6th November - Joanna Newsom's Ys

Artist – Album: Joanna Newsom - Ys

Released: 6^th November 2006

Sounds Like: A day too late

Fancy me doing a blog on the 5^th of November and not mentioning Bonfire Night! What was I thinking??

For those of you that aren’t from these fair (rainy) isles and don’t know what Bonfire Night is – that’s right guys, I have had readers from some pretty exotic locales: Sri Lanka, the Philippines and, er, Guernsey – it’s an annual celebration with fireworks and massive bonfires, where we celebrate a failed attempt to blow up parliament 400 years ago. We celebrate by burning a big straw effigy of one of the conspirators, Guy Fawkes (wait, are we practicing voodoo?!), braving the rain and the snow and the cold, and eating strange things like toffee apples and a mysterious cake-like substance named parkin.  We British do some strange things eh? 

Then again, you Yanks gave the world a strange enough thing of your own in Joanna Newsom. Her second album Ys is a sprawling folk album – released in the 21^st century but belonging to the 12^th – where ancient, ornate fairy tales are weaved around an emphatically plucked harp and Newsom’s distinctive, gambolling voice. Possibly the most grounded of the five epic tracks is opener ‘Emily’, a tribute to her sister that clocks in at only 12 minutes long.

The thing is, Ys is great but it is weird. Joanna Newsom is weird. Van Dyke Parks (who contributed the orchestra arrangements, and was also responsible for the Beach Boys’ symphonies on Smile) is weird. Combine the two, and you’re bound to get fireworks. Weird fireworks. There’s no point pretending that it’s not. But, like the celebration of Bonfire Night that we have enjoyed for centuries, it’s traditional and unique, earthly, storied and special, and it has the rare power to illuminate your evening.

Albumaday... rating: 7/10

1.       Emily – 12:07

2.       Monkey & Bear – 9:29

3.       Sawdust & Diamonds – 9:54

4.       Only Skin – 16:53

5.       Cosmia – 7:15

Listen to ‘Emily’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak8S8FN3ycA

27th June - The Mothers of Invention's Freak Out!

Artist – Album: The Mothers of Invention – Freak Out!

Released:  27^th June 1966

Sounds Like: I want to get freaky with you

The Mothers of Invention, Frank Zappa’s band, even did debut albums differently, smashing down their mission statement on not one but two discs of delightful doolalliness.

Disc one is a  pop album of sorts, distilling all the discernible elements of popular music at the time and churning out a sound that was both accessible and unique at the same time. As well as the obvious titular pastiches on the likes of ‘Go Cry on Somebody Else’s Shoulder’ and ‘I’m Not Satisfied’, whole genres are parodied in the comical turns of doo wop or the xylophone-tastic beat pop of ‘Wowie Zowie’ (A writer friend described thusly – whimsical words married with stand-alone rhythms which may well have served as an unsung template for the Pixies. Smart eh?). Zappa wasn’t just a clown though, and lyrically he delivers masterful turns at songs of alienation, love and loss and avante-garde irony. As silly as ditties such as ‘Wowie Zowie’ and ‘You Didn’t Try to Call Me’ are, ‘How Could I Be Such a Fool’ and ‘Anyway the Wind Blows’ (written when Zappa was considering divorcing his first wife) are truly devastating. Meanwhile, tunes such as ‘Hungry Freaks, Daddy’ and ‘You’re Probably Wondering Why I’m Here’ flag up the fact that the band isn’t dealing in your standard pop rock, and that their music is aimed at “those who aren't afraid to say what's on their minds (The left-behinds of the Great Society)”.

Disc two is SUPER-trippy and may be best indulged after copious volumes of drugs. Still, ‘Trouble Every Day’ is brilliant blues rock set against an amazingly smart retort against racism, and on ‘Help, I’m a Rock’, well, it’s just fun to sing “help, i’m a rock” repeatedly.

It’s brilliant. In fact you might say that “just the other day I got so shook up I had a flash in the afternoon”.

Albumaday... rating:   10/10

1.       Hungry Freaks, Daddy – 3:32

2.       I Ain’t Got No Heart – 2:34

3.       Who Are the Brain Police? – 3:25

4.       Go Cry on Somebody Else’s Shoulder – 3:43

5.       Motherly Love – 2:50

6.       How Could I Be Such a Fool? – 2:16

7.       Wowie Zowie – 2:55

8.       You Didn’t Try to Call Me – 3:21

9.       Any Way the Wind Blows – 2:55

10.   I’m Not Satisfied – 2:41

11.   You’re Probably Wondering Why I’m Here – 3:41

12.   Trouble Every Day – 5:53

13.   Help, I’m a Rock (Suite in Three Movements) – 8:37

14.   The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet (Unfinished Ballet in Two Tableaux) – 12:22

Listen to ‘You Didn’t Try to Call Me ’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tJ6sUxMQ5M

Also released on the 27^th June:

2005: Hayseed Dixie – A Hot Piece of Grass

12th March - The Velvet Underground's The Velvet Underground & Nico

Artist – Album: The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground & Nico

Released:  12^th March 1967         

Sounds Like: Top banana

The Velvet Underground & Nico cover art consists of a white background and a large yellow banana. I’ve read elsewhere that this yellow herb is the perfect symbol of what is represented within, decadent and sexual. You can run with that if you want but I’m not convinced. Admittedly they can be quite phallic, although I’m not sure about decadent – I have one for my breakfast every morning and I’m hardly a millionaire (yet). But I can’t help but just think that it’s a banana. It is just a banana. It was pop art genius Andy Warhol’s contribution to the sleeve art and I’m sure that this is what lends it some of it’s intrigue, but had his world famous painting of a soup can been on another album, I’m sure I would still be questioning it’s validity. Whatever the reason however, I can’t deny that this is one of the most iconic albums of all time.

Most of that success is of course nothing to do with Mr Warhol’s doodles, as the music contained within was an incredibly influential bout of art rock, made palatable by the groups prodigious musicality and Lou Reed’s bizarre tales of the strange characters that orbited around Warhol. ‘Sunday Morning’ is about a paranoid comedown, hidden behind a lullaby-like glockenspiel. In ‘I’m Waiting for the Man’ the man in question is the drug dealer. ‘Venus in Furs’ is about fetishes. ‘Femme Fatale’ about maneaters. ‘Heroin’ about heroin (duh). This is fascinating, surreal stuff for the majority of us.

The music is different too. Back in 1967, most records followed pretty firm stylistic lines; genres weren’t crossed too regularly. But if we go back over those aforementioned tracks we get: lullaby, garage rock, baroque pop, pop rock, experimental rock (emphasize mental).  The result is one of the greatest albums of all time, one which was bought by few but influenced many, and one which still sounds amazing today. An album I think could be represented by something better than a banana.

Albumaday... rating: 10/10

1.       Sunday Morning – 2:54

2.       I’m Waiting for the Man – 4:39

3.       Femme Fatale – 2:38

4.       Venus in Furs – 5:12

5.       Run Run Run – 4:22

6.       All Tomorrow’s Parties – 6:00

7.       Heroin – 7:12

8.       There She Goes Again – 2:41

9.       I’ll Be Your Mirror – 2:14

10.   The Black Angel’s Death Song – 3:11

11.   European Son – 7:46

Listen to ‘I’m Waiting for the Man’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOmZimH00oo

Also released on the 12^th March:

1991: R.E.M – Out of Time

Also released on the 12^th March:

2001: Daft Punk – Discovery

Also released on the 12^th March:

2007: LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver