4th December - Charlotte Gainsbourg's IRM

Artist – Album: Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM

Released: 4^th December 2009

Sounds Like: Death defying music

Charlotte Gainsbourg – daughter of the orgasming ‘Je t’aime… moi non plus’ couple Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin – is lucky to be alive, let alone recording fragile yet optimistic electropop with indie hero Beck. In September 2007, Gainsbourg was rushed to a Paris hospital where she underwent surgery for a cerebral haemorrhage, the result of a minor waterskiing accident several weeks earlier. IRM (named for the French acronym for a MRI scan) is the result, an examination of her experience of the near death experience, the subsequent fear that lead to her repeatedly requesting MRI scans even when given the all clear, but also a newfound love of life.

In a way, the story is better than the album itself. There are some clever tricks, such as utilising the sound of an MRI as an instrument on the title track, and when she’s in her element of breathy indie-folky-pop on ‘Heaven Can Wait’ (with Beck) and ‘Me and Jane Doe’ she really shines. However, it wasn’t Gainsbourg who wrote the songs but Beck, and with that in mind the album loses a little bit of its authenticity. Moreover, although the meaning behind the cathartic rock of ‘Greenwich Mean Time’ or the deathly soul of ‘Vanities’ isn’t hard to interpret, they do feel a little forced when Gainsbourg’s not being cast as the delicate but life-affirming chanteuse.

It is a good album and the fact that Gainsbourg is making an album at all is remarkable enough.

Albumaday... rating: 7/10

1.       Master’s Hands – 2:49

2.       IRM – 2:35

3.       Le Chat du Café des Artistes – 4:03

4.       In the End – 2:00

5.       Heaven Can Wait – 2:41

6.       Me and Jane Doe – 3:21

7.       Vanities – 3:38

8.       Time of the Assassins – 2:46

9.       Trick Pony – 2:53

10.   Greenwich Mean Time – 2:25

11.   Dandelion – 3:18

12.   Voyage – 4:05

13.   La Collectionneuse – 5:15

Listen to ‘Heaven Can Wait’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrWN0-MuK38

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

9th June - Dirty Projectors' Bitte Orca

Artist – Album: Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca

Released:  9^th June 2009

Sounds Like: Nothing else

About halfway through the first track on the Dirty Projectors’ second full length Bitte Orca, I realised I’d have a job even to ascribe a genre to its quirky, unique sound. It feels appropriate to prefix styles such as pop or indie or rock with words like art or experimental, but such descriptions pigeonhole this music, which in truth simply sounds different to anything else out there.

Their sound is built around the twin towers of their labyrinthine guitarwork and lead singer David Longreith’s ascending, howl. These are then supported variously by shifting time signatures, left-of-centre arrangements, looping rhythms and orchestral synths and strings. All of which sounds like a lot more hard work than it truthfully is.

Because, despite the group’s distinctive approach, the result is a sunny, light album, albeit one which is perhaps more fresh and crisp than that of its contemporaries by virtue of the rarefied slant. This is by far the best album by one of the most interesting bands currently out there.

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.       Cannibal Resource – 3:55

2.       Temecula Sunrise – 5:05

3.       The Bride – 2:49

4.       Stillness Is the Move – 5:14

5.       Two Doves – 3:42

6.       Useful Chamber – 6:28

7.       No Intention – 4:17

8.       Remade Horizon – 3:55

9.       Fluorescent Half Dome – 5:45

Listen to ‘No Intention’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAqmjOER-PU

Also released on the 9^th June:

1978: The Rolling Stones – Some Girls

Also released on the 9^th June:

2003: Radiohead – Hail to the Thief

16th April - Tom Waits' Mule Variations

Artist – Album: Tom Waits – Mule Variations

Released:  16^th April 1999

Sounds Like:  The piano has been drinking (and me)

This blog is clearly in danger of being posted on the wrong day, so I’m going to have to make it a quick one...

Few people can compare to Tom Waits in ways of acclaim vs sales. Sure, this project has mostly been populated by acts that have garnered a load of praise but have hardly set the world alight, but seriously. It seems that everyone, from discerning, gig-going youngsters to their red wine guzzling, dinner party attending parents, loves Tom Waits (check out ‘Big in Japan’ and ‘Eyeball Kid’ for the reasons why) and yet I don't actually know anyone who has bought one of his records. Mule Variations was by far his greatest hit, scoring a number 9 (he managed to break the top 10 people) in the UK charts.

I'll admit, I myself know Waits best for his role as the M-like Doc Heller character in early 00’s movie flop Mystery Men. As much as his wonderful gravelly voice was well picked up by the boom guys of Hollywood, this failed to transcribe into huge theatrical success, and so he was forced to rely on his rarely-below-exceptional music to see him through. I also knew him for a couple of his older songs – ‘The Piano Has Been Drinking’, a song not especially different to ‘Get Behind the Mule’, and ‘Downtown Train’, the song that would go on to be covered by Rod Stewart (but please don’t let that put you off) and best represented here by ‘Hold On’.

‘Lowside of the Road’, ‘Cold Water’, ‘Pony’ – these are all great songs that help to add to the legacy of Mr Waits. 'Picture in a Frame' is the most beautiful tune to be heard here; a delicate love song which reminded me of an old Randy Newman ballad called 'Marie'. The album never really disappoints, regularly contacting standard Waits’ touchstones, although it also surprised me that it’s relatively recent at only 14 years old. I guess that’s because it never really builds upon the general awesomeness of other, earlier albums from the guy.

In summation, this is a good Tom Waits album, nothing more. Which means that it’s a great album by anyone else's standards.

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.       Big in Japan – 4:05

2.       Lowside of the Road – 2:59

3.       Hold On – 5:33

4.       Get Behind the Mule – 6:52

5.       House Where Nobody Lives – 4:14

6.       Cold Water – 5:23

7.       Pony – 4:32

8.       What’s He Building? – 3:20

9.       Black Market Baby – 5:02

10.   Eyeball Kid – 4:25

11.   Picture in a Frame – 3:39

12.   Chocolate Jesus – 3:55

13.   Georgia Lee – 4:24

14.   Filipino Box Spring Hog – 3:09

15.   Take It with Me – 4:24

16.   Come on Up to the House – 4:36

Listen to ‘Picture in a Frame‘: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pwxD8quPCg 

Also released on the 16^th April:

1964: The Rolling Stones – The Rolling Stones

Also released on the 16^th April:

1996: Modest Mouse – This is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About

17th Feb - The Knife's Silent Shout

Artist – Album: The Knife – Silent Shout

Released:  17^th February 2006    

Sounds Like: Eleven shards of ice

‘Silent Shout’, this album’s title track and curtain raiser, is a builder. At first the listener is treated simply to the thudding bass line, the menacing frozen heartbeat of the tune. At the end of four bars two snatches of the symbol, and the light brushes shuffle in. Another two bars and the bare bass drum is introduced. A short while later the wonderful syncopated synth lead assumes control, whirling about busily like snowflakes in a blizzard. The murky vocals aren’t introduced until more than a minute has elapsed, by which point you’re already hooked. It’s an otherworldly, restrained song, containing danceable beats and effects that you could never imagine being played at your nightclub due to its chilly atmosphere. And it’s the perfect set up for the rest of this frosty collection.

Although there are some more temperate moments – fourth single ‘We Share Our Mothers’ is too lively and busy to not melt some of the ice – these are far outnumbered by the glacial sounds of the likes of ‘The Captain’, ‘Marble House’ and ‘Still Light’. Karin Dreijer’s voice is so adjusted that it no longer sounds human, more like another instrument for the duo to play with to unsettle you.

You probably won’t be surprised to hear me say that the record is not at first easy to warm to. But there’s a reason that it was so highly acclaimed on its release, and was selected by most critics for their end of year (and even end of decade) lists. It might be cold, but it’s also sublimely cool.

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.       Silent Shout – 4:53

2.       Neverland – 3:38

3.       The Captain – 6:08

4.       We Share Our Mothers’ Health – 4:11

5.       Na Na Na – 2:27

6.       Marble House – 5:18

7.       Like a Pen – 6:13

8.       From Off to On – 3:58

9.       Forest Families – 4:08

10.   One Hit – 4:27

11.   Still Light – 3:15

Listen to ‘Marble House’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=841r2p_dsJE

Also released on the 17^th February:

2004: Chromeo – She’s In Control

Also released on the 17^th February:

2009: Beirut – March of the Zapatec

6th Jan - Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion

Artist – Album: Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

Released: 6^th January 2009

Sounds Like: Stumbling upon some sort of crazy Technicolor dream party

Animal Collective have been making music since the turn of the millennium, and there’s still little else out there that sounds like them. Generally their releases are greeted with phrases like ‘experimental’ and ‘neo-this’ or ‘freak-that’, and, though warm, the reviews can quite often be intimidating, like taking on the Egg Heads in a pub quiz. Try not to be scared by the pompous journalistic jargon though, as their records are consistently brilliant and, for the most part, easily accessible. And - great news! - Merriweather Post Pavilion is arguably the best of the lot.

What makes it so good is hard to describe. The album’s more about atmosphere and texture than normal elements, which is great to listen to but a bitch to blog about. I could say that the playful nature and psychedelic feel brings to mind Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland channelled through multiple synths. But that might be a bit weird. Anyway, each track glides seamlessly in to the next, giving a beautifully well rounded album.

Stand out tracks include ‘Summertime Clothes’, ‘Brother Sport, and the much-lauded ‘My Girls’. Like Sigur Ros and their signature tune ‘Hoppipolla’ before them, there was a risk that ‘My Girls’ might become AC’s only known song, a sort of non-hit wonder, and, dear God no, the BBC’s go-to-song for absolutely everything, but they appear to have escaped this dire fate unscathed. Maybe we have the pompous journalists to thank for that.

Albumaday... rating:   9/10

1.       In the Flowers – 5:22

2.       My Girls – 5:41

3.       Also Frightened – 5:14

4.       Summertime Clothes – 4:30

5.       Daily Routine – 5:46

6.       Bluish – 5:14

7.       Guys Eyes – 4:31

8.       Taste – 3:53

9.       Lion in a Coma – 4:12

10.   No More Runnin’ – 4:23

11.   Brother Sport – 5:59

Listen to ‘My Girls’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zol2MJf6XNE