August and Everything After - Counting Crows
1993
Standout Tracks: Anna Begins, Round Here, Time and Time Again
"She can't stop shaking and I can't stop touching her..."
At last the random number gods have picked an album that I can write about without gushing over the lyrics. The lyrics on this record are average, with occasional highlights like the one above. The music isn't anything groundbreaking either; mainly acoustic instruments, straight forward songwriting and 'Round Here' even features a cringe-worthy wah-wah moment!
So why the hell did this album make the list? Because I bloody adore it, that's why! Yes, it's got 'Mr. Jones' on it. Everyone remembers 'Mr. Jones' and has tried to sing along with the high bit in the chorus, usually only once.
I wont skip it now, but there was a time when I'd HAVE to because, whether it was the single being played on the radio or some kid banging out his own rendition in the college refrectory, I couldn't escape it. If you owned an acoustic guitar in 1993 you were expected to play 'Mr. Jones' and Soul Asylum's 'Runaway Train'. Exclusively and repeatedly.
I started this piece by declaring the lyrics as average, which they are, the magic here is in the melody and delivery. Even the sparsely instrumented ballads have a tune you'll find yourself humming and this is a great sing-along-at-home album. There's something almost annoying about a band whose songs are so good that the lyric "Her kindness bangs a gong, it's moving me along, and Anna begins to fade away!" works perfectly.
I have so many attachments to these 11 tracks! Every time I hear the starting riff to 'Round Here', I'm 17 years old and on the bus to college with my walkman on. Back in my guitar playing days I'd tune my guitar whilst playing along to 'Mr. Jones'. I've sang 'Anna Begins' loudly in the street with friends when drunk. I know every lyric on this album by heart and I can still play more than half of it on guitar. I don't listen to 'August and Everything After' regularly, but everytime I do is a real pleasure.
Monday 30 March 2009
Gentlemen (3/33)
Gentlemen by The Afghan Whigs
1993
Standout tracks: Gentlemen, What Jail Is Like, When We Two Parted.
"You're saying that the victim doesn't want it to end
Good, I get to dress up and play the assassin again!"
This incredible album owes much to the time of its creation. As their major-label debut, 'Gentlemen' marked a period of change and adjustment for the 'Whigs as well as one of excitement and pressure. Relationships within the band were on the verge of collapse resulting in Steve Earle being sacked, seemingly for ticking one too many bad-band-member boxes: alcoholism, meddling girlfriend, raging ego and control issues.
Instead of destroying the work, this chaotic and confused environment led to some sparks of accidental brilliance: singer Greg Dulli recorded several of the album’s lead vocal tracks in one night, whilst high on coke and trying to impress a girl. In hindsight, it's the perfect state of mind for the mood of the album.
The Afghan Whigs have always been a bit of an odd one to catagorise. Unfairly pushed under the grunge umbrella, what the band actually created was angsty alternative rock with a heavy soul and motown influence bringing along a bold, horny and sleezy tone. For a second, the bass guitar at the start of 'Debonair' puts Jackson 5's 'ABC' in my head. The rhythm is tight and groove-based, I can't think of any other 'grunge' record that could be said of. The guitars are scratchy, minimalist and raw with Dulli's voice striding around on top; rough, vemonous and confident.
Lyrically, it's the devil in a confession booth. Themes of shame, love, addiction, anger and a multitude of other demons all sung without self-pity or apology. It's naïve to think there isn't an element of theatrical exaggeration to this, but it still works.
'Fountain and Fairfax' - named after the location of a church in L.A. that holds AA meetings - speaks of substance abuse and betrayal. 'When We Two Parted' deals with an increasingly distant lover, whilst in contrast 'What Jail Is Like' talks of obsessive partners. "Think I'm scared of girls, well maybe, but I'm not afraid of you! You wanna scare me then you'll cling to me no matter what I do!"
The cover art for this album is also a perfect fit.
1993
Standout tracks: Gentlemen, What Jail Is Like, When We Two Parted.
"You're saying that the victim doesn't want it to end
Good, I get to dress up and play the assassin again!"
This incredible album owes much to the time of its creation. As their major-label debut, 'Gentlemen' marked a period of change and adjustment for the 'Whigs as well as one of excitement and pressure. Relationships within the band were on the verge of collapse resulting in Steve Earle being sacked, seemingly for ticking one too many bad-band-member boxes: alcoholism, meddling girlfriend, raging ego and control issues.
Instead of destroying the work, this chaotic and confused environment led to some sparks of accidental brilliance: singer Greg Dulli recorded several of the album’s lead vocal tracks in one night, whilst high on coke and trying to impress a girl. In hindsight, it's the perfect state of mind for the mood of the album.
The Afghan Whigs have always been a bit of an odd one to catagorise. Unfairly pushed under the grunge umbrella, what the band actually created was angsty alternative rock with a heavy soul and motown influence bringing along a bold, horny and sleezy tone. For a second, the bass guitar at the start of 'Debonair' puts Jackson 5's 'ABC' in my head. The rhythm is tight and groove-based, I can't think of any other 'grunge' record that could be said of. The guitars are scratchy, minimalist and raw with Dulli's voice striding around on top; rough, vemonous and confident.
Lyrically, it's the devil in a confession booth. Themes of shame, love, addiction, anger and a multitude of other demons all sung without self-pity or apology. It's naïve to think there isn't an element of theatrical exaggeration to this, but it still works.
'Fountain and Fairfax' - named after the location of a church in L.A. that holds AA meetings - speaks of substance abuse and betrayal. 'When We Two Parted' deals with an increasingly distant lover, whilst in contrast 'What Jail Is Like' talks of obsessive partners. "Think I'm scared of girls, well maybe, but I'm not afraid of you! You wanna scare me then you'll cling to me no matter what I do!"
The cover art for this album is also a perfect fit.
Friday 27 March 2009
Heartworm (2/33)
Heartworm by Whipping Boy
1995
Standout tracks: We Don't Need Nobody Else, Users, When We Were Young
Suffering sells. The idea of the 'tortured artist' has been romanticised to the point where Robbie Williams is crying in documentaries, a spell in rehab has become a mandatory requirement for anyone in the public eye and every X-Factor applicant has a tragic back-story just waiting to be sprayed out through quivering lips right infront of the camera. Is this some kind of ploy to justify their unearned wealth and fame or is it simply attention-seeking arrogance?
Unlike the readers of Heat, I find this easy to ignore. The only problem I have with it is that it taints the genuine.
I hit you for the first time today. I didn't mean it, it just happened!
You wouldn't let me go to the phone, you wanted to make love and I did not. Now I know the distance between us.
Christ, we weren't even fighting I was just annoyed!
Silence and you started to cry.
"That really hurt!" you said.
Yeah? And you thought you knew me!
Listening to this album can feel like reading a diary. Fearghal McKee echoes Stuart Staples and Nick Cave in his low-pitch story-telling lyrical delivery, littering his songs with uncensored excerts from some unpleasant journal, all of which are rumoured to be true. It never feels forced or added for shock-value, nor is it ever uncomfortable.
The pinnacle of these confessional tales comes, fittingly, with the album's hidden track, 'A Natural'. Starting with the line "Today is not a good day for me, for today I found I was mad!" McKee talks his way through being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and his own self-analysis around it. It's glamourless, fascinating and amazing.
Musically, the album is intelligently assembled. Whether it's the walls of guitar noise or the unintrusive orchestration, it all fits. Nothing is out of place, nothing added that shouldn't be, nothing missing. The urgency towards the end of 'Users', for example, builds with a menacing pace that threatens to engulf McKee's rantings before slipping away into fading feedback. The riff from 'When We Were Young', the choppy strings at the end of 'Personality', it's all gold.
Everyone I know who has heard this album loves it, but it's a hidden gem. As drownedinsound.com said: "This album was easily overlooked in the 1995 post-Britpop Blur-Manics-Oasis-moronathon. The shame is, that this album beats all three of those hands down."
1995
Standout tracks: We Don't Need Nobody Else, Users, When We Were Young
Suffering sells. The idea of the 'tortured artist' has been romanticised to the point where Robbie Williams is crying in documentaries, a spell in rehab has become a mandatory requirement for anyone in the public eye and every X-Factor applicant has a tragic back-story just waiting to be sprayed out through quivering lips right infront of the camera. Is this some kind of ploy to justify their unearned wealth and fame or is it simply attention-seeking arrogance?
Unlike the readers of Heat, I find this easy to ignore. The only problem I have with it is that it taints the genuine.
I hit you for the first time today. I didn't mean it, it just happened!
You wouldn't let me go to the phone, you wanted to make love and I did not. Now I know the distance between us.
Christ, we weren't even fighting I was just annoyed!
Silence and you started to cry.
"That really hurt!" you said.
Yeah? And you thought you knew me!
Listening to this album can feel like reading a diary. Fearghal McKee echoes Stuart Staples and Nick Cave in his low-pitch story-telling lyrical delivery, littering his songs with uncensored excerts from some unpleasant journal, all of which are rumoured to be true. It never feels forced or added for shock-value, nor is it ever uncomfortable.
The pinnacle of these confessional tales comes, fittingly, with the album's hidden track, 'A Natural'. Starting with the line "Today is not a good day for me, for today I found I was mad!" McKee talks his way through being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and his own self-analysis around it. It's glamourless, fascinating and amazing.
Musically, the album is intelligently assembled. Whether it's the walls of guitar noise or the unintrusive orchestration, it all fits. Nothing is out of place, nothing added that shouldn't be, nothing missing. The urgency towards the end of 'Users', for example, builds with a menacing pace that threatens to engulf McKee's rantings before slipping away into fading feedback. The riff from 'When We Were Young', the choppy strings at the end of 'Personality', it's all gold.
Everyone I know who has heard this album loves it, but it's a hidden gem. As drownedinsound.com said: "This album was easily overlooked in the 1995 post-Britpop Blur-Manics-Oasis-moronathon. The shame is, that this album beats all three of those hands down."
The Meadowlands (1/33)
The Meadowlands by The Wrens.
2003
Standout Tracks: Hopeless, Everyone Chooses Sides, Boys You Wont.
This album was recommended to me by a friend that I haven't spoken to in ages. If it wouldn't make me look like some kind of weirdo, I'd get in touch just to thank her for introducing me to this band and this album.
The overall feel of the record, to me, is scruffy indie-pop - with scruffy as a compliment. It's a collision of raw and polished guitar sounds, vocals from all four members of the band and unfamiliar song structures, yet the album is effortlessly cohesive. The songs flow naturally through their brilliant running order - a short, subtle opener leading into the escalating majesty of 'Happy' before dropping into the acoustic sing-along of 'She Sends Kisses', for example.
Sat in the middle of this album, 'Hopeless' and 'Faster Gun' are probably the catchiest of the tracks. The former being a standout with its spiralling guitar line and infectious melody. "Go thank yourself for nothing, it's really all you're good for!" A song this pretty shouldn't have such a barbed theme, but it works perfectly.
This album shines lyrically, with 'Everyone Chooses Sides' featuring some of my favourite lines: "I am the best seventeen year old ever!" reminding me of teenage arrogance and "I've walked away from more than you imagine and I sleep just fine!" being an air-punching statement of defiance. A statement whose impact is amplified by its delivery at the apex of the song. Another example being the almost contrived line "thought I had it all figured out but look who got it wrong!" which is not only saved, but promoted by its excellent delivery and the way it sits in 'Thirteen Grand'.
This is an indie-pop/rock album featuring acoustic guitars, pianos, orchestration and vocal harmonies. This is the kind of album that the likes of Starsailour dream of making and its existence both exposes and embarrasses them. Not forgetting of course that this album also rocks like a b*stard.
This is the genre at it's most perfect; infectious intelligent pop devoid of clichés, compromise and that soulless neatness. It's pop that isn't immediate and doesn't fade quickly, the rewards are earned from repeated listens.
This is The Wrens' third album, the band were dropped from their label after the first two for refusing to make more 'radio-friendly' music. Seven years later this album surfaced, described by the NME as "the ultimate rare treasure" and by The New York Times as a "nearly universally acclaimed disc of bright literate pop".
2003
Standout Tracks: Hopeless, Everyone Chooses Sides, Boys You Wont.
This album was recommended to me by a friend that I haven't spoken to in ages. If it wouldn't make me look like some kind of weirdo, I'd get in touch just to thank her for introducing me to this band and this album.
The overall feel of the record, to me, is scruffy indie-pop - with scruffy as a compliment. It's a collision of raw and polished guitar sounds, vocals from all four members of the band and unfamiliar song structures, yet the album is effortlessly cohesive. The songs flow naturally through their brilliant running order - a short, subtle opener leading into the escalating majesty of 'Happy' before dropping into the acoustic sing-along of 'She Sends Kisses', for example.
Sat in the middle of this album, 'Hopeless' and 'Faster Gun' are probably the catchiest of the tracks. The former being a standout with its spiralling guitar line and infectious melody. "Go thank yourself for nothing, it's really all you're good for!" A song this pretty shouldn't have such a barbed theme, but it works perfectly.
This album shines lyrically, with 'Everyone Chooses Sides' featuring some of my favourite lines: "I am the best seventeen year old ever!" reminding me of teenage arrogance and "I've walked away from more than you imagine and I sleep just fine!" being an air-punching statement of defiance. A statement whose impact is amplified by its delivery at the apex of the song. Another example being the almost contrived line "thought I had it all figured out but look who got it wrong!" which is not only saved, but promoted by its excellent delivery and the way it sits in 'Thirteen Grand'.
This is an indie-pop/rock album featuring acoustic guitars, pianos, orchestration and vocal harmonies. This is the kind of album that the likes of Starsailour dream of making and its existence both exposes and embarrasses them. Not forgetting of course that this album also rocks like a b*stard.
This is the genre at it's most perfect; infectious intelligent pop devoid of clichés, compromise and that soulless neatness. It's pop that isn't immediate and doesn't fade quickly, the rewards are earned from repeated listens.
This is The Wrens' third album, the band were dropped from their label after the first two for refusing to make more 'radio-friendly' music. Seven years later this album surfaced, described by the NME as "the ultimate rare treasure" and by The New York Times as a "nearly universally acclaimed disc of bright literate pop".
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