5th December - The Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed

Artist – Album: The Rolling Stones – Let It Bleed

Released: 5^th December 1969

Sounds Like: Whatever the Beatles can do…

Let It Bleed was the last Stones album to feature the doomed Brian Jones, the first member of the infamous “27 club” (soon to be joined by Joplin, Hendrix and Morrisson) and one of the most talented musicians in pop history. The Rolling Stones were his band – he had picked the team and led them out, chosen their identity and played lead guitar – but by the late Sixties drug and mental problems had meant that he was increasingly on the periphery. He appeared on only two tracks here (autoharp on ‘You Got the Silver’, and percussion on ‘Midnight Rambler’) and a little like Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones seemed to be getting on just fine without their estranged icon.

In fact, Let It Bleed was right in the middle of a stunning succession of albums for the group; beginning with the previous year’s Beggar’s Banquet and concluding with Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street. Each of these greats were shining examples of the sum being more than the parts, and when the parts include ‘Gimme Shelter’ and ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ that really is saying something.

In the olden days people would practice bloodletting, whereby medicians would cut the patient to let out small quantities of blood to cure or prevent illness and disease. It must have been tough, but the band knew they had to cut Jones loose; that for the Rolling Stones to prosper, they had to let it bleed.

Albumaday... rating: 10/10

1.       Gimme Shelter – 4:30

2.       Love in Vain – 4:19

3.       Country Honk – 3:07

4.       Live with Me – 3:33

5.       Let It Bleed – 5:28

6.       Midnight Rambler – 6:52

7.       You Got the Silver – 2:50

8.       Monkey Man – 4:12

9.       You Can’t Always Get What You Want – 7:28

Listen to ‘Monkey Man’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNY8eYmzdH4

25th March - Raphael Saadiq's Stone Rollin'

Artist – Album: Raphael Saadiq – Stone Rollin’

Released:  25^th March 2011         

Sounds Like: Going back

Ever wondered what it would sound like if your favourite Motown artists (except for Boys II Men, we’ll have none of that nonsense here) were whisked off their sparkly platform shoes and deposited into today’s music scene? You haven’t? Oh. Well, are you wondering it now that I’ve said it? Still no? Oh. Well. Anyway. This is what you would get. So...

Listening to the album is like listening to a Soulwax/2manydjs’ album and playing guess-where-the-multitude-of-samples-have-come-from - you can hear a little bit Sly & the Family Stone here, a little bit of Stevie Wonder there, a pinch of the Temptations here, a dash of Prince there. The songs here aren’t rehashed old recordings though; they’re not samples, they’re just excellent original tracks that happen to wear their creator’s influences prominently on their sleeves.

It also seems clear to me that this album has legs. I’d never listened to it before today and, to be honest, I’d never even heard of Raphael Saadiq. But the exuberant bursts of R&B and charismatic slices of soul quickly gripped me and I’m still finding it refreshing and new having listened to it all day. Songs that deserve particular mention are the peppy first three ‘Heart Attack’, ‘Go to Hell’ and ‘Radio’, the funky summer soul of ‘Just Don’t’ and atmospheric closer ‘The Answer’. Saadiq doesn’t have a great powerful voice like Levi Roots or Stevie Wonder, and it’s not as silky smooth as Marvin Gaye’s or Smokey Robinson’s, but it does do a decent turn at each style, and, after such a long time, it’s just great to hear someone giving it a go.

So, seriously, are you still not curious about what this review and update of the old Motown sound is like? There’s just no convincing some people...

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.       Heart Attack – 3:03

2.       Go to Hell – 4:20

3.       Radio – 3:22

4.       Over You – 2:31

5.       Stone Rollin’ – 3:37

6.       Day Dreams – 3:20

7.       Movin’ Down the Line – 4:25

8.       Just Don’t – 5:17

9.       Good Man – 3:46

10.   The Answer – 9:30

Listen to ‘Just Don’t’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtfOQ4thwJQ

Also released on the 25^th March:

1997: The Notorious B.I.G – Life After Death

Also released on the 25^th March:

2008: Elf Power – In a Cave

8th Feb - Gil Scott-Heron's I'm New Here

Artist – Album: Gil Scott-Heron – I’m New Here

Released:  8^th February 2010      

Sounds Like: Awesomeness. Just awesome.

Ok, so i’ve just been out for a few drinks and I’m hoping to go out for a few more so, honestly, I can’t be bothered writing a comprehensive review...

This was a refreshingly brilliant album though. The bookending tracks ‘On Coming from a Broken Home’ are two parts of the same fabulous, spoken word poem about his upbringing, set around a soothing Kanye West sample (‘Flashing Lights’, for those that are interested).

Elsewhere: ‘Me and the Devil’ – good; ‘Your Soul and Mine’ – good; ‘I’m New Here’ – gooooooood.

In conclusion (haha, yes I’m done already!), this is an extraordinary album that takes in trip hop and electronica influences and uses them to update blues sounds. It’s a great album from the erstwhile jazz poet and the last before he died, and certainly one that deserves more effort than I’m giving it...

Albumaday... rating: 9/10

1.       On Coming from a Broken Home (Part 1) – 2:20

2.       Me and the Devil – 3:33

3.       I’m New Here – 3:33

4.       Your Soul and Mine – 2:02

5.       Parents (Interlude) – 0:18

6.       I’ll Take Care of You – 2:58

7.       Being Blessed (Interlude) – 0:12

8.       Where Did the Night Go – 1:14

9.       I Was Guided (Interlude) – 0:14

10.   New York Is Killing Me – 4:29

11.   Certain Things (Interlude) – 0:08

12.   Running – 2:00

13.   The Crutch – 2:44

14.   I’ve Been Me (Interlude) – 0:16

15.   On Coming from a Broken Home (Part 2) – 2:15

Listen to ‘I’m New Here’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV_astp3BjM

Also released on the 8^th February:

1977: Television – Marquee Moon

Also released on the 8^th February:

2000: Ghostface Killah – Supreme Clientele

Also released on the 8^th February:

2005: Andrew Bird – Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs