. Why, well usually any new material is never as good, while also when artists try and pimp their new material in concert, people inevitably cue for more beer or relieve themselves in the washer rooms. Somehow, I do not think this will be the case with Blur though as they prepare to tour their first album of new material featuring all members in sixteen years.

Yes, Blur have a new album out and it is called “The Magic Whip” and yes it is very, very good, so good in fact I would say it ranks up there with their best work from the 90s. The story behind this album is also quite interesting, as it started life as a series of jam sessions in between concerts on a tour to South East Asia, after an initial gig was cancelled. The band ended up in Hong Kong in a small back ally studio and played around with their instruments for a few days, not knowing the results would yield an album a couple of years later. The influence of the big city is seen lyrically and sound-wise throughout the album, with themes of over-population, urban life, crowded streets and being lost in the city coming through strongly in the songs. While musically, the band takes the opportunity to experiment with some different sounds not seen in their previous work. Despite new sounds such as reggae, experimental, soul and folk influences coming through in many of the tracks, this album does, however, have a sense of familiarity about it and one can certainly here Blur, Gorillaz and even Damon Albarn influences in its overall sound and feel. So I guess, it’s not entirely a complete departure, but more a varied and eclectic mix of the old and the new.

So for the songs themselves. Well the album kicks off strongly with the very “Great Escape” sounding “Lonesome Street”. This is classic Blur and bounces along with driving guitar and bass, while featuring a nice homage to Syd Barrett with Graham Coxon’s mid-song vocal. This track is followed by the Damon Albarnesque “New World Towers” which takes in the urban feel of Hong Kong in what is quite a melancholy explorative track. “Go Out” harks back to the “Blur” album with its distorted guitar driven lo-fi vibe, while “Ice-Cream Man” lyrically is quite Gorillaz-like with lines such as “here comes the ice-cream man” and “with a swish of his magic whip”. “Thought I Was a Spaceman” is one of the best songs on the album and one of the band’s best tracks overall I feel. In this spacey Bowie-sounding song, it starts off with just Damon singing, classical guitar and a drum machine loop before the band kicks and it turns in to this atmospheric driving pop track. Again, like on “Lonesome Street” Coxon wrote himself a little bit in the middle in what is a very effective and quite innocent vocal line “thought I was a spaceman digging out my heart”. This track is followed by another driving guitar track “I Broadcast”, while “My Terracotta Heart is Albarn’s melancholic take on his and Coxon’s friendship. From here, things diversify even more with the 80s new wave of “There Are Too Many of Us” which is full of synths and a marching drum beat, and the fantastic “Ghost Ship”, a reggae-sounding funk track which is another album highlight and probably the most out of the ordinary Blur song ever. The album then winds down with the gorgeous “Pyongyang” about Albarn’s trip to North Korea, the happy go lucky anthem “Ong Ong” and the country twang of Mirrrorball which closes out the album.

So in conclusion, “The Magic Whip” is a great return for Blur. It is their most diverse sounding album yet and musically is very interesting as they explore new things, while at the same time retain some of the classic Blur sounds. All band members are on fine form and you can really tell the guys are enjoying being back playing new music together. The band have already previewed the album live with some promotional gigs, including a great performance in New York, and as they kick off their official tour in the next few weeks watch for these songs to be well-received live. So all up, a great edition to the Blur cannon, and if this does end up being their last album, then “The Magic Whip” will be a fantastic way for them to go out on. 

A+

- Sam 

Sheep, Dog & Wolf - Egospect (2013)

Egospect is the debut album by twenty year old Wellington-based multi-instrumentalist and singer Daniel McBride, more commonly known as Sheep, Dog & Wolf. This album has to be one of the hardest I have ever reviewed, mainly because there is so much going on musically across the album and even within single tracks. McBride certainly knows no boundaries when it comes to musical composition and exploring different sounds and on this album he certainly goes all out to make a significant musical statement straight off the bat.

The sound of this album is quite hard to describe, but I will give it a go and describe the instrumentation side of things as alt-folk experimental jazz, while vocally McBride sounds like a mash up of Gregorian chant and early-70s Queen in what is a heavily layered kind of classical/opera vocal sound which also comes across like vocal exercises in small bursts of flourishes. I also here a bit of prog rock in the music, with Yes coming to mind in the vocals and King Crimson in the instrumentation. Aside from the theatrical vocals, it is the quality of the instrumentation and McBride’s quite breath-taking ability to play every instrument on this album which makes this album worth a listen. According to the liner notes of the CD, McBride plays electric and acoustic guitar, saxophone, drums, bass guitar, clarinet, violin, cello, euphonium and French horn, a list of instruments that appears like a min-orchestra of type and leaves one gasping as to how much music ability and talent it requires to play such a diverse array of instruments. Aside from the unique vocals and smorgasbord of instruments, what makes this album even more spectacular is how McBride recorded it pretty much in his bedroom, something which gives the music quite a low-fi sound and jagged appearance, which all in all suits the stylistic diversity of the music on here.

As for the tracks themselves, well the albums kicks off with the track “Breathe”, which does a good job in encompassing the overall sound of the album and all of the key elements which appear throughout. This track to my ears sound like alt-jazz set to Gregorian chant and builds up nicely from an instrumental section at the start into a gigantic climax with a multi-tracked vocal section, before a decrescendo in the second half. “Breathe” is followed by the standout track for me “Glare”, which has a bit of a neo-psychedelic feel to it but without losing the jazz and classical influences. Again this track is brilliant in building up to an enormous crescendo of vocals which sound as if they are going to burst through the speakers. “Problems/Canvas” is a folky sort of track which floats along in a low-key sort of way before out of nowhere those layered vocals return to push the song to another level and in yet another completely different direction. It is these sorts of twists and turns within tracks that in many ways makes Egospect the album that is it and such an intriguing album to listen to.

The middle of the album moves swiftly along with “Not Aquatic”, which is quite an experimental track that appears quite loose structurally, with McBride playing around with different textures, layers and song structure in general. At this point I think it is important to note the skill and ability of McBride as a composer willing to takes risks with different song structures and sounds within single tracks, ensuring that no single track sounds the same. “Ablutophobia” is another track that showcases little moments of stylistic diversity, moving from jazz to folk to classical all on one track, while “Nothing, Probably” is an acoustic folk track which allows the listener to have a breather from the intense nature of some of the other bigger sounding tracks on the album. This track also showcases McBride’s softer side and how he can also play the singer-songwriter role as well as the jazz composer extraordinaire. The album comes to an end with acoustic ballad “An Incomprehensive Catalogue” and finally the piece de resistance, title track “Egospect” which is like the “A Day in the Life” of the album. “Egospect” starts off with a chorus of vocals chants, before kicking in to another alt-folk prog-jazz track, finishing the album as it began with a diverse range of styles and sounds confined within the limits of a six minute composition.

Egospect is an amazingly complex album musically with some incredible instrumentation and vocals, while the composition and structure of the songs on display is incredible. This album really should not work as the music appears as a mash-up of several diverse styles incorporated together in combination with classical sounding vocals and topped off by the fact it was recorded in a bedroom. But amazingly, it does, keeping the listener intrigued about where a track will go next. A complex, unusual but clever debut by McBride, that showcases his musical abilities and ear for sound, making me very interested to see where he will go next on. 

A-

- Sam 

Coldplay - Ghost Stories (2014)

Coldplay have become a total enigma to me. How is it that a band who released three amazing albums back to back Parachutes, A Rush of Blood to the Head, and X & Y can slip up so badly musically, with their latest slip up Ghost Stories leading me to think whether there is any coming back for Coldplay.

Things started to go wrong for Coldplay on Viva La Vida which was really just Chris Martin buying into his own press that he was the new Bono and having an inner-self pretentious moment thinking he could record an arty album with an arty cover and get away with it. Things got even worse on their next album, the one with a silly name which was an absolute insult to the bands original fans and was recorded on the back of the success of Viva La Vida to appease those people who thought Viva La Vida was the bands first album. It was with this album that I was beginning to lose hope of hearing another decent Coldplay album, so it is fair to say that with this latest offering I had lowered my expectations of hearing anything special. And so I was proven right.

Ghost Stories is a sombre low key affair, partly inspired by Martin’s troubled relationship with Gwyneth Paltrow which we now know led to a breakup. It is less pop-oriented, with the stadium anthems that dotted the bands last two albums mostly absent, thank Jesus. The album begins with “Always in My Head”, a slow plod of a song which is an uninspiring bore to start the album. The signs are not good straight off the bad, but I keep going. Second song “Magic” is an improvement and has got somewhat of an urban soul vibe to it, Tracy Chapman immediately comes to mind on first listening, while “Ink”, a mid-tempo percussive pop track continues this theme with some nice harmonies thrown in for good measure.

A massive dip occurs in the middle of the album with “True Love” and then an absolute turd of a track “Midnight”. At this point words fail me, as Coldplay are at their very worst when they try and imitate other distinct styles as they have done with pop, dance and hip-hop. Here it seems they are trying to copy some obscure electro-pop act in what resembles the pretentiousness I have unfortunately come to associate with Coldplay. “Midnight” is followed by “Another’s Arms”, a pop/R&B track that has a very tinny drum part and a rather ghostly female backing vocalist in what is another laboured track that doesn’t really do anything. A song that is worth its salt finally comes in the form of “Oceans”, a haunting track that sounds like a lost Parachutes out-take. This is what Coldplay should sound like and when they are at their best, just Martin singing and strumming an acoustic guitar allowing the listener to just close their eyes and float away think “Spies”, think “Sparks”. “Oceans” is easily the best track on the album and represents the most Parachutes-sounding song Coldplay have recorded since, well, Parachutes. The album concludes with “A Sky full of Stars” which sees the band return to the stadium anthem sound of their last two albums, and closing track “O”, which is precisely my reaction to this album. Oh why Coldplay? Why? 

C

- Sam 

Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots (2014)

For a man who has been in the music industry for over twenty years, it is quite surprising to find that Everyday Robots is Damon Albarn’s first solo album. Up until now, Albarn has had quite a varied career, a career which has seen him have great success with Blur and virtual band Gorillaz, while has also seen him work on one off collaborations such as the Good, the Bad & the Queen and Dr Dee. Such as the musical variety Albarn has explored in his career, it makes this first solo album all the more intriguing to see how the solo Damon Albarn measure’s up to the rest of his work.  

The sound of Everyday Robots I would say is a mash-up of Good, the Bad & the Queen and Gorillaz, although there are moments where you can hear Blur, as well as Albarn’s work with African musicians. Already some music critics have been labelling the sound of Everyday Robots as “sad-hop”, which after listening to the album, I can kind of see where they are coming from. Overall, there is a trip hop feel throughout, especially with the drum machine backbeat that drives a lot of the songs, however most of the songs tend to have more of a mellow melancholic vibe going on, while Albarn’s piano playing has a classical jazz feel to it in the mould of someone like Keith Jarrett. I would say that Everybody Robots is quite an atmospheric album with a strong focus on mood rather than melody on most of the songs. The music and lyrics come across as quite personal and introspective and it’s as if Albarn is opening himself up in a way he has never done before, giving us an insight into his very person, a person whom he has kept guarded over the years. As for personal, well it is pretty much just Albarn on his own singing and playing piano and guitar, although, aside from a small array of session players, Brian Eno makes an appearance, while the Leystone City Mission Choir sing backing vocals on a couple of the tracks.

As for the tracks themselves, well the album begins with title track “Everyday Robots”, which has a Plastic Beach-Gorillaz sound to it with a gentle piano part, strings, sound effects and a trip hop backbeat. This is followed by “Hostiles”, which returns by in large to the Good, the Bad & the Queen’s reflective melancholia all be it with a strong trip hop injection. “Hostiles” is not a stand out track by any means, and actually comes across as quite laboured and somewhat boring. Then there is one of the album’s standouts “Lonely Press Play”, which could even be one of Albarn’s best tracks in recent years. This one certainly has a film soundtrack kind of vibe to it with a kind of casual beauty in its piano lines and string flourishes. “Mr Tembo” is the only real up-tempo song on the record, and interestingly enough is about a baby elephant which Albarn met in Tanzania, leading to what is quite a playful but throwaway lyric. The song features Albarn on ukulele, a pounding bass line, and some great gospel-infused backing vocals from the mission choir in what is a very bubbly track that offers a nice break from the downbeat stuff.

The middle of the album kicks off with “The Selfish Giant” which has a folktronica feel in which Albarn delivers quite a soulful vocal. It also showcases Albarn’s gentle piano playing with a nice classical-jazzy solo in the middle. “You and Me” is the longest track on the album and is quite a moody affair almost like a short story with quite vivid lyrics as Albarn appears more as a narrator rather than singer, while “Hollow Ponds” is a very melancholic reflective track which sounds quite Nick Drake-like in mood and Ray Davies in lyrics. There is not much going on musically on this track, but it represents another tender moment which also features some nice French horn playing. The final few songs on the album begins with “Photographs” which is a standard trip hop track with quite a Massive Attack feel to it. This is followed by “The History of a Cheating Heart”, which is another track which doesn’t really go anywhere and that the album could have really done without. Finally, the album closes with “Heavy Seas of Love” that features Brian Eno on vocals and has a stellar chorus which I can just imagine becoming a sing-a-long fan favourite at festivals. This track is one of the album highlights and is an example of how good a pop writer Albarn can be when he chooses to be. And although Eno is not known for his singing, he does a nice job here adding a different dimension to proceedings with his rather dark eccentric vocals.

Overall, I feel Albarn has done a solid job with Everyday Robots without being outstanding. There are some very nice melancholic moments on the record, while his musicianship is a standout feature in the form of his piano playing especially. A couple of the songs do end up being a bit of a bore, while the presence of two short instrumentals is a blot on the album’s landscape, however these lesser moments are countered by some of Albarn’s best work in recent years. I would say Everyday Robots compares well to his work with Gorillaz and has shown that Albarn can go it alone and be just as successful musically. 

B+

- Sam 

Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Unknown Mortal Orchestra II (2013)

Unknown Mortal Orchestra are an American-New Zealand indie, psychedelic, alternative band which was started by ex-Mint Chicks singer Ruban Neilson in 2010. Neilson is accompanied on this venture by Jacob Portrait on bass and Greg Rogove on drums. And, after a solid debut in 2011 with their self-titled first album, the band has gone from strength to strength on their second outing, 2013s Unknown Mortal Orchestra II.

The band’s sound is what I would describe as being trippy neo-indie pscyhedelia, which comes right in the middle of a psychedelic rock/pop revival that seems to be in vogue these days. Although this album is not just about psychedelic music, and the music seems to go in all sorts of directions with funk, soul, prog rock and folk just some of the styles that have a heavy presence on the record, while a steady hip hop backbeat appears on most of the tracks as well. With quite an eclectic mix of styles, it is probably also suitable that the production of the album is quite lo-fi overall, something which brings to the fore the wonderful pop melodies, multi-layered psychedelic sounds and melancholic tones in Neilson’s falsetto vocals. Aside from his great vocals, Neilson’s guitar playing is also a strong feature on this album and although he is in no way a virtuoso, he does manage to mix his playing up between a more delicate textured style of playing, with a heavily distorted attack and the occasional baroque sounding flourishes.

As for the tracks themselves, well the album starts off brilliantly with “From the Sun”, a song which has an indie folk feel to it initially with some acoustic finger picking, before moving into a psychedelic pop track setting the tone for the direction of the rest of the album. This is followed by “Swim and Sleep” another psychedelic pop track which this time showcases Neilson’s diverse guitar playing with a baroque sounding guitar motif. The triple-whammy of great songs to start the album ends with one of the album’s best tracks in “So Good at Being in Trouble” which has a prog-rock undertone to it and as a song just floats along effortlessly allowing the listener to get lost in its melancholic beauty.

Things change direction again on “One at a Time” which has a bit of a funky feel to it with its heavily distorted funky guitar riff and drums, and sounds as if it could easily have been a demo for an early Funkadelic album or something similar. And, then its back again to psychedelia on the next track “The Opposite of Afternoon” which has more of a jam feel to it compared to the other tracks on the album with an extended instrumental break during the second half of the track. It is then at this point that the album begins to drift a little bit with a couple of lengthy psychedelic tracks which appear to just fill space more than anything in “Monki” and “No Need for a Leader”. This slight lul in the album is followed by the totally unnecessary token one minute instrumental “Dawn”. It is fair to say I have never understood why artists decide to include on albums totally pointless short instrumentals like this one, as they don’t add anything musically, while leaving the listener confused as to what they are hearing as they reach for the skip button. Luckily this slight drop in the middle of the album is not permanent and the album ends on a high with the psychedelic riff lade track “Faded in the Morning” which wouldn’t have sounded out of place in 1967, and finally album closer and candidate for song of the album “Secret Xtians” which has a very infectious groove especially in the bass and drum parts.

Overall, in conclusion I would say this album is a fantastic psychedelic pop album and betters the group’s first up effort which in itself was a great album. The tracks here are groovy and melodic, and combine psychedelic pop with other styles such as folk and even classical brilliantly in a blender of musical goodness. Unknown Mortal Orchestra II is perfect listening material for summer, but would also do very nicely as a tonic through the cold winter months. Definitely one of the albums of 2013, and I cannot wait to see where they go to next. 

A-

- Sam 

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

Paul & Linda McCartney - Ram (1971)

Much of the ex-Beatles solo material was either hit or miss, something that was going to be inevitable as it would be very difficult to continue with each release to match the quality of what was some of the greatest music ever committed to tape. Paul McCartney’s second solo album “Ram” however is definitely a hit. On this release Paul seems to return to his love of making music, and in many ways “Ram” represents a break from his Beatles past and a back to basics DIY approach to recording for him. Firstly, many of the songs on the album were conceived on his farm in Scotland, where he hid away from the public eye and the messy situation that was The Beatles breakup. This time away brought him closer to his family, while he kept himself busy by playing around on his guitar coming up with ideas for songs, but without the pressure to produce material for an album. The time out of the spotlight also seemed to translate well to the recording of the album, with Paul seemingly having fun with the songs on this album leading to a very loose sound across the album and experimentation with different song structures (short simple songs mixed with longer more experimental pieces), musical styles, and rhythms. Central to “Ram” is an underlying pop sound that includes a strong Beatles and Beach Boys influence in terms of melody and harmony on some tracks, but at the same time underneath this there is no formulaic concept style wise with folk, blues, and progressive/experimental rock making appearance throughout the album.

One notable aspect of this album was that it is the one and only album credited to Paul and Linda McCartney, and also marked the beginning of Linda’s involvement in Paul’s music, something that would become firmly established in Wings later on and would continue until her death in 1998. Linda co-wrote six of the songs on the album, sang harmony vocals on many of the tracks, and also encouraged Paul throughout the whole process in terms of song-writing while also acting as a calming influence during what had been a turbulent period in Paul’s life.

At the time of its release the record itself was panned by critics as being mediocre and uneven, critics that also included Paul’s former band mates who did not think much of the album musically. But what caught the wrath of the other Beatles the most was McCartney’s song lyrics, with John Lennon believing the songs “Too Many People”, “Dear Boy”, and “Back Seat Of My Car” as being subtle digs at him and Yoko, while George Harrison and Ringo Starr believed the song “3 Legs” to be an attack on the three ex-Beatles. Paul McCartney subsequently confirmed that the lyric “too many people preaching practices” from the song “Too Many People” was about John & Yoko, but denied that any of the other songs were about his formed band mates. Despite this initial reaction, time has improved the standing of Ram and it is now genuinely seen as one of McCartney’s greatest works, something that I support wholeheartedly. I believe “Ram” to be McCartney’s best solo album, while it would also sit in my top three Beatles solo albums in third place, edged out by “All Things Must Pass” and “John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band”. To me Ram is a proper collection of songs of equal standing with their being no absolute standout tracks but at the same time no weak tracks. Each song on the album is different from the next, while there is enough quality across the album to keep the listener engaged. So if you are interested in exploring what the ex-Beatles did once the party was over, Ram is definitely one of the albums you should start with.

 

- A

 

- Sam