18th December - The Jackon 5's Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5

Artist – Album: The Jackson 5 – Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5

Released: 18^th December 1969

Sounds Like: Funk soul brothers

You, like me, might have expected Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5 to be a party album, filled with lots of bubblegum soul and pop fluff and not much else of note. After all, in 1969 Diana Ross was still a Supreme and the only tunes by the Jacksons from the era that spring to mind are the delicious, disposable singles ‘I Want You Back’ and ‘ABC’.

However, it doesn’t take long for the album to stomp all over that idea with a pair of massive platform shoes, which is quite incredible considering it begins with a cover of Disney song. ‘Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah’ is a funky, slinky number taken straight from the Sly Stone school of pop music. The albums only single, the impossibly brilliant ‘I Want You Back’, doesn’t take long to make an appearance, but it’s exuberant blend of soul and pop is the exception rather than the rule. The rest of the album sounds like a really talented attempt at Singstar: The Funk Edition (note to self: sell the idea of Singstar: The Funk Edition to Singstar). There’s covers of Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops and Sly & the Family Stone classics, and although none of them outshine the dazzling originals, they’re all decent efforts.

Little Michael would obviously go on to bigger andbetter things but it’s arguable whether the rest of the Jackson 5 ever topped this debut. That’s not an indictment on their Michael-less careers but an endorsement of this little record.

Albumaday... rating: 7/10

1.       Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah – 3:18

2.       Nobody – 2:54

3.       I Want You Back – 3:04

4.       Can You Remember – 3:10

5.       Standing in the Shadows of Love – 4:06

6.       You’ve Changed – 3:16

7.       My Cherie Amour – 3:44

8.       Who’s Lovin’ You – 4:06

9.       Chained – 2:54

10.   (I Know) I’m Losing You – 2:16

11.   Stand! – 2:30

12.   Born to Love You – 2:38

 
Listen to ‘I Want You Back’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3Q80mk7bxE

3rd December - The Who's My Generation

Artist – Album: The Who – My Generation

Released: 3^rd December 1966

Sounds Like: Suitable for all generations

For those that are more familiar with the bloated excesses of The Who’s 70’s efforts such as rock-opera Tommy and the behemoth Who’s Next, My Generation comes across as incredibly trim. The fact that only one track reaches the four minute mark suggests a collection that is at once both lean and geared up. Indeed, that incredible title track is as wiry and tough as music got in the Sixties, as it stutters and bounces like a bog-eyed, pogoing amphetamine addict. But that only tells half the story, as one of the real treats of listening to their debut is that it leaves little clue as to what genre they would come to rest on – would it be the proto-punk of ‘My Generation’, the soul-tinged “Maximum R&B” of ‘Please, Please, Please’ or the glistening power-pop of ‘The Kids Are Alright’? In the end, the group cemented their legend on anthemic dad rock and windmilled power chords, but at this point in their career it seemed that they could have done anything

Albumaday... rating: 9/10

1.       Out in the Street – 2:31

2.       I Don’t Mind – 2:36

3.       The Good’s Gone – 4:02

4.       La-La-La-Lies – 2:17

5.       Much Too Much – 2:47

6.       My Generation – 3:18

7.       The Kids Are Alright – 3:04

8.       Please, Please, Please – 2:45

9.       It’s Not True – 2:31

10.   I’m a Man – 3:21

11.   A Legal Matter – 2:48

12.   The Ox – 3:50

Listen to ‘The Kids Are Alright’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afam2nIae4o

Also released on the 3^rd December:

1965: The Beatles – Rubber Soul

30th November - Michael Jackson's Thriller

Artist – Album: Michael Jackson - Thriller

Released: 30^th November 1982

Sounds Like: 65 million Thriller fans can’t be wrong

 
What can I tell you about Michael Jackson’s Thriller that you don’t already know? Chances are: nothing. The best selling album of all time, it has worldwide sales estimated at between 51 and 65 million. In the UK, it has sold 4.3 million copies, which means that one in every 6 households owns the album. In the US, it’s even more impressive: 29 million copies sold, one in every 4 homes proudly displaying Michael Jackson’s sculptured façade. Seven of its nine tracks were top ten hit singles, with only the gentle ballad ‘The Lady in My Life’ and the fantastic, funky ‘Baby Be Mine’ saved as album tracks. I’ve read some reviews that described it as hits-plus-filler but if 78% of the songs were singles that’s hardly going to be a sticking point. Thriller was a phenomenon, a trailblazer, a once-in-a-lifetime album.
 
It’s also very good, although that can sometimes get lost amidst the numbers. Almost all the tracks are classic MJ: smooth, polished blends of soul, motown and rock. There’s something for everyone, from the monster hits of ‘Thriller’, ‘Beat It’ and the untouchable ‘Billie Jean’, to the lesser-known-though-no-less-awesome ‘Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’’, ‘Human Nature’ and ‘P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)’. The one anomaly is the god-awful duet with Paul McCartney ‘The Girl is Mine’, a schmaltzy jingle describing a “doggone girl” who is inexplicably attracted to both Wacko and Macca. If you manage to make it through the first 3 and a half minutes of torture you are rewarded with spoken dialogue between the two leading men, bad enough to make suicide seem the only sane way out.
 
Still, otherwise it is very good record. But then you probably already knew that.
 
Albumaday... rating: 9/10
 

1.       Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ – 6:03

2.       Baby Be Mine – 4:20

3.       The Girl is Mine – 3:42

4.       Thriller – 5:57

5.       Beat It – 4:18

6.       Billie Jean – 4:54

7.       Human Nature – 4:06

8.       P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) – 3:59

9.       The Lady in My Life – 5:00

 
Listen to ‘Baby Be Mine’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG9OzYVSg3c

Also released on the 30^th November:

1970: George Harrison – All Things Must Pass

Also released on the 30^th November:

1979: Pink Floyd – The Wall

22nd November - The Kinks' The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society

Artist – Album: The Kinks – The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society

Released: 22^nd November 1968

Sounds Like: Rose tinted class

This morning’s meeting ranks pretty highly in my all time list of weird places to have a meeting (no, I don't really keep such a list). At first I didn’t believe my Sat Nav and I drove all around outer Preston until my colleague text me and confirmed that it’s true: our client’s offices are based on the same grounds as Camelot Theme Park! …For those of you who are not aware of Camelot (which may well be most of you), Camelot used to be the theme park of choice for discerning 10-year olds that had grown too old for Gulliver’s World Theme Park but whose parents couldn’t afford a trip to Alton Towers Theme Park. Looking at it in the brilliant November sun of this morning, though, its star seems to have plummeted, and it’s somehow somewhat smaller and grubbier than I remember. My colleague just could not be convinced that it was the Camelot, so different did it look now that we’re all grown up.As Ray Davies declares in ‘People Take Pictures of Each Other’, “oh how I love things as they used to be”.

Ray’s glasses in The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society are the rosiest and tintiest ever, and over the course of 15 songs he strives to celebrate Ye Olde England and lament its gradual passing. The near title track stands up for all manner of traditional and sentimental artefacts, from china cups to virginity. ‘Do You Remember Walter?’ reminisces over a lost friend and wonders where he is now. ‘Picture Book’ plays like an old photo album, pouring over dog eared photos of old relatives. And that’s just the first three tracks.

All this nostalgia could get old (excuse the pun) if it wasn’t supported by some of the catchiest, most diverse tunes in the whole Kinks repertoire. From the music hall embarrassment of ‘All of My Friends Were There’ to the Spanish sounding ‘Monica’, each song is a gem. Like that old theme park, no doubt the past wasn’t quite as peachy and wholesome as Ray Davies likes to remember, but when the pictures he paints are so brilliant who am I to complain?

Albumaday... rating: 10/10

1.       The Village Green Preservation Society – 2:45

2.       Do You Remember Walter? – 2:23

3.       Picture Book – 2:34

4.       Johnny Thunder – 2:28

5.       Last of the Steam-powered Trains – 4:03

6.       Big Sky – 2:49

7.       Sitting by the Riverside – 2:21

8.       Animal Farm – 2:57

9.       Village Green – 2:08

10.   Starstruck – 2:18

11.   Phenomenal Cat – 2:34

12.   All of My Friends Were There – 2:23

13.   Wicked Annabella – 2:40

14.   Monica – 2:13

15.   People Take Pictures of Each Other – 2:10

Listen to ‘Do You Remember Walter?’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA5bcZeGqwE

Also released on the 22^nd November:

1968: The Beatles – The Beatles

Also released on the 22^nd November:

2006: Sally Shapiro – Disco Romance

Also released on the 22^nd November:

2010: Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

16th November - Rufus Wainright's Want Two

Artist – Album: Rufus Wainwright – Want Two

Released: 16^th November 2004

Sounds Like: Happy birthday Mum!

One of the many silly ideas that justified this stupid boy project to me was to see what albums matched to various friends and family’s birthdays. Because I’m anal and I like lists and things like that, it seemed important somehow to me. It still gives me great pleasure to know that The Smiths’ The Queen is Dead was released on the same day of the year that I was, that my girlfriend shares a birthday with fellow Sheffielders Arctic Monkeys’ Humbug, and that my Dad was born exactly 40 years to the day before Arcade Fire’s Funeral. Mum shares hers with Rufus Wainwright’s Want Two, an arrangement I feel that she’d be pretty happy with (if she cared) as she’s a big fan of the American-Canadian crooner.

That being said – even bearing in mind that newfound meaningless connection – I doubt Mum would name it amongst her very favourite albums because, in truth, few would: it is just too singular. The underlying theme of the Want duo of albums (Want One was released the previous year, and is similarly good) seems to be musical theatricality; a concept that works well on the likes of the bruised ‘This Love Affair’ and the classically baroque ‘Little Sister’ but less so on the bookending snore-a-thons ‘Agnus Dei’ and ‘Old Whore’s Diet’. More often than not, though, Wainwright manages to hit the sweet spot, with the pop-rock of ‘The One You Love’, the beautiful paino-led poem ‘The Art Teacher’ and the self-referential ‘Gay Messiah’ (not that he’s the titular messiah: “Rufus the Baptist, I be”) being particular highlights. Wainwright is a thoroughbred musician and he demonstrates his elastic versatility, his gift for song-writing and showcases his engaging voice throughout.

Along with Brian Wilson, Elton John, and his Dad, Rufus clearly betrays the influence of Jeff Buckley in his music, and the towering ‘Memphis Skyline’ is a heartfelt tribute to the tragic singer. Buckley, incidentally, would have turned 47 tomorrow and no doubt would be waiting with bated breath to find out which album I’ll be selecting then (ha!). Why not have a little search through my posting archive to find out what albums you share a birthday with?

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.       Agnus Dei – 5:45

2.       The One You Love – 3:44

3.       Peach Trees – 5:59

4.       Little Sister – 3:22

5.       The Art Teacher – 3:51

6.       Hometown Waltz – 2:33

7.       This Love Affair – 3:13

8.       Gay Messiah – 3:14

9.       Memphis Skyline – 4:51

10.   Waiting for a Dream – 4:14

11.   Crumb by Crumb – 4:13

12.   Old Whore’s Diet – 9:09  

Listen to ‘The Art Teacher’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHu4qfKaruQ

11th October - ABBA's Arrival

Artist – Album: ABBA - Arrival

Released: 11^th October 1976

Sounds Like: holidays are coming

Arrival reminds me of Christmas music. That’s even without the 1997 reissue that included ‘Fernando’ (which is hardly a Christmas song anyway – just because there’s a massive snowman in the music video doesn’t make it a Christmas song guys!). I’m not really sure why; I can assure you that the Douglas’ have never sat around the Christmas tree or a warm fire, adorned in festive jumpers and armed with egg nog, belting out ‘Dancing Queen’ like it was a classic carol (not that I can remember at least...). But for some reason, all the way from the stonking opener ‘When I Kissed the Teacher’ to the lovely closing instrumental title track, I can’t help but think of the most wonderful time of the year.

It may be the overabundance of sleigh bells proliferating the album, or it may be because the production is akin to similar-era Wizzard and Slade novelty hits. It may be the fact that euro-fluff such as ‘Dum Dum Diddle’ is a direct ancestor of ‘Have a Cheeky Christmas’ (although this should not be seen as reflective of the quality as a whole; I defy anyone to find an album containing three pop hits as delectable as ‘Dancing Queen’, ‘Money, Money, Money’ and the glorious, aching ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’). Even the album cover looks like they’re trapped in a bauble.

The final theory for my festive folly is that it’s just an album that, like yuletide, leaves you fit to burst with excitement. Just over 10 weeks guys!

Albumaday... rating: 7/10

1.       When I Kissed the Teacher – 3:00

2.       Dancing Queen – 3:50

3.       My Love, My Life – 3:52

4.       Dum Dum Diddle – 2:50

5.       Knowing Me, Knowing You – 4:02

6.       Money, Money, Money – 3:05

7.       That’s Me – 3:15

8.       Why Did It Have to Be Me – 3:20

9.       Tiger – 2:55

10.   Arrival – 3:00

Listen to ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUrzicaiRLU