23rd December - Genesis' Wind & Wuthering

Artist – Album: Genesis – Wind & Wuthering

Released: 23^rd December 1976

Sounds Like: Driving home for Christmas

We are well into the festive period now – today is my first day of the Christmas holidays, festive films are showing up on the telly, and my Yuletide Special Playlist Blog© has been posted (check it out! But come back!). Today I’m driving down to the Kentish coast to spend Christmas with my family and I quite like the idea that I’m heading down to see my Mum whilst listening to one of her favourite bands.

Whether Wind & Wuthering is one of her favourite albums I’m not sure, but it’s from the right era. Selling England by the Pound and ‘Carpet Crawlers’ were released only a few years before (in the Peter Gabriel days), whilst the same year’s Trick of the Tail was an important part of our record collection when I growing up. Like those other releases, Wind & Wuthering consists of lengthy, pastoral rock built around swirling keys and Steve Hackett’s epic guitar play. Peter Gabriel’s departure was not yet being keenly felt as Phil Collins was an excellent stand in and the group still immersed themselves in prog rock, although the first indications of their poppy 80’s selves can be seen here – whilst the first three tracks clock it in at a highly impressive 24 minutes, the remaining six zip by at a relatively quick-fire 26 minutes, and ‘Your Own Special Way’ was the closest they’d come yet to a genuine pop song.

Genesis may have been a band in transition during Wind & Wuthering, but they still had the quality to make a very good album, one to give me cheer on this festive pilgrimage to Kent.

Albumaday... rating: 7/10

1.       Eleventh Earl of Mar – 7:43

2.       One for the Vine – 10:00

3.       Your Own Special Way – 6:17

4.       Wot Gorilla? – 3:20

5.       All in a Mouse’s Night – 6:39

6.       Blood on the Rooftops – 5:27

7.       Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers… – 2:19

8.       …In That Quiet Earth – 4:54

9.       Afterglow – 4:14

 

Listen to ‘Your Own Special Way’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyuT9bNPQXw

11th November - The Moody Blues' Days of Future Passed

Artist – Album: The Moody Blues – Days of Future Passed

Released: 11^th November 1967

Sounds Like: File this one under: what-on-Earth-is-it?!

1967 may have been the year of tie-dyed psychedelia, the Summer of Love, and the gorging of a harmless little drug named LSD, but even in those turned on, tuned in and dropped out days the Quasimodo-esque figure of Prog Rock was beginning to rear its ugly head. The original concept was the admirable (read: conceited) notion of producing a higher form of music – merging wild rock and roll and disposable pop music with the sophisticated airs and graces of classical music – but it wasn’t long before it morphed into the hulking, unmanageable monster of Yes, King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Days of Future Passed, with its orchestral song-cycle and team up with the London Festival Orchestra, stands as something of a missing link in the embryonic evolution of Prog.

The album begins with ‘The Day Begins’, a track that surprises on first listen and which features spoken word poetry and the virtually omnipresent orchestra. From then on the album is a strange amorphous beast, delving into psychedelic rock, earnest balladry and baroque art pop in a stately procession, culminating in the lush melodrama of ‘Nights in White Satin’. Unfortunately, where once this eclecticism and use of orchestra would’ve seemed revolutionary and ground-breaking, today the record is just difficult to get your head around. Some of the more experimental pieces sound like the soundtrack to a cheap Merchant Ivory costume drama, and at one point (I think it was in ‘Dawn Is A Feeling’, though it’s hard to say as the unifying orchestra breaks down the individual songs into one big knotty muddle) I’m sure I could hear pan pipes play carousel music.

The Passed being a different country and all that, I think that to fully appreciate this album – like a lot of things that happened in 1967 – you had to be there.

Albumaday... rating: 5/10

1.       The Day Begins – 5:45

2.       DAWN: Dawn Is A Feeling – 3:50

3.       THE MORNING: Another Morning – 3:40

4.       LUNCH BREAK: Peak Hour – 5:21

5.       THE AFTERNOON: Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?) – 8:25

6.       EVENING: The Sun Set: Twilight Time – 6:39

7.       THE NIGHT: Nights in White Satin – 7:41

Listen to ‘Nights in White Satin’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdykXAT19Go

Also released on the 11^th November:

1992: Denim – Back in Denim

16th September - Kate Bush's Hounds of Love

Artist – Album: Kate Bush – Hounds of Love

Released:  16^th September 1985

Sounds Like:  Certifiably excellent

It may have been Cyndi Lauper who, back in 1983, released an album entitled She’s So Unusual, but the Eighties’ strangest siren – with an honourable doff of the cap to Laurie Anderson – has to be Kate Bush.

Bush was just a 19 year old waif when she announced herself to the world with the loopy ‘Wuthering Heights’ and she continued her rich form of doolally singles when she reached the UK top 5 with ‘Babooshka’ in 1980. Amongst other topics, her early songs covered subjects such as the death of Houdini, François Truffaut films and Peter Pan. Perhaps feeling that she was somehow constrained by her label (really Kate?!) and their choice of producers, she began producing her own albums in 1984, and then she finally wrested complete control of her art for herself when she built her own recording studio near her home. If I’d have been around at the time of 1985’s Hounds of Love release, I’d have been worried about the inevitable mess of an album.

You mustn’t forget, though, that Bush might be a bit weird but she’s also a certified genius. Hounds of Love turned out to be her most complete album to date, and, what’s more, it’s full of wholly accessible pop hits. ‘Running Up That Hill’, ‘Hounds of Love’ (not quite as good as the Futureheads’ cover, but still awesome), ‘The Big Sky’ and ‘Cloudbusting’ are all top rate rockers and make up the majority of the Hounds of Love half of the record. The Ninth Wave segment follows roughly the same formula and is heady progressive rock.

Since Kate Bush (and Lauper and Anderson) there’s been plenty in the way of headstrong, odd female artists, and each of Tori Amos, Björk and Lady Gaga et al owe a huge debt to the Kentish songstress.

Albumaday... rating:  8/10

1.       Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) – 5:03

2.       Hounds of Love – 3:02

3.       The Big Sky – 4:41

4.       Mother Stands for Comfort – 3:07

5.       Cloudbusting – 5:10

6.       And Dream of Sheep – 2:45

7.       Under Ice – 2:21

8.       Waking the Witch – 4:18

9.       Watching You Without Me – 4:06

10.   Jig of Life – 4:04

11.   Hello Earth – 6:13

12.   The Morning Fog – 2:34

Listen to ‘The Big Sky’:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV7w5TaYjRA

Also released on 16^th September:

1967: Scott Walker – Scott 

Also released on 16^th September:

1977: Talking Heads – Talking Heads: 77

Also released on 16^th September:

1997: Buena Vista Social Club – Buena Vista Social Club

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

28th April - Chicago Transit Authority's Chicago Transit Authority

Artist – Album: Chicago Transit Authority – Chicago Transit Authority

Released:  28^th April 1969

Sounds Like: One big bluesy rock jam

It’s hard to imagine that this jazz-infused rock jam band would go on to become the M.O.R balladeers responsible for the fluffy pop of ‘If You Leave Me Now,’ released just seven years after this landmark debut.

Blending freewheeling rhythm & bass and euphoric horn sections with the guitar chops of Terry Kath – a guitarist so talented that even the great Jimi Hendrix was a fan – and the trio of bluesy vocalists courtesy of Kath, Robert Lamm and Peter Cetera, Chicago Transit Authority created epic soulful rock and roll jams that meandered between the banal and the brilliant. Of the former, frenetic fourteen minute wig out ‘Liberation’ may not be overly bad, just overlong and overwrought, but ‘Free Form Guitar’ is as horrifically pretentious as its title suggests. Meanwhile, nothing, here or elsewhere, gets much more brilliant than the funky cover of the Spencer Davis Group’s ‘I’m a Man’.

Although most of the tunes here are energetic muck arounds from the seven piece, there are softer elements and more structure in a couple of the tracks chosen as singles, such as ‘Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?’ and ‘Questions 67 and 68’. Other highlights are the blues rock belter ‘Introduction’ and the politically charged ‘Someday (August 29, 1968)’.

Ultimately, the album serves as a great snapshot of a prodigiously talented group before they mellowed out and lost that edge, and, shorn of a few minute long solos and a few regrettable tracks, this would stand as one of the very best rock records around.

Albumaday... rating:  7/10

1.       Introduction – 6:35

2.       Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? – 4:35

3.       Beginnings – 7:54

4.       Questions 67 and 68 – 5:03

5.       Listen – 3:22

6.       Poem 58 – 8:35

7.       Free Form Guitar – 6:47

8.       South California Purples – 6:11

9.       I’m a Man – 7:43

10.   Prologue, August 29, 1968 – 0:58

11.   Someday (August 29, 1968) – 4:11

12.   Liberation – 14:38

Listen to ‘I’m a Man’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8vY3vAbAdQ

1st March - Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon

Artist – Album: Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of the Moon

Released:  1^st March 1975

Sounds Like: The demented nine ages of man

Oh dear oh dear. I’ve only gone and missed yesterday’s post, haven’t I? It may be the first time I’ve lapsed in a couple of months but it still hurts you guys. I can only imagine how disappointed you are with me.

In a sense I missed two posts yesterday, because every now and again, if everyone agrees that it’s been a good month, we reward ourselves with another day of February. Known as February 28^th and three quarters, or “leap day”, it is, per Wikipedia:

“a widely celebrated holiday complete with a Santa Claus-like mascot, Leap Day William, who lives in the Mariana Trench and trades candy for children's tears.”

We may have decided against having one this year, but over the years it has contributed albums to our collection, such as Olivia Newton-John’s Come On Over, Steriogram’s Schmack! and Draconian’s Turning Season Within... Maybe it’s for the best that I've skipped that day...

1^st March’s offering is slightly more illustrious however. Released 38 years (and a day) ago, Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon is rightly regarded as one of the best greatest albums of all time ever. It’s some measure of its brilliance that, in my humble opinion, gargantuan dad-rock hit ‘Money’ is the weakest track on the record. It’s certainly the only song that breaks the continuity of the piece, with every other song melting into the other to create an unhinged sum far greater than the individual parts. There’s not a lot more to be said about this album detailing life and lunancy that hasn’t been written by better writers than I many times before. On the bright side (of the moon), I used up most of my wordcount on talk of a fictional festival.

Albumaday... rating: 10/10

1.       Speak to Me – 1:30

2.       Breathe – 2:43

3.       On the Run – 3:36

4.       Time – 7:01

5.       The Great Gig in the Sky – 4:36

6.       Money – 6:22

7.       Us and Them – 7:46

8.       Any Colour You Like – 3:25

9.       Brain Damage – 3:48

10.   Eclipse – 2:03

19th Feb - Yes' The Yes Album

Artist – Album: Yes – The Yes Album

Released:  19^th February 1971    

Sounds Like: A recurring nightmare of mine from back in the day

Released way back in 1971, The Yes Album introduced the world at large to bloody guitar know-it-all Steve Howe. Whether ensconced in the archetypal proggy whig outs that define Yes or left a free reign on the acoustic ragtime of ‘Clap’, the annoyingly brilliant virtuosity of Howe’s fretwork both infuses and engulfs this record. Show off. Oh, I don’t mean to sound bitter. It’s just that Mr Howe pretty much ruined my chances of becoming the greatest guitarist of all time, that’s all...

You see, when I was 12 I was an avid guitar practiser with boundless enthusiasm, an only slightly worse-than-average finger span (barre chords were pretty much out of the question), and the scruffy mop of hair and gormless look that was the fashion with Britpop icons at the time. But then my Uncle challenged me to learn how to play ‘Clap’ and my questionable progress stalled altogether. I devoted hours for weeks on end just to learn the first thirty seconds. I couldn’t sleep without hearing the chipper plucked notes circle round and round in my head. And I just couldn’t get anywhere. It didn’t take long for me to realise that I would never become good enough, and from that day forward I’ve relied on playing Greensleeves or strumming the same four chords and subtly changing the rhythm in the hope that people would think it's something different. It’s no life for a boy of my ambition.

Jealousy aside, this album is worth a listen. ‘Yours is No Disgrace’ and ‘I’ve Seen All Good People’ are real anthems and ‘Starship Trooper’ is one of the best prog rock songs (don’t laugh) out there. If only Steve Howe wasn’t so good.

Albumaday... rating: 7/10 

1.       Yours Is No Disgrace – 9:41

2.       Clap – 3:17

3.       Starship Trooper – 9:25

I.                    Life Seeker

II.                  Disillusion

III.                Würm

4.       I’ve Seen All Good People – 6:56

I.                    Your Move

II.                  All Good People

5.       A Venture – 3:18

6.       Perpetual Change – 8:54

Listen to ‘Starship Trooper’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKftiJS30Cs

Also released on the 19^th February:

2003: The Postal Service – Give Up