1st July - The Band's Music from Big Pink

Artist – Album: The Band – Music from Big Pink

Released:  1^st July 1968

Sounds Like: The mid-point!

Woahhh, we’re halfway there. Woooah-ohhh! Living on a prayer!

It’s July, which means we’re on to the seventh month of 2013, which in turn means that there’s only half a year left to go. Living on prayer might be a tad strong, but occasionally I have doubted the sanity of this epic enterprise, posts about albums released on that day, every day, for a full year. Still, 183 blogs have been posted, and 182 of the little blighters are all that remain. Half-well done me, but half-well done to you too dear reader. Half-well done. I couldn’t have half-done it without you. Give yourself (half) a pat on the back... Not easy is it?

In some ways it might have been more appropriate to have had Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet as today’s album, seen as I did kick off with one of its lyrics. But that didn’t come out until September in the UK, and a chorus featuring the line we’re three quarters of the way there doesn’t sound nearly as good. No, we’ll have to make do with one of the greatest albums of all instead. That’s all.

Music From Big Pink comes from that fascinating period of the late 60’s, when bands were still producing records of unmatched craft and invention, but the giddy psychedelia of the summer of love felt like a long time ago. The albums sums up the general mood perfectly, The songs have an element of melancholy, but are mostly just wistful for that bygone time of innocence and happiness. A lot of that comes from Richard Manuel’s wispy tenor vocals, that perpetually have an air of loneliness to them. Stunning harmonies ably back him up, whilst the band’s music itself is the pinnacle of melodic Americana.

There’s not a large number of hit material here but songs such as ‘Tears of Rage’, ‘To Kingdom Come’, ‘The Weight’, ‘This Wheel’s on Fire’ and ‘I Shall Be Released’ have long been recognised for their brilliance. If the remaining 182 are as good as this, I’d have no problem doing another year.

Albumaday... rating:  10/10

1.       Tears of Rage – 5:23

2.       To Kingdom Come – 3:22

3.       In a Station – 3:34

4.       Caledonia Mission – 2:59

5.       The Weight – 4:34

6.       We Can Talk – 3:06

7.       Long Black Veil – 3:06

8.       Chest Fever – 5:18

9.       Lonesome Suzie – 4:04

10.   This Wheel’s on Fire – 3:14

11.   I Shall Be Released – 3:19

Listen to ‘The Weight’:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9evTAZM-so

Also released on the 1^st July:

2003: Sufjan Stevens – Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lakes State

7th March - Neko Case's Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

Artist – Album: Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

Released:  7^th March 2006

Sounds Like: Our home and native land

Over the last decade or so, Canadian music has been enjoying something of a renaissance, a growing upsurge in the number of exciting, cool and influential bands taking up the mantle of Joni Mitchell and Neil Young and vastly at odds with the more recent purveyors of the Canuck sound such as Bryan Adams, Celine Dion and Alanis Morrisette. Whereas at the turn of the millennium it was Sum 41 and Avril Lavigne who lived it up C-country style, it was thankfully a different group of groups - Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene and Wolf Parade to name a few - who kept the ball rolling, eh.

Neko Case herself isn’t actually from Canada – she hails from Virginia – but she first rose to prominence in the Vancouver based supergroup The New Pornographers, certainly one of the best bands anywhere in the last 20 years. There she teamed up with an indie rock collective (also featuring the previously blogged aboot Destroyer aka Dan Bejar) who harnessed her songwriting skills and beguiling, distinctive vocals to create sparkling indie rock. Solo, the tempo is down and the songs are less hook-laden but her talent for pop craft and maximisation of her brilliant voice remain as good as ever.

Fox Confessor Brings the Flood is widely considered to be Case’s finest individual hour. It’s a consistently strong set speckled with a few outstanding gems. ‘Star Witness’ has a shimmering beauty, surprisingly being about witnessing a car crash. ‘John Saw That Number’ sounds ancient and olde worlde.  Worth a listen buddy. (I’m not your buddy, friend. He’s not your friend, guy. I’m not your guy, buddy...)

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.   Margaret vs. Pauline – 2:52

2.       Star Witness – 5:16

3.       Hold On, Hold On – 2:46

4.       A Widow’s Toast – 1:36

5.       That Teenage Feeling – 2:42

6.       Fox Confessor Brings the Flood – 2:42

7.       John Saw That Number – 4:06

8.       Dirty Knife – 3:18

9.       Lion’s Jaws – 2:28

10.     Maybe Sparrow – 2:37

11.     At Last – 1:35

12.     The Needle Has Landed – 3:45

Listen to ‘Star Witness’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi6keFpm-BY

Also released on the 7^th March:

1975: David Bowie – Young Americans

Also released on the 7^th March:

2006: Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Etiquette

  

23rd Feb - Grant Lee Buffalo's Fuzzy

Artist – Album: Grant Lee Buffalo - Fuzzy

Released:  23^rd February 1993   

Sounds Like: A drunken night in a smoke filled bar

I first struck upon this album nearly ten years ago when reading an article on the most underrated albums chosen by readers of the brilliant but now sadly extinct music, film & TV magazine The Word. To the esteemed contributors the idea of underrated wasn’t restricted to just albums that hadn’t sold well, or albums that hadn’t got the critical reception they deserved, or even albums nobody had heard about, but any combination of the above. Fuzzy sold reasonably well for a debut album, charting at #72 in the UK album charts, and the critics responded enthusiastically to its chamber Americana stylings.  The issue here is that the album’s all but forgotten about today. Which s a shame because people are missing out on one of the better albums of the early 90s.

The songs on Fuzzy are built around Grant Lee Phillips’ stellar vocals and evocative imagery, meaning that few of them prescribe to formulaic verse-chorus structures or standard lengths. They shamble on as Phillips’ words dictate and feel like an eloquent drunk’s rich, rambling stories. Opener ‘The Shining Hour’ is a bewitched hoedown and is followed by the dazzling tale of an alternative Romeo and Juliet in ‘Jupiter and Teardrop’. The beguiling ‘Fuzzy’ is enriched by Phillips’ howling chorus and ‘The Hook’ has, well, a great hook. The guys try to wake their country from its soporifc lull with songs like ‘Stars ‘N’ Stripes’ and ‘America Snoring’ but they’re not bogged down by political agenda. To be honest, there isn’t a bad track on the album. It may be considered underrated but, for me, it deserves bare ratings bruv.

Albumaday... rating: 7/10

1.       The Shining Hour – 3:53

2.       Jupiter and Teardrop – 5:57

3.       Fuzzy – 4:59

4.       Wish You Well – 3:30

5.       The Hook – 4:13

6.       Soft Wolf Tread – 2:52

7.       Stars ‘N’ Stripes – 4:43

8.       Dixie Drug Store – 5:07

9.       America Snoring – 3:39

10.   Grace – 6:15

11.   You Just Have To Be Crazy – 3:35

Listen to ‘Fuzzy’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I79n15-EleM

Also released on the 23^rd February:

2000: Air – The Virgin Suicides