26 February 2013 (Day 57) – Solo Albums

I can just hear Troy McClure now - “The solo album: is there any phrase more thrilling to the human soul?” 

 

I’m not entirely sure where I stand on my adaption of Troy’s statement about TV spin off series.  I’m not sure whether to take it on face value as a legitimate statement or as an ironic comment as the writers of The Simpsons clearly intended.  After all the solo album does have a checked history with numerous examples of musicians, confined by their sidemen status within a band dominated by others, or forced to fend for themselves after a break up, seeking to stretch out and prove they can write songs.  In some cases they also try to prove they can sing.

 

This doesn’t include acts whose solo careers effectively continued the agenda set by the bands they originally dominated.  But when you think about it, there hasn’t been that many who have been able to sustain a lengthy solo career apart from John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Sting, Eric Clapton, Paul Simon, and a small number of others.  (And even then, all of these acts have recorded more than the odd below par effort.) Whilst some lower profile acts have established completely satisfying solo careers – Richard Thompson, Mark Lanegan, Robert Plant, David Byrne, Ed Kuepper, Bob Mould, Peter Gabriel, Paul Weller, Brian Eno among them – almost all suffer the same terrible fate accorded to those who generally haven’t succeeded such as Chris Cornell, David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Jimmy Page and many others by having fans who secretly wish that they all return to their original bands.  A lot of this wishing is in vain for those like Gilmour and Waters from bands that appear to be irretrievably broken but it doesn’t stop them trading on their former glories.  Ultimately there are a tremendous number of others such as Cornell, Perry Farrell, Mick Jagger and Shane MacGowan who have reactivated or returned to their bands.  There are even those who now have it their way by having a solo career and version 2.0 of the band such as Bryan Ferry (& Roxy Music), Donald Fagen (& Steely Dan), John Lydon via Public Image Limited (& The Sex Pistols), Frank Black/Francis (& the Pixies) and many others.  Just about the only act I can think of whose fans don’t want to see re-established in their former band is Bjork and even The Sugarcubes reformed for a gig last year.

The emphasis here is on the phrase “sideman status” and the strike rate here is not great.  Sure, there’s George Harrison’s spectacular initial success with All Things Must Pass and Dave Grohl’s first Foo Fighters record (essentially a solo album until morphing into a legitimate band with subsequent releases). There have also been some unexpected delights; Izzy Stradlin’s first couple of post Guns n’ Roses albums are fine rockin’ affairs, the first Tom Tom Club album from the Talking Heads rhythm section, some of the albums by former members of The Replacements who aren’t Paul Westerberg and Ringo Starr’s Ringo but there aren’t many others that hit me off the top of my head.    All I can recall are acts that didn’t work – Keith Moon (I have his Two Sides Of The Moon and I’m still too scared to play it), most of the remaining albums issued by the former members of Talking Heads or Guns n’ Roses, a number of the solo Pearl Jam albums, Dave Navarro’s album, some from members of the Wu-Tang Clan collective and a great many more that fortunately haven’t made their way into my collection.

 

What seems to have bound today’s limited listening was that the albums concerned are from artists who have made their name within a much broader context;

 

(152) Steve Cropper – Dedicated. A Tribute To The 5 Royales

Cropper has made his name and immense reputation by being part of the in house team that providing a lot of the musical backing for many of the hits that emerged from the Stax soul label in Memphis in the 1960s.  On many of those hits he played with Donald “Duck” Dunn with whom he also played in the legendary instrumental combo Booker T And The MGs as well as in The Blues Brothers Band.  This is one of a small number of albums released under his name and the most recent.  It is a wonderful tribute to the 5 Royales, one of the very first “soul” groups in the 1950s.  For the album Cropper was assisted by 5 star talent on most tracks, usually through the provision of vocals.  Highlights include Thirty Second Lover (with magnificent support from Steve Winwood), Dedicated To The One I love (with Winwood and Lucinda Williams – what a combination!) and Come On And Save Me (with Dylan LeBlanc and Sharon Jones).  Other guests include Bettye LaVette, B.B.King, Buddy Miller, Dan Penn and Brian May.  Cropper’s guitar playing is as sharp and incisive as ever and is best heard on his instrumental version of Think.

 

(153) The Nightwatchman – One Man Revolution

 

The Nightwatchman is Tom Morello, guitarist with Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave and so to be temporary member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.  This was his first album under this guise and it is a largely acoustic collection of socially and politically aware tunes.  Song titles such as Let Freedom Ring, Battle Hymns and No One Left are highly reminiscent of “Little” Steve Van Zandt’s solo albums and are married to a musical attack not to dissimilar to Springsteen’s solo albums.  On Flesh Shapes The Day, Morello lets out howls that are straight off the Nebraska album.  (Little wonder that he’ll be Van Zandt’s temporary stand in during the next couple of months.) The Road I Must Travel sounds like a homage to Billy Bragg.  None of this is to imply that Morello is simply ripping off these influences.  See it more as a comment on the relative scarcity of socially aware acoustic based sing songwriters in today’s scene.

25 February 2013 (Day 56) – Movie Music

It’s Academy Awards Day and the organisers must have discovered my blog.  How else to explain their Music In The Movies theme for this year’s telecast? 

Seriously, I’m in two minds about the use of music in today’s movies.  At its best, a great soundtrack is totally subservient to the demands of the movie and is barely noticed.  In other words it is one of a number of elements used by a director in setting the mood of a particular scene along with camera placement and movement, shot selection, editing, the script, sound (and visual) effects and the skills of the actors.  Sometimes the music can be so thoroughly integrated into the movie that you’ll barely notice it.  I think it was only on my third viewing of the French Connection, for example, when it dawned on me that it even had one.  In other instances, it can become something else entirely.  In the celebrated opening sequence of Jaws, Steven Spielberg effectively turned John Williams’ theme into a character, using it to represent the otherwise invisible shark that stalks, attacks and kills the skinny dipper.

But what can really irk me with some movies today are instances when the equivalent of a music video appears during a film.  Think of all those montage scenes where filmmakers seek to explain away something that is occurring, like arriving in Australia, set against a song containing the most obvious lyrical content imaginable (say for the purposes of this example, Men At Work’s Down Under).  When I see scenes like that I wonder whether a) the screenwriter was unable to write any meaningful dialogue for the scene, b) the studio had a tie in deal with a record company (probably from the same multi-national) to push either a soundtrack album or the artist or c) the director came from a music video background and is trying something with which they’re most comfortable. No doubt there are other reasons but the effect is the same with either the competence of the film maker or the studio’s motives called into question.

I’ve excluded the music played during the opening and end credit sequences because this is where it might pay to be obvious.  Some work absolutely brilliantly.  The action film xXx with Vin Diesel thoroughly integrated Rammstein’s Fire Frei! into its opening scene even to the extent of letting the song commence with the studio’s logo through to the band’s performance of the track in the scene.  In this respect, band and movie – both over the top and containing healthy lashes of knowing humour – made for a perfect fit.  Ditto David Fincher’s use of Bowie’s superb The Heart’s Filthy Lesson during the closing credits of se7en, ensuring that the unsettling, paranoid nature of the film carried through to its very end.  There are also examples where a track is commissioned for one purpose but persuades the film maker into another use.  I read somewhere recently that Jonathan Demme commissioned Bruce Springsteen to write an aids song to be placed during the closing credits of Philadelphia.  When Springsteen delivered The Streets Of Philadelphia, Demme realised this perfectly fitted the way he envisaged it to commence. 

And so today’s listening is an attempt to fit some notable Oscar listening into my busy day:

(149) Prince and the Revolution – Music From Purple Rain

The winner of the Oscar for the Best Original Song Score in 1985, these songs have become so imprinted in the world’s consciousness that it is almost critic proof.  This is not to say that the album is without flaws; there are some now fairly undesirable 80s production sounds on it and The Beautiful Ones and Computer Blue are just so-so.  But the rest, notably When Doves Cry (as unlikely a #1 as there’s ever been) and the epic title track, has stood the test of time as a classic.

(150) Rodriquez – Cold Fact

Waiting For Sugar Man today won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.  To just about anyone in the world, it is the story of how a couple of South Africans set out to find the hitherto unknown singer songwriter Rodriquez after he became a megastar in their country.  What the documentary, apparently (I’ve yet to see it), doesn’t mention was that Rodriquez’s two albums (especially this, his debut) were hits in Australia to the extent that he toured here during the70s before he slipping into obscurity.  Cold Fact explains the reasons for both scenarios.  He has a vocal style not unlike Dylan’s and wrote tracks synonymous with the realities of urban life in the late 60s/early 70s.   The songs, Sugar Man, Only Good For Conversations and Crucify Your Mind in particular, are tremendous and would have appealed to 70s audiences, however, it is a style of music has such a time bound feel to it that it is understandable why it’s since been overlooked which makes his rediscovery all the more remarkable.  

(151) Randy Newman – Trouble In Paradise

Randy Newman is one of the few popular music icons to have carved out a successful career in Hollywood.  Actually successful is a bit of an understatement here given his record of 20 nominations and 2 wins (incorporating a record first 16 nominations without a single win).  This is one of his regular albums recorded in the early 80s after his brush with fame following the release of the Short People hit had well and truly died off.  This is about as close to a mainstream commercial album that he’s ever likely to record with slow ballads such as Same Girl and Real Emotional Girl, a send up of Paul Simon called The Blues (in which he gets Simon to sing) and some heavy handed attempts at pointed social comment with Christmas In Cape Town and Song For The Dead.  It also contains the  hilarious My Life Is Good in which a big shot attempts to impress someone by claiming to have met Springsteen who tells him “You know Rand I’m tired/How would like to be The Boss for a while?”, followed by the cry “Blow Big Man Blow” and a Clarence Clemons type sax solo.  But the major reason for playing this is its opening cut – I Love L.A. – a song I loved on its initial release but a prime example of a song that’s been misused in a number of non Newman scored films. 

23 & 24 February 2013 (Days 54 & 55) – My definition of music

It has been a very full weekend with no time set aside for any serious listening.

“Serious listening”, now there’s a phrase.  This is when I’m able to devote all of my energy to the act of listening.  Elements - a comfortable position and either headphones or the stereo very loud.  During such sessions I can pick out lyrics (and occasionally understand them) and hear details I might not necessarily catch.  My body relaxes , tension subsides and I feel as though I’ve dissolved into the atmosphere along with the music.  At this point, I’m usually oblivious to everything around me; if “M” needs me for anything, she knows she’ll have to come to wherever I’m located and disturb my state.

It’s one of the strange aspects of my own existence.  Unlike many people in the world, I need noise to relax.  Silence is a state to be avoided at all costs; to me it means death and I know I’m going to dead for a long time.  Noise provides evidence of human existence, especially at night.  Music, is a form of harmonious, rhythmic or expressive noise and is for me the most desired evidence of human existence.  If the music is really good, I find myself wanting to join in and add to it; this is why I think I tap, stomp, clap or singing along to favourite pieces of music.

But there is an incredibly fine line between noise and music.  We don’t all regard the same harmonies, rhythms or expressions as music.  What I might consider music, you might think of as noise and vice versa.  Personally, I find it extremely difficult to listen to arias and most falsetto singing; it doesn’t appeal to me and as such I regard it as noise.  I’d rather hear a combination of sounds that has come from man made instruments that can be manipulated in innumerable ways and which a musician has personalised through combinations of their own playing style, lyrics, the sound of their actual voice and any other naturally occurring sounds.  This is probably why I’d rather not hear arias and falsettos; they’re striving to produce a homogeneous sound, a form of aural commodity.  Yes, there are tenors, sopranos, etc, but they’re all instructed to sing the same songs in exactly the same manner, the only real difference being the sound of their voice.  But individuality is generally not prized here, it is the expectation that the musicians involved faithfully reproduces something that has been set out almost like following a dress pattern.   This is where the commodity analogy comes in.  Take your humble cardboard box as an example.  They come in different  shapes, sizes, materials, patterns, lids, colours, etc but ultimately my opinion about any one box will be shaped by whether it is able to do what it is supposed to do and not whether it has a distinctive personality.   In other words, music is a man made noise that, in my view, requires the individual who created it to put a distinctive stamp on it that appeals to me. 

I have no idea from where the preceding paragraphs emanated.  They just flowed off the keyboard as I wrote.  The weekend’s listening focused on some Australian acts that have never really hit any form of mass popularity.

(146) Magic Dirt – Snow White

This was the last Magic Dirt album to have been released on an Australian major label.  The sound is a little more scuffled up that its predecessor Tough Love and is all the better for it.   They’ve since stayed true to this vision but have dropped from the scene following the death of their bassist Dean Turner.  Adalita’s solo success will probably ensure that it will be a while longer before they return, if at all.

(147) The Mess Hall – For The Birds

It’s amazing how sometimes bands from different parts of the world can arrive at the same point simultaneously.  The Mess Hall are a Sydney based two piece drum and guitar combo who formed in 2001, the same year as The Black Keys.  (Of course bands were probably inspired by The White Stripes.)  This is about their 5^th or 6^th  and most recent album and it sees them consolidating their sound.

(148 ) Died Pretty – Free Dirt (extended version)

Easily one of the finest bands to emerge from Sydney during the 1980’s, Died Pretty became a firm favourite with Melbourne punters.  With their sense of melody marrying the epic guitar heroics of Brett Myers, a deep keyboard sound and the distinctive vocals from the charismatic Ron Peno, it wasn’t all that difficult to see why.  Free Dirt was their first album and has been expanded by Aztec records to include period singles and EPs some demos and 6 live tracks.  The only problem I’ve had with the album is its track listing.  The original vinyl Side 1 comprised 4 epic numbers only one of which is less than 5 and a half minutes.  It includes some of the highlights of the live set from their gigs during this time especially Just Skin and Next To Night.  (An example of the former is included in the live tracks.)  Side 2 comprises shorter, more commercial type numbers which can be heard as a letdown.  I always played the vinyl in reverse order and imported the tracks the same way onto my iPod.  Among the highlights of the bonus material, are the Stoneage Cinderella single, a demo version of Dylan’s From A Buick 6 and a live version of their classic single Everybody Moves.

22 February 2013 (Day 53) - Archive.org

One of the great things about the internet is how we can now access so many live performances by acts from an incredibly wide period of time.  For example, I was looking at the SugarMegs site the other day and was staggered to find a number of shows from Melbourne including The Rolling Stones at Kooyong 40 years and a few days ago and the monumental Neil Young with Crazy Horse/ The International Harvesters shows at Festival Hall from 1985.  This is something that some  bands have well and truly commercialised, enabling fans of acts such as Pearl Jam, The Who, Metallica and The Pixies to obtain recordings of shows that they’ve attended as a form of audio souvenir.

But the forerunner to all of this is probably the Archive.org site.  This is an American non-profit internet archive that seeks to preserve many forms of audio visual material online for free distribution and downloading.  Included in the site is a live music archive where recordings of performances for many acts have been preserved.  Nothing is permitted to be played on the site without the permission of the act and recordings can be uploaded by anyone.  As such quality can be variable because the source material could have come from someone’s recordable Walkman, a cassette recording of a radio broadcast or from the act’s soundboard.

Provided permission has been granted any act can have their performances uploaded leading to the site being dominated by acts I know nothing about.  But there is an impressive range of name acts available if you’re prepared to browse the list including Warren Zevon, The Dream Syndicate, Ween, Ryan Adams, Little Feat, the Smashing Pumpkins and the John Butler Trio.  It is also the home to the Grateful Dead archive of a staggering 9,106 shows.  Here are three performances I was given copies of and decided to play over the course of the day:

(143) Camper Van Beethoven – 9.30 Club Washington D.C 12 October 2004

This is an excellent sounding audience recording for a show around the time of the release of their slightly disappointing New Roman Times album.  Fortunately the better tracks from that album got into the set along with plenty of CVB classics to keep up my interest including Tania, Take The Skinheads Bowling, their cover of Status Quo’s Pictures Of Matchstick Men and rounding things off, Pink Floyd’s Interstellar Overdrive.  

(144) Fugazi – Electric Factory Philadelphia 5 March 1997

One of the finest bands, if not THE finest, to have emerged from the Washington DC punk scene, Fugazi were a legendary band live.  This would have been one of the last gigs performed prior to the end of the tour supporting the Red Medicine album and provides a fine representation of their catalogue and the power of their live performance.   The only drawback for me is that this show lacks many of my favourite Fugazi numbers.   There are only 18 Fugazi gigs on Archive.org because the band is systematically live recordings they made of 800 of the approx. 1000 gigs they recorded in their career.  The ones released to date are available for download for a suggested fee of $5.

(145) Sleater-Kinney - 9.30 Club Washington D.C 3 August 2006

This is a radio broadcast but I suspect this was never on the Archive.org page but rather from the npr (National Public Radio) site.  Nonetheless this is a powerful performance from the all girl punk three piece with songs from their entire history.  This wasn’t altogether surprising as this turned out to be one of their final shows.

21 February 2013 (Day 52) - Recent Purchase Update # 2

I’ve ditched the idea of a weekly purchase update because it dawned on me that I don’t necessarily listen to my purchases as soon as I obtain them.  My purchasing has never been dependent upon record company release schedules.  I’ve found that if you’re able to supress the impulse purchase urge they rely upon, you can buy albums at a much cheaper price later on, or when the band inevitably tours Australia, a “special tour edition” with bonus tracks or a DVD. 

(A digression – Tip 1: Beware of whenever the catalogue of a major artist or a highly popular or influential album suddenly becomes available at a bargain price.  In many cases this is usually advance warning that the act’s catalogue is about to be rereleased in a remastered form with bonus tracks and discs or that a Collector’s Edition of the popular/influential album is coming.)

In adding to my collection, I’m unconcerned about when an album was released.  These days my additions are driven by a need to hear something new or different.  Whilst this results in my adding to the catalogue of albums by favourite artists, I’m just as likely to dig into music’s past as well as its present.  By adopting such a mindset, I’ve found that my collection is akin to a never ending jig saw puzzle with me continually finding specific pieces of my picture without ever knowing what that picture is ever going to look like or indeed whether it is complete.

Some of the pieces I’ve recently obtained and played today were:

(140) Burial – Truant/Rough Sleeper

Burial is the performing name for William Bevan, am electronic musician with seemingly a dark, almost malevolent musical vision, sort of like a tuneful version of the sounds that filled the soundtrack to David Lynch’s Eraserhead.   Like that movie, the music evokes black and white imagery in my mind.  His first, self titled, album is awesome, however, this release from last year comprising two tracks lasting a combined 25 minutes is less so.  Both tracks place a greater emphasis on drums and bass and this alone appears to lessen the music’s intensity.

(141) Yoko Ono – Yes, I’m A Witch

So many people appear to hate Yoko’s music and it is sometimes difficult to assess just how much of this is due to her perceived role in the breakup of The Beatles and her influence over John Lennon.  I find her singing hard to take at times but I think it’s fair to say that she was making music that was ahead of its time.  This particular album provides some evidence that the world is catching up.  It consists of a number of Yoko songs that were mostly rerecorded by other acts but with her vocals retained.  The results are marvellous, the new backings providing for the most part sympathetic backing to that most maligned of voices.  Highlights include tracks with Blow Up (Everyman Everywoman), Le Tigre (Sisters O Sisters), The Flaming Lips (Cambridge 1969/2007) and a monumental version of her best known song, Walking On Thin Ice with Jason Pierce of Spiritualized.

(142.1) The Byrds – (Untitled)*

This album was originally a double vinyl half live half studio release by the version of The Byrds comprising Roger McGuinn, Gram Parsons, Clarence White and Skip Battin.  The gatefold cover image shows the band members on steps with either the country (front) or the sky (back) in the background and is a brilliant representation of the mix of psychedelica and country evident in these tracks.  The studio tracks contain Chestnut Mare, one of Parsons’ best known songs and some other really interesting material.  Well Come Back Home appears to address the indifferent attitudes being expressed to Vietnam veterans and the humorous You All Look Alike records the same attitudes expressed towards hippies.  But it is the live material that is the main reason to hear this.  Side 1 of  the original album is a series of classic tracks plus a cover of Dylan’s Positively 4^th Street recorded in this new style but the absolute highlight is the 16 minute version of Eight Miles High that took up the entire original Side 2.  This version features an extremely lengthy music introduction which gave all of the musicians room to shine before the song itself is handled fairly economically.  It’s a measure of The Byrd’s place in American music that this same approach was adopted lock, stock and barrel nearly two decades later when no less a band than Husker Du ran their own lengthy instrumental Recurring Dreams into their mighty cover of the song.  (You’ll find it on the Live From The Camden Palace DVD.)

*My copy is the expanded version with a bonus disc of additional music called (unissued).  I couldn’t get round to playing it but will do so at some point in the future, hence the .1.

20 February 2013 (Day 51) – Reasons to be Grateful

There are all sorts of reasons why I’ve latched on to a particular act over the years.  And then are reasons why I’ve prized certain albums by these acts. Sometimes I value a particular album because it was the reason I latched on to an act.  Today’s listening provides some examples.

(137) Los Lobos – By The Light Of The Moon

With their potent mix of rock, rockabilly, Mexican and many other sounds, Los Lobos are one of America’s true living musical treasures.  They’ve been together in one form or another since 1973 and their line up has not changed other than to absob Steve Berlin.  In that time they’ve released a string of incredible albums with nary a duff one in the lot.  Even the albums released by their side projects – Los Super Seven and The Latin Playboys – make for compelling listening as was Soul Disguise the solo album by guitarist Cesar Rosas.  They’re frequently sought after for soundtrack appearances – they hit number 1 with their version of La Bamba a couple of decades ago – and for their collaborative abilities, their work with Paul Simon on a track on his Graceland album the best known.

By The Light Of The Moon is my favourite Los Lobos album over other worthy candidates such as How Will The Wolf Survive?, The Neighbourhood, Kiko and The Ride.  It is bookended by the wonderful One Time Last Night and the sublime Tears Of God.  It’s got the joyous Set Me Free (Rosa Lee), the rocking Shakin’ Shakin’ Shakes and pointed Is This All There Is?  Try as I might to make a case for some of their other albums what I can’t escape is that this is album they toured behind the one and only time I’ve managed to see them.  Each time I play this I’m immediately transported to that night at The Palace and it seems like yesterday.   26 years later I’m still waiting, but each time they’ve subsequently played here, I’ve purchased tickets only to fall ill. Perhaps this curse is really a fate designed to preserve a perfect memory of both gig and album.

(138) Frank Zappa – Hot Rats

I am a Frank Zappa fan and have almost every one of the albums released during his life time to prove it.  A Zappa fan has to put up with a lot.  There’s the wilful changes of musical direction, some dodgy albums (I defy anyone to sit through Thing Fish) or tracks (ditto The Adventures Of Gregory Pecory), some classical music albums (although The Yellow Shark is absolutely brilliant), bouts of misogyny and other lyrics so juvenile that 10 year olds would blush.  Yet I’m willing to wade through all of that because Zappa at his best is better than just about anyone.

Hot Rats was my introduction to the weird and wonderful world of everything Zappa.  A largely instrumental album except for a Captain Beefheart vocal cameo on Willie The Pimp, it is an awesome showcase for his mastery of the electric guitar.  This contains some of his best known instrumental work outs and concert mainstays notably Willie, Peaches En Regalia and The Gumbo Variations.  It is also the best entry point into the Zappa catalogue….if you dare.

(139) R.E.M – Reckoning

The first time I heard of R.E.M was when Rolling Stone magazine hailed Murmur as the best album released in 1983.  Somehow I managed to miss hearing it and so its follow up Reckoning was the first album of theirs I heard.  I was hooked straight away by the sound of Peter Buck’s guitars, Michael Stipe’s mysterious vocals and the unbelievably catchy songs, not particularly caring what they actually meant.  I was happy enough to sing for example, “She’s got pretty persuasions” to myself and make up lyrics for the remainder. (Even today I believe this was Stipe’s intention.)  I took the same approach (and obviously different lyrics) to songs such as So. Central Rain, Harborcoat, (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville and Little America.

Put another way, R.E.M were able to infuse a sense of wonder in the listener about their songs and were able to sustain that sense for a very long time and an extraordinary run of albums.  They also had the grace and common sense to call it a day when the realised this had finally worn away.  This started the process for me and for that I’m eternally grateful.

19 February 2013 (Day 50) – 5 Albums With Absolutely Nothing In Common

I knew I would be able to get through a few albums today so I set myself the task of playing albums that I could not link in any way whatsoever.  This is one of the things that I normally pride myself on in selecting listening matter but this project, and the need to find something to comment on each day, has influenced my thinking in ways I hadn’t anticipated. 

To make things interesting, I brought in the rule that all of the albums had to be rock albums. Otherwise, it would have been too easy to follow a rock album with, say a delta blues album, then a jazz album, then a reggae one.  (Of course I could have nixed that anyway by stating that these are all examples of black music, but I hadn’t thought of that at the time.)  In any case with that, supposedly difficult limitation, I think I did pretty well; you be the judge.

(132) Cowboy Junkies – The Trinity Session

By now everybody knows of the circumstances of the recording of this album by this Canadian band.  (Recorded on a single microphone in a Toronto church presumably for a pittance for those who don’t.)  Lo fi doesn’t even begin to describe the vibe early but it suits the material and the exquisite whispered vocals of Margo Timmins incredibly well.  For some reason the highlights come in the second half of the album, 200 More Miles, Dreaming My Dreams (trying playing that in front of a roaring fireplace) and of course their magnificent cover of Sweet Jane.

(133) Tool – Lateralus

Tool is seemingly where prog rock meets metal without sounding like either.  “I know where the pieces fit”, sings Maynard on this album.  Good. Now you can tell me but unfortunately the track concerned is called Schism.  Adding to the wilful confusion are enigmatic lyrics that are too angst ridden to be associated with either musical camp, traces of world music (such as the into to Reflection) and in Maynard the most withdrawn lead singer in music.  Unbelievably the whole thing works wonderfully particularly on intricate, epic tracks such as Ticks & Leeches and Triad.

(134) Bad Company – Straight Shooter

From the ashes of Free comes this no frills, straight ahead, blues/rock beauty, a particular favourite of mine in the mid too late 70s.  This neatly encapsulates the era – the songs about making love (Feel Like Makin’ Love), love gone bad (Good Lovin’ Gone Band), women (Anna and Wild Fire Woman), a cautionary tale (Shooting Star) and a tender ballad to round things up (Call On Me)  All this and the great voice of Paul Rodgers too.

(135) The B-52’s – Self Titled

Their debut album and the one that has Planet Claire, 52 Girls and the immortal Rock Lobster on it.  Need I say more? Err, yes.  For me the highlights are the final two tracks on the album.  First is the hilarious 6060-842 which probably contains the definitive Fred Schneider vocal performance, especially his answering the phone bit.  But even this is topped by the cover of Petula Clark’s Downtown, an act of supreme demented genius.

(136) Rancid - …..And Out Come The Wolves

For the most part this is an exemplary set of rousing 90’s American punk tunes which should have been much bigger that it was.  Just one listen to hook heavy tracks such as Ruby Soho, As Wicked, Disorder And Disarray, Junkie Man and the Oi Oi Oi chorus in Avenues & Alleyways and you’ll be hard pressed to stop joining in.  It is as exciting as this form of music gets and their live shows in the era were even better.