1994. 10. 'let love in' - nick cave and the bad seeds

bought this album in the late spring of 1994 when it came out -- at the old alternative records in tampa, where one of the boys who used to work there told me that if i didn't like the album, i could bring it back and get 5 different records on his dime... i laughed -- he knew me too well... of course i was going to love this record...

i've never understood why more people who like erudite, clever, intellectual songs don't like nick cave more than they appear to do.  i understand his voice is a bit unique -- but i always feel like i can find 10 people who like tom waits for every one i find who gives a damn about nick cave.  weird -- but this album is definitely the place to start.  of all of his albums, it's clearly, clearly the most accessible -- the cleanest, the least quirky (lyrics to 'jangling jack' and 'red right hand' be damned), the most 'pure' nick cave... some of the earlier albums can be difficult (like 'from her to eternity', but it's an album you must listen to for the title track alone), and some of the later ones are just outright odd ('nocturama', that's you i'm talking about)... if someone came to me tomorrow and wanted to know which 3 nick cave albums to start with -- excluding the birthday party (a friend of mine loves peter murphy but really dislikes bauhaus -- i'm a bit like that with the birthday party and nick cave, but i think i can stomach more of the birthday party than she can bauhaus) and grinderman and all of the oddball one offs like duets with die haut, etc. -- i think i'd have to go with:

3.  'the good son'
2.  'abattoir blues/lyre of orpheus'
1.  'let love in'

for the past 18 years, i've listened to this album on a fairly regular basis, so no alarms and no surprises, so to speak, listening to it today... just much, much respect for the learning and lyricism of a true artist who SHOULD be much, much more appreciated than he is...

1993. 10. 'orbital 2' - orbital

i had to go into the way-back machine for this one... not on spotify, not on either of my iPods -- but still squirrelled safely away in the hard copy archive... not sure i'd listened to this CD in 15 years -- certainly had been a while... i'll be putting it on my iPod soon enough, because i'm glad i dragged it out of deep sleep... it really did take me back -- not only to going out dancing while i was a student, but just to that whole time in general... i remember people referring to this stuff as ambient long before the word electronica entered the english language... i really enjoyed this type of techno to the other, harder techno that also was around at the time... i wanted my music to sound lush and trippy and layered for a very, very long time -- and this does it... i'm not sure whether or not "the kids" still listen to dance music/electronica that sounds like this -- i hear a lot of EBM (oontz, oontz, oontz) around, but i don't club regularly enough anymore to know if this kind of atmospheric, "after party" music is even still out there...

also not entirely sure how popular this album was in the US -- in the UK, it was enormously popular, and so was its follow up 'snivilization'... i was already spending school time in the states but holiday time almost entirely in the UK by the time this album came out... i remember 'halcyon + on + on' being on a sampler i picked up for 99p at vinyl exchange in manchester -- i think it must have been an ffrr label sampler, because i remember going back to buy this CD and 'morning dove white' by one dove at the same time... i only really remember this kind of music hitting anything like the mainstream in the US after 'trainspotting' came out and everyone was listening to underworld because of 'born slippy'...

if you need something to set a mood that's a little bit relaxed but still precise, cool and sophisticated, this really is the album for you... can't wait to get it on my iPod -- we've been apart for WAY too long...

1992. 10. 'southern harmony and musical companion' - black crowes

DISCLOSURES:

1.  I know every word to every song on this album.
2.  I bought this CD in limited edition gatefold packaging on the day it came out in may of 1992.
3.  I have defended myself multiple times to many people over the years for not only just my love of this album, but of this band.
4.  I still have the same CD of this album that I bought in 1992, meaning it's crossed the atlantic a few times to get into the office here in fort lauderdale.
5.  I proudly saw The Black Crowes for the first time in Tampa in 1991.  I've since seen them at least 5 other times.  One of these included driving in my '86 Mustang down to Gainesville in early 1993 to see them support this album during the High as the Moon tour at the O Dome.  I had to get back to Tallahassee immediately after because I had an 8am Latin lecture the next morning.
6.  My husband may just love this band more than I do.  One of my lord JCE's favourite albums ever ever ever is "Amorica", the follow up to this one.
7.  My natural singing inflection is with a Southern accent, possibly because I'm a redneck from central Florida.  What this means is that various songs from this album pop up while I'm singing in the shower, especially 'Sometimes Salvation' and 'Hotel Illness'.
8.  Chris and Rich Robinson are two of the very few "rock and roll" people I'd like to meet.  Possibly for some B&B and a little weed, just like in 'Bad Luck Blue Eyes Goodbye'.

So you know what I'm going to say about this album -- I'd recommend it to just about anyone who has ever liked a Rolling Stones or Faces or Jeff Beck Group or Allman Brothers song.  When the Crowes are good, they're very good... Most people just dropped off after this album, but after a bad period which seemed to coincide with Chris Robinson marrying Kate Hudson, the new stuff the boys have been doing has been just wonderful to hear.  'Warpaint' from a couple of years ago is really worth your time.  So, yeah, I love this album.  No shame, no excuses, no regrets -- Hammond organ, electric piano, slide guitar, everything that makes me feel like an album is worth my time.  Since this one's been around the world a couple of times with me, it sure as hell wouldn't mind coming to a desert island with me, if asked.

1991.10. 'never loved elvis' - the wonder stuff

a word of disclaimer here.  some of these reviews/thoughts as i go through this series are not going to be impartial.  well, none of them is, but whatever.  i love the stuffies -- always have and, listening again to 'never loved elvis' today, always will.  i still have the same bloody crush i had on miles hunt 20 years ago -- in that plaid suit singing 'size of a cow' on top of the pops?  my heart skips a beat... and i wish a few other lyricists would have his audacity -- yes, some of the lyrics are hateful and spiteful, but you know?  i find life's a bit hateful and spiteful.  and, yes, every interview with him could be a trial -- self-belief plus.  but i like an englishman with a little sarcasm and swagger, so it worked for me.  so did the violins and the accordion.

not all of the songs feel fresh, to borrow a feminine phrase.  yes, 'donation', while lyrically a scream, has that waka-waka guitar that populated so many pre-britpop songs of the early 90s (calling all soup dragons)... and that open tuned guitar sent through the tremolo pedal pops up now and again.  but really, if you wondered what british pop sounded like before blur and oasis (yes, kids, there was such a time), this is it...

remember when carter usm had that lyric about the grebos, the crusties, and the goths on 'only living boy in new cross'?  totally justified my 100% addiction to grebo music -- and the stuffies were right there.  no, i wasn't from birmingham.  but i'd been there.  and that's close enough for me.

ps -- if you do listen to 'never loved elvis', listed to 'the eight legged groove machine' (their first proper album) as well.  you won't be sorry!

1990.10. 'world clique' - deee-lite

first, and let me be clear, this album is bad.  bad bad.  bad then, bad now.  had a guy jumped in the middle of 95 dressed in day-glo, smelling of vicks, wearing ironic sunglasses and screaming ACEEEEEED!, i would not have been surprised.  just mildly annoyed.

truly, there's a reason that deee-lite fell off the face of the planet in 1991.  it's because how much of a career can you sustain on every cliche in the book.  infernal piano loops.  annoying horn samples.  predictable bass.  synthesised sounds.  and to top it all off, faux french.  yeah, 1990, hell of a time and place, i tell you.  la da di la di da.

and, of course, it's yet another example of the NME's i hate america/i love america schizophrenia (cf. 'give out but don't give up', primal scream, 1994)... every single thing about this album is the mass consumption (perhaps putting the 'lite' in 'deee-lite') of everything a teenage NME listener thought they knew about detroit acid house.  because none of us was there.  and that's the scout's honest truth.  but i'll give it one tiny piece of credit -- i *did* like the shoes lady miss kier wore in the 'groove is in the heart' video... so i bought a pair of fluevog platforms from eccentricities in 1990... thanks, deee-lite -- those shoes looked great with my orange day-glo top and spirograph inspired stretch pants... ACEEEEEEEEED!

1988.10. 'surfer rosa' - pixies

alright, I'll admit it -- I've never been a crazy pixies fan...  there are days i can handle frank black yelling at me, there are days i can't... my lord jce, however, really is a quite (for him) obsessive pixies fan -- someone who actually thinks it's insanely amusing for frank black to yell at him... so i decided to listen to this album with him -- so perhaps i could figure out why i was so atypical of my generation/unforgivably uncool and couldn't just get with the pixies program already... along the way he reminded me that 'where is my mind?' ends the "greatest movie ever" -- to the lord, this would be "fight club"... why the man just really doesn't like chuck palahniuk is beyond me... and, yeah, i've decided that the things that annoy me about the pixies still annoy me -- they're fine in the background for me, or with the odd song here or there, but on the whole, just not me... when you hear people bloody yelling for no reason at you all day, listening to a short, balding fat man do the same, it's just not worth it... and it reminds me a bit of the sketch on 'extras' where david bowie sings about the sad little fat man to ricky gervais...

so does it stand up?  should it have been in the top 10?  of course... my nirvana rant is coming later, but suffice it to say for now that it would take someone totally tone deaf and without any activity in the frontal cortex to not recognise the screamingly (pun intended) obvious -- quiet/loud/quiet was NOT some evidence of the genius of kurt cobain... it was ripped straight off of this album without shame... is that a bad thing?  no, it's a rock music thing -- so keep your purity rings to yourselves, because everyone's been ripping everyone else off since the dawn of time... it also, shockingly, doesn't sound particularly dated to me -- i listen to the "indie" station (whatever that means -- i have no other descriptor) riding into work and back every day, and nothing on here would sound out of place on that station... now, that's not to say that i wouldn't say something like, 'shut the bloody fuck up, you screaming, yelling prick' at the radio and turn it over... don't get me wrong... but i get why it's important... it is important -- but i still don't like it... sorry -- i'll just take my place up at the head of the terminally uncool line and be happy with it...

1987.10. 'actually' - pet shop boys

so looking at the whole list for 1987, i'm already thinking that with 25 years of hindsight, i'd probably move some of the albums that came in 11-60 up into the top 10... as much as it pains me, because i've just never gotten the allure of the beastie boys, 'licensed to ill' probably was influential and transcendent enough to be top 10.  so certainly was 'document' -- and for me, 'darklands'...  as time has gone on, as much as i love listening to 'zen arcade', it's not the most accessible husker du album -- and maybe 'warehouse:  songs and stories' was... 


the list has some great forgotten LPs as well -- 'tallulah' by the go-betweens, 'ragin' full on' by firehose, and 'babble' by that petrol emotion... and there's some that maybe sounded that good then, but didn't stand up... 'babylon and on' wouldn't make my top 50 squeeze albums (if they had 50, and even though i love 'hourglass' as a song)... was schoolly d ever widely relevant (though, admittedly, rap isn't my genre and i'm sure someone will correct me by telling me he invented gangsta rap -- heard it before, still not buying it)... and i'm sure some got lost -- 'appetite for destruction' is nowhere to be found, which surprises me not one iota where the NME is concerned... 'kick' is missing too -- i guess the inclusion of the triffids and the go-betweens on the list was enough from australia... i'd also argue for 'the lion and the cobra' and 'introducing the hardline according to terence trent d'arby' -- but they're missing too... which shows us what we already knew -- sometimes, we need some distance in time to distill the essence...


but this post is really supposed to be about 'actually', the number 10 best album of 1987 according to the NME on, roughly, 1 january 1988... and there's a lot that's good here -- the stuff we all love about the pet shop boys... snarky lyrics -- check... wry observation -- check... but like so much from way back then, there's a lot of synthesizer filler... the album tracks sound like 1987 -- and some of the lyrics that would have been so cutting at the time just sound like little time capsules of a time i'm not sure ever really existed (perhaps only in neil tennant's mind?)... i think the biggest disservice i've done this album is own and repeatedly listen to 'discography' over the years -- the best songs on this album, even without the influence  of 'discography', are still 'what have i done to deserve this?', 'it's a sin' and 'rent'... 'shopping' is just kind of annoying now to me -- too overt... 'it couldn't happen here' is just WAY too overwrought for me not to hit the skip button -- though not so underwhelming that i'd walk to the record player and lift the arm to get the needle in the next groove... which, i suppose, is how the album still succeeds for me -- i owned this vinyl album in a day when the sounds coming off the vinyl through my tinny, tiny speakers seemed to defy all the logic of a 12/13 year old's expectations... in tampa, florida, i could close my eyes and picture a make believe london where beautiful people in patent leather red stilettos and black mini skirts strutted down the streets shopping, talking, smoking, drinking and doing all of those other things only adults could get to... and in that way, i can still close my eyes at some points in this album, and go back to a time way back there, where people DID where red patent leather stilettos and black mini skirts but also read 'count of monte cristo' for the first time... and started on their first french lessons... and started learning that subtle difference was as important as overt difference...   and, i suppose in a proustian kind of way, that's all you can ask from someone else's art... transportation can mean many things, after all...