7th April - Leonard Cohen's Songs From a Room

Artist – Album: Leonard Cohen – Songs from a Room

Released:  7^th April 1968               

Sounds Like: The idol is boxed in a room

What a hero Leonard Cohen is. Poet, novelist and one of the most acclaimed and influential singer songwriters of the last five decades, he operates on a higher literary plane than the majority of his folky contemporaries. Not stopping there, Cohen is also an inductee of the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and a Companion of the Order of Canada. He’s a practising Jew with an interest in Buddhism, and he’s had a long standing association with Budhhist monk and teacher Kyozan Joshu Sasaki up at the brilliantly named Mount Baldy Zen Centre. Plus, a friend of a friend of a friend knows him, and apparently he seems like a nice guy.

With such a grand list of achievements it can be easy to forget that at times his music can be hushed and humble. Here, on his second album, it’s even hesitant. With Cohen’s admittedly limited vocals, and the absence of much ornament besides his trusty acoustic guitar, his work is reliant on the quiet confidence he tends to bring, be it on his stunningly realised debut or his later 80s experiments with synths. Here he seems a little constricted, as though he doubts whether the material is worthy of following his first Songs from Leonard Cohen. Perversely, for that very reason, this isn’t his best effort.

On the other hand, it’s still good. Songs like ‘Story of Isaac’, the conversion of a French poem ‘The Partisan’ and the bittersweet romance of ‘You Know Who I Am’ are exceptional works of art, whilst ‘Bird on a Wire’ - not really my favourite, it’s a bit boring – nevertheless seems to be a bit of a headline draw for the fans.

Not Leonard Cohen at his best, but even when the legend isn’t quite at 100% he’s still better than most of his peers.

Albumaday... rating: 7/10

1.       Bird on a Wire – 3:28

2.       Story of Isaac – 3:38

3.       A Bunch of Lonesome Heroes – 3:18

4.       The Partisan – 3:29

5.       Seems So Long Ago, Nancy – 3:41

6.       The Old Revolution – 4:50

7.       The Butcher – 3:22

8.       You Know Who I Am – 3:32

9.       Lady Midnight – 3:01

10.   Tonight Will Be Fine – 3:53

Listen to ‘You Know Who I Am’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPkUyPU6nw4

Also released on the 7^th April:

2003: Athlete – Vehicles & Animals

Also released on the 7^th April:

2004: Jens Lekman – When I Said I Wanted to Be Your Dog

6th April - Modest Mouse's Good News for People Who Love Bad News

Artist – Album: Modest Mouse – Good News for People Who Love Bad News

Released:  6^th April 2004

Sounds Like: Good news for people who like good music 

Isaac Brock, lead singer of Modest Mouse, has one of the most distinctive voices in rock: at its most intense, he sounds almost unhinged, forever teetering on the edge of insanity; whilst when they take it down a step or two, he croons in a weirdly accented, breaking lilt. Today’s album treats us to a wonderful balance of both.

‘Horn Intro’, shockingly, is a short horn intro, one which feels like a brash, toff student who quickly realises he’s in the wrong lecture hall and swiftly and entirely conspicuously tries to sneak out again. ‘The World at Large’ is more the real start, a dreamy ramble embellished with hypnotic backing “do do do do’s”. This is succeeded by the undisputed album highlight ‘Float On’, a strikingly positive anthem and a slight departure from Modest Mouse’s previously strange and paranoid output.

The album may peak after two and bit tracks, but that’s not to say that they’re done there. ‘Ocean Breathes Salty’ is only slightly less enduring then ‘Float On’ and, to its credit, it possesses more of a darkness and edge than its predecessor. Elsewhere, ‘Dance Hall’ is thrillingly manic; ‘Bukowski’ is a literate, softly sung song of self loathing; ‘The View’ is an angular indie rock track very much of its time; ‘Blame It on the Tetons’ is a beautifully melodic acoustic ditty.

For me, this is one of the great discoveries of this project so far – most other albums that I have adored were ones that I already knew and loved. Obviously, I was a fan of ‘Float On’ long ago (isn’t everyone?) and I remember reading about ‘Dance Hall’ in a blog suggesting alternative rock driving anthems a few years back, but otherwise this was a new, and fantastically enjoyable, experience for me. Well done Isaac.

Albumaday... rating: 9/10

1.       Horn Intro – 0:09

2.       The World at Large – 4:32

3.       Float On – 3:28

4.       Ocean Breathes Salty – 3:49

5.       Dig Your Grave – 0:13

6.       Bury Me with It – 3:49

7.       Dance Hall – 2:57

8.       Bukowski – 4:14

9.       This Devil’s Workday – 2:19

10.   The View – 4:13

11.   Satin in a Coffin – 2:35

12.   Interlude (Milo) – 0:58

13.   Blame It on the Tetons – 5:25

14.   Black Cadillacs – 2:43

15.   One Chance – 3:04

16.   The Good Times Are Killing Me – 4:16

Listen to ‘Bukowski’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpDabdSo9FQ

5th April - Okkervil River's Black Sheep Boy

Artist – Album: Okkervil River – Black Sheep Boy

Released:  5^th March 2005

Sounds Like: sufficiently contemporary to win you over, sufficiently unknown to make you feel cool

 

Now, don’t be too disappointed with me, but not everything I write here is completely my own original thought. Sometimes (oooh sometimes) I remember what I’d read in some other magazine or online website and regurgitate as best as I can their snappy sentiment. Some of my jokes have been lifted from critically acclaimed but criminally underwatched American comedies (*cough* 30 Rock, *cough* Arrested Development). And, you’ve probably noticed, but Wikipedia has got me up to speed with things once in a while... I only mention this now because I’m just going to quote word for word a review from Allmusic right now (how lazy am I?):

“...Fourth full-length, Black Sheep Boy, titled after the lovely song penned by Tim Hardin with which the band opens the record. However, their take on the song feels a bit rushed and uneventful, which knocks the tender breath from the lyrics and presents a clumsy start. Opening the record this way is the singular yet major complaint of the album, ironically pushing "Black Sheep Boy," the intended centerpiece, to the outskirts of the album's overall feel.”

 

Ok, so those might not be my words, but they do a damn fine job of covering my feelings on this record – the opening song and title track is something of a disappointment, but really that’s about the only criticism that can fairly be levelled at the album. The second track 'For Real' is a fantastically epic nugget of mid-noughties indie rock, zig-zagging between hushed vocals and crunching visceral guitars. When it's really got pumping, you envisage Will Sheff, red-faced and vein's bulging, as he strains to wring every last drop of emotion from the barked lyrics. 'Black' is soundtracked by a lighter, almost pop backing, disguising the literate but dark love song within. 'Get Big' is a lovely folk duet with Amy Annelle.

The album continues along these indie folk rock lines throughout and it stands as one of the better albums in this vein to have been released in the last decade or so. I may not have been the first person to have thought as much, but that doesn't make it any less true.

 

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.       <!--[endif]-->Black Sheep Boy – 1:18

<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.       <!--[endif]-->For Real – 4:42

<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.       <!--[endif]-->In a Radio Song – 5:39

<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.       <!--[endif]-->Black – 4:39

<!--[if !supportLists]-->5.       <!--[endif]-->Get Big – 3:55

<!--[if !supportLists]-->6.       <!--[endif]-->A King and a Queen – 3:22

<!--[if !supportLists]-->7.       <!--[endif]-->A Stone – 5:23

<!--[if !supportLists]-->8.       <!--[endif]-->The Latest Toughs – 3:11

<!--[if !supportLists]-->9.       <!--[endif]-->Song of Our So-Called Friend – 3:23

<!--[if !supportLists]-->10.   <!--[endif]-->So Come Back, I Am Waiting – 8:03

<!--[if !supportLists]-->11.   <!--[endif]-->A Glow – 3:43

 

Listen to ‘Black’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K7RokHjYd4

4th April - Guided by Voices' Alien Lanes

Artist – Album: Guided By Voices – Alien Lanes

Released:  4^th April 1995

Sounds Like: "the cost for recording, if you leave out the beer, was about ten dollars"

Anyone, ANYONE, with a serious inclination towards indie music needs to know and love Guided By Voices. They are the absolute embodiment of lo-fi indie cool and have an unsurpassed ability to meld crunching guitars and chaotic production to wonderfully poppy melodies.

Whether Alien Lanes - their first full length album at Matador but one which still sounds like it was recorded in the bedroom - is the album with which to make that first step is debatable. Some fans and critics have a greater affinity and love for the earlier Bee Thousand, whilst the greatest hits album Human Amusements at Hourly Rates would make a wonderful, if obvious, starting point. There’s little argument though that this album still stands as one of their best, and, if it does become the means of your introduction into Robert Pollard’s world, you will not be disappointed.

Kicking off with ‘A Salty Salute’, GbV proceed to blast their way through 28 tiny morsels of DIY rock in just over 40 minutes. Scattered along the way are some of the finest snippets they’ve ever recorded, including ‘Watch Me Jumpstart’, ‘As We Go Up, We Go Down’, ‘Game of Pricks’, ‘Closer You Are’, ‘My Valuable Hunting Knife’ and ‘Blimps Go 90’. God knows what most of these songs mean but the sound and feel of them are magnificent.

The whole lo-fi substrata of indie rock can be difficult to follow, as trends change and even the best bands remain relatively low key. Allow yourself to be guided by Guided by Voices.

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.       A Salty Salute – 1:29

2.       Evil Speakers – 0:58

3.       Watch Me Jumpstart – 2:24

4.       They’re Not Witches – 0:51

5.       As We Go Up, We Go Down – 1:37

6.       (I Wanna Be a) Dumbcharger – 1:13

7.       Game of Pricks – 1:33

8.       The Ugly Vision – 1:34

9.       A Good Flying Bird – 1:07

10.   Cigarette Tricks – 0:18

11.   Pimple Zoo – 0:42

12.   Big Chief Chinese Restaurant – 0:56

13.   Closer You Are – 1:56

14.   Auditorium – 1:02

15.   Motor Away – 2:06

16.   Hit – 0:23

17.   My Valuable Hunting Knife – 2:00

18.   Gold Hick – 0:30

19.   King and Caroline – 1:36

20.   Striped White Jets – 2:15

21.   Ex-Supermodel – 1:06

22.   Blimps Go 90 – 1:40

23.   Strawdogs – 1:17

24.   Chicken Blows – 2:21

25.   Little Whirl – 1:46

26.   My Soon Cool – 1:41

27.   Always Crush Me – 1:44

28.   Alright – 2:56

Listen to ‘Game of Pricks’:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTdPn60lcB0

3rd April - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's B.R.M.C

Artist – Album: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – B.R.M.C

Released:  3^rd April 2001

Sounds Like: Deep Purple meets Jesus & Mary Chain

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club scored a moderate indie rock hit in the early 00’s with the brilliant ‘Spread Your Love’, a great big dirty rocker that had it’s roots in 60’s psychedelic garage rock bands and the heavier stuff released in the 70’s by the likes of Deep Purple. I remember it being sung at school, I remember watching the video on MTV, and I was thrilled when I found it on a compilation album that I had bought. But, since then, B.R.M.C have kind of just drifted around.

Their albums are generally well received by critics and the public alike, but it’s hard to find anyone outside of their actual fans that could name a second song by them. Some of it may be due to an apparent lack of direction by the band. Other head bangers from the first album include ‘Whatever Happened to My Rock and Roll’ and ‘Love Burns’, but elsewhere the album sounds influenced by The Jesus and Mary Chain and shoegaze, whilst the closing couple of songs are gentle acoustic ballads. Everyone likes an album that mixes it up a bit but here it feels a bit confused, and the shift in tone from song 9 to 10 was baffling.

Later albums followed a gentler, almost gospel tinged feel, and perhaps that’s where their hearts really lie. Who knows? All I’d say is that this debut - good in parts, great even at times - still sounds like that of a band who don’t quite know what they’re trying to achieve yet.

Albumaday... rating:   6/10

1.       Love Burns – 4:05

2.       Red Eyes and Tears – 4:00

3.       Whatever Happened to My Rock ‘n’ Roll (Punk Song) – 4:38

4.       Awake – 6:12

5.       White Palms – 4:55

6.       As Sure as the Sun – 5:52

7.       Rifles – 6:59

8.       Too Real – 4:55

9.       Spread Your Love – 3:45

10.   Head Up High – 5:35

11.   Salvation – 6:06

Listen to ‘Spread Your Love’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abKjC7EX2Zs

Also released on the 3^rd April:

1968: Simon and Garfunkel - Bookends

Also released on the 3^rd April:

2000: Doves – Lost Souls

2nd April - Maxwell's Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite

Artist – Album: Maxwell – Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite

Released:  2^nd April 1996

Sounds Like: foreplay

In the mid 90’s the neo soul movement was born, finding success in the US - a little bit less so over here, we were in the inexcusable thralls of disposable teen pop and laddish Britpop - with it’s sophisticated re-treading of the soul and R&B sounds and stylings made popular in the late 60’s and early 70’s by the likes of Marvin Gaye and Al Green. The big hitters in the early years of this new genre included Erkyah Badu, D’Angelo, Lauryn Hill and, the subject of today’s post, Maxwell.

Unlike his illustrious contemporaries, Maxwell was wholly unable to sustain his level of success and is largely now the forgotten man of the group, chiefly because he found it so hard to follow up this album with anything approaching it’s level of suaveness and skill. Because, on this record, Maxwell is one smooth, sexual motherfunker.

Whilst the general mood and tone of the album is agreeable but unspectacular, cool but unarresting, highlights like the wonderful ‘Ascension (Don’t You Ever)’, the scorchingly hot make-out song ‘…Til the Cops Come Knockin’’ and the not-a-Shakira-song ‘Whenever Wherever Whatever’ elevate the album to a higher plain.

Unfortunately, Maxwell was unable to maintain his stamina and subsequent rendezvous’ at the studio led to largely underwhelming and overly indulgent grooves. Still, he - and his many female fans - will always have his Urban Hang Suite to remind himself of his prowess.

Albumaday... rating:   7/10

1.       The Urban Theme – 2:42

2.       Welcome – 5:18

3.       Sumthin’ Sumthin – 4:18

4.       Ascension (Don’t Ever Wonder) – 5:46

5.       Dancewitme – 6:15

6.       ...Til the Cops Come Knockin’ – 6:56

7.       Whenever Wherever Whatever – 3:45

8.       Lonely’s the Only Company (I & II) – 6:22

9.       Reunion – 4:53

10.   Suitelady (The Proposal Jam) – 4:48

11.   The Suite Theme – 13:47

Listen to ‘Ascension (Don’t Ever Wonder)’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7rm9t5S4uE

Also released on the 2^nd April:

2001: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – No More Shall We Part

1st April - The White Stripes' Elephant

Artist – Album: The White Stripes - Elephant

Released:  1^st April 2003

Sounds Like: Fools Gold

The White Stripes first rose to prominence in 1997, when the Amish ghost couple Meg & Jack Van White finished as runners up in the talent show America’s Got Singing. Despite only finishing second to the irrepressible Aqua, critics and the audience were taken in by their ancient garage blues rock (as well as Jack’s wonderful carpentry performed in between songs).

Naming themselves The White Stripes as they are the duo’s favourite bits of a zebra, they liked the name so much that they also called their first album it. They would have liked to have named all of their albums similarly, but were eventually talked down by their record label. ‘De Stijl’ (in English, ‘the stilt’) and ‘White Blood Cells’ followed, and cemented the groups reputation as one of the finest rock bands around.

Elephant, their fourth album, took the two-piece to another level as songs like ‘Seven Nation Army’ and ‘I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself’ stormed up the charts, and ‘The Hardest Button to Button’ was named influential actor George Takei’s favourite song of the week. The latter is a good example of the themes investigated in the record – set during the Second World War, it’s follows the story of the German scientists who worked to develop the world’s most difficult fastener in a ploy to distract the Allied Forces.

Not really, April Fools!

It’s just an utterly brilliant album, one of the best of the last decade. Go find out.

Albumaday... rating:   10/10

1.       Seven Nation Army – 3:52

2.       Black Math – 3:04

3.       There’s No Home for You Here – 3:44

4.       I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself – 2:46

5.       In the Cold, Cold Night – 2:58

6.       I Want to Be the Boy to Warm Your Mother’s Heart – 3:21

7.       You’ve Got Her in Your Pocket – 3:40

8.       Ball and Biscuit – 7:19

9.       The Hardest Button to Button – 3:32

10.   Little Acorns – 4:09

11.   Hypnotize – 1:48

12.   The Air Near My Fingers – 3:40

13.   Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine – 3:18

14.   Well It’s True That We Love One Another – 2:43

Listen to ‘The Air Near My Fingers’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_xbEMC8lHM

Also released on the 1^st April:

1976: Rush – 2112

Also released on the 1^st April:

2008: The Black Keys – Attack & Release