24 April 2013 (Day 114) – Defying Expectations

One of the hardest days to navigate during the work year is the day before a mid-week public holiday.  I usually give into the temptation to push very hard - after all l‘ve got the following day to recover - but not so hard that the holiday itself is wasted.  Making things harder is that, unlike a significant proportion of my colleagues, I’ll be returning to work on Friday rather than converting it for an extra long weekend.  Given that the public holiday is Anzac Day, Australia’s day for remembering our war dead, I’ve formed the view this is inappropriate, cheapening the reason for the day off in the first place.

In this sense, it could be said that I’m defying Australian expectations by refusing to take the long weekend. This doesn’t bother me in the slightest.  After all, all Australian business and services, will be operating on Friday and will need to complement of staff to do so.  Yet, by the time I’ve written this introduction, I’ve realised the music I listened to throughout the day – chosen primarily because I needed something contemplative to assist in a variety of writing tasks -  all defy musical mainstream expectations in some form or other.  I started with an act with a long history of defying the expectations of his audience even if they haven’t realised it:

(# 309) The Fireman – Rushes (1998)

Expectation: Since the breakup of The Beatles, Paul McCartney has travelled down the middle of the road revealing John Lennon to be the true visionary in the band.

The Fireman is a duo comprising McCartney and former Killing Joke bassist and present day record producer Youth.  This was the second album together and consists of largely instrumental ambient electronica interwoven, at times, over some of McCartney’s sound collages.  McCartney’s name does not appear anywhere on the package and only a few snatches of his unmistakeable vocals in a couple of the tracks gives his involvement away.  It is an exquisite album full of tracks whose titles usually provide an accurate description as to its contents.  Opener Watercolour Guitars takes delicate guitars and bleeds them brilliantly into the following Palo Verde.  Bison effortlessly evokes the sound of these animals in the wild and 7 a.m. has a very Germanic feel.  Most critics over the years have praised Fluid, but after years of listening, it is still to make an impression.  Perhaps this might be the reason why the track has been often remixed by The Fireman and Others.

(# 310) Serge Gainsbourg – Histoire de Melody Nelson (1971)

Expectation:  How can anybody not fluent in the language receive a concept album in French?

Well, quite easily actually.  All you need to know is the album tells a Lolita story that occurs after Serge’s middle aged character crashes into teenager Melody Nelson’s bicycle.  Then treat it is as though you’re listening to a real, albeit short (27 minute), opera and the experience should be more or less the same.  (And yes, it has a big finish.) Even if you have no interest in the entire work, the opening cut, Melody, is simply staggering. A mixture of lush orchestration, slashing guitar lines, a jazzy rhythm and Serge’s unmistakeable voice it should be heard at least once by anyone with an interest in modern music.  You’ll also be able to hear in it sounds that emerged 30 years later in acts such as Portishead and Air.

(# 311) Various Artists – So Frenchy, So Chic (2005)

Expectation: Surely you cannot produce a great compilation of French pop music?

Of course you can …… and please stop calling me Surely.  This is the original release of what has become an Australian record industry tradition; the annual release of a compilation of French pop tunes somehow connected to a French film festival.  This first attempt was massively successful and, judging from some of successors which I’ve heard, is undoubtedly the best.  This starts with a lovely ballad by Helena called Nee Dans La Nature. A couple of tracks along comes Qui De Nous Deux by M (not the M of Pop Muzik fame) featuring some terrific guitar work.  It directly leads into spoken word/otherwise instrumental Tu M’Intrigues by General Electric which sounds to these non-French speaking ears, exactly what the title appears to describe. Of the remainder, Daniel Darc’s La Pluie Qui Tombe and Kana’s Plantation (the latter an attempt at French reggae) stand out although the quality of the tracks overall is consistently high.  The album ends on a wonderful note with Sebastien Tellier’s La Ritournelle, a smooth drums and piano instrumental that is reminiscent of some of Bruce Hornsby’s earlier work.

(# 312) Pink Floyd – Atom Heart Mother (1970)

Expectation: It’s after Syd and before Meddle and so it must be rubbish.

Sure this sort of holds for some of the albums they released during this period (have you listened to the second disc of Ummagumma recently?) but not this one.  The album released before Meddle, this contains traces of the direction they would locate on its successor.  For the most part, it’s quite an enjoyable album, provided you’re prepared to broaden your notions of what to expect on a Floyd album.  The main item here is the 24 minute title track on which the main musical element is a choir.  Richard Wright’s keyboards, the dominant Floyd element, are intricately woven around this and David Gilmour’s guitars, largely muted, are allowed a couple of minutes around the middle of the track.  Of the remainder, Roger Water’s If is an OK ballad and Gilmour’s Fat Old Sun even better. (A version of this appeared on his Live In Gdansk album a few years back.) Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast is a curio that could only have been recorded at that time; music played by Floyd punctuated with breaks for consuming breakfast.