14th July - The Vines' Highly Evolved

Artist – Album: The Vines – Highly Evolved

Released:  14^th July 2002              

Sounds Like: Nirvana... NOT!

Reading back over the various reviews of this album it’s clear that the record split opinion. In the red corner, there’s the majority of the British press who oddly labelled the band as the new Nirvana, gave the album rave reviews and listed it amongst the best of the year, or, what temerity, best of all time. In the blue are the unimpressed Americans, who claim that if they do sound like Nirvana it’s only because they’re trying so hard to do so – the album is as devoid of original thought or emotion as a clone. FIGHT!

In truth, the album doesn’t really warrant such a strong reaction from either point of view. It’s good, not great, and certainly not revolutionary. Meanwhile, yes, the Vines do wear their influences on their sleeve, but so did many of the bands during the garage rock revival of the early noughties. They don’t deserve to be singled out or punished for it by any means.

Just listening to it without any of the hype or disappointment makes it clear that there is a decent band here, with plenty of ideas, if a definite lack of focus. The grunge tinged garage punk of ‘Highly Evolved’ and ‘Get Free’ are barnstorming anthems that count amongst the best of their type since the turn of the millennium, but it’s surprising that similar attempts such as ‘Sunshinin’’ and ‘In the Jungle’ fall so far wide of the mark. Similarly, some of their slower efforts, such as the wonderful ‘Autumn Shade’ and ‘Mary Jane’, are excellent lackadaisical rock tunes, but the likes of ‘Homesick’ are just too sincere. I’m pretty confused by ‘Country Yard’ and ‘Factory’ which at times sound inspired and at others make me want to throw the ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’ sounding bag of shite out of the window.

It’s patchy, but the best bits are well worth investigating.

Albumaday... rating: 6/10

1.       Highly Evolved – 1:35

2.       Autumn Shade – 2:17

3.       Outtathaway – 3:02

4.       Sunshinin’ – 2:43

5.       Homesick – 4:53

6.       Get Free – 1:59

7.       Country Yard – 3:46

8.       Factory – 3:12

9.       In the Jungle – 4:15

10.   Mary Jane – 5:52

11.   Ain’t No Room – 3:28

12.   1969 – 6:27

Listen to ‘Autumn Shade’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZteVcjwqGtE

Also released on the 14^th July:

1994: Elliott Smith – Roman Candle

Also released on the 14^th July:

1998: Beastie Boys – Hello Nasty

13th July - The Beach Boys' All Summer Long

Artist – Album: The Beach Boys – All Summer Long

Released:  13^th July 1964

Sounds Like: We’ve been having fun all summer long

Sometimes the listening circumstances seriously affect how much you appreciate an album. A Sigur Rós effort, for example, is best served on a bright but frosty morning. Joy Division are great when the sky is blanketed in metallic coloured grey clouds, whilst it’s best to listen to Metallica when the world has turned apocalyptic. The situation for today’s album – driving around in my little car with my friends through a sun scorched city – was perfectly suited to the Beach Boys’ All Summer Long.

The belting classic of ‘I Get Around’ notwithstanding, the album doesn’t contain too many of their well known songs, but don’t let that put you off. As is the norm with the Beach Boys at their best, all of the songs here are instantly memorable and enjoyable: play it through once to love it, play it through twice and you’re already singing along.  The very best are the sunny ‘Girls on the Beach’, the sumptuous doo-wop cover of The Mystics’ ‘Hushabye’, the insanely catchy hot rod anthem ‘Little Honda’ and the nostalgic title track, which perfectly encapsulates the late September evening feeling whilst looking back on a wonderful summer.

The record isn’t perfect – there’s the 50’s pastiche ‘Do You Remember’, which wins the Albumaday... No-Shit-Sherlock Line of the Day© "Elvis Presley’s the king, he’s the giant of the day", and the god awful comedy bit ‘Our Favourite Recording Sessions’. ‘Wendy’ , which for the most part is a beautiful and elegantly sad song, is seriously let down by a horrific, clinky organ solo.

Fortunately the misses are in the minority, and the imperfections really just make it all the more endearing. Seriously, it’s great!

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.       I Get Around – 2:14

2.       All Summer Long – 2:08

3.       Hushabye – 2:41

4.       Little Honda – 1:52

5.       We’ll Run Away – 2:02

6.       Carl’s Big Chance – 2:03

7.       Wendy – 2:21

8.       Do You Remember? – 1:40

9.       Girls on the Beach – 2:28

10.   Our Favourite Recoding Sessions – 2:00

11.   Don’t Back Down – 1:52

Listen to ‘All Summer Long’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2smDXr13EJE 

12th July - Feist's Let It Die

Artist – Album: Feist – Let It Die

Released:  12^th July 2004              

Sounds Like: Joni Mitchell meets Françoise Hardy meets PJ Harvey (what a good dinner party that would be!)

Ok, so, I’ve already spoken about how great the Canadian music scene has been in the last few years. Well to Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Destroyer, Elf Power, Neko Case, you can add Feist. Cos she’s a bit of a beaut.

Let It Die has the quite fascinating format of being half originals and half cover; in fact, the album is split cleanly in two – the first five songs are originals, including the lovely opener ‘Gatekeeper’ and the warm, acoustic melody of ‘Mushaboom’; whilst the last six consist of entirely sumptuous covers, including ‘L’amour ne dure pas toujours’, a respectful cover of one of the delectable Françoise Hardy’s best, whilst ’Secret Heart’ is a sweet, chirpy pop effort. ‘Inside and Out’ may well be the best track on the album, as Feist’s elegant vocals are married to a sparse and sophisticated verse arrangement and a wonderfully kitsch eighties chorus.

Now I’m not saying this album is going to change your world; far from it, but then this album is not designed to do so. Feist’s hushed, sensual delivery is perfectly backed by the sometimes jazzy, sometimes bossa nova, sometimes French pop soundtrack.  So it’s a bit quiet, it’s still great.

Albumaday... rating: 7/10

1.       Gatekeeper – 2:16

2.       Mushaboom – 3:44

3.       Let It Die – 2:55

4.       One Evening – 3:36

5.       Leisure Suite – 4:07

6.       L’amour ne dure pas toujours – 3:16

7.       Lonely Lonely – 4:10

8.       When I Was a Young Girl – 3:08

9.       Secret Heart – 3:49

10.   Inside and Out – 4:17

11.   Now at Last – 3:16

Listen to ‘Inside and Out’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmG0sPyZJBg

11th July - Dexys Midnight Runners' Searching for the Young Soul Rebels

Artist – Album: Dexy’s Midnight Runners – Searching for the Young Soul Rebels

Released: 11^th July 1980

Sounds Like: Welcome to the new soul vision

In the grand ol’ US of A, Dexys are seen as one of many quirky one-hit-wonderers from the Eighties, placed in the same bracket as Men Without Hats, Men at Work and countless other bands that start with the word Men. There they found flash in the pan success in 1984 with the raggle taggle hoedown of ‘Come on Eileen’, a stalwart of karaokes and wedding parties ever since. Over here though, we know better. We’ve suffered frontman Kevin Rowland’s egotistical lunacy for many years, frequent changes of genres and even more frequent changes of line-up, breakup and the long-awaited reunion. We put up with it though, because each of their four albums have been excellent. The best of the lot is this, 1980’s Searching for the Young Soul Rebels.

Fusing Northern soul with rock and pop, the album delivers both stomping, brassy classics and downbeat jazzy tracks with similar aplomb. ‘Geno’ and ‘Tell Me When My Light Turns Green’ are all simply fantastic upbeat soul, whilst ‘I’m Just Looking’ and ‘Keep It’ smolder or fester under a smoky jazz club background. Meanwhile the high pitched disco of ‘Thankfully Not Living in Yorkshire It Doesn’t Apply’ has the rushed rock-disco feel of songs from the new millennium and ‘Seven Days Too Long’ is a great Northern soul cover. Rowland’s lyrics are top notch too, as countless issues stoke up his ire – modern persecution of the Irish in ‘Burn It Down’ or his distaste with the ignorant music scene in ‘There, There, My Dear.’ Each and every song is great (with the possible exception of the spoken word mopiness of ‘Love Part One’)

The album starts by flicking through various radio shows, where we hear snippets of Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke on the Water’, The Sex Pistols’ ‘Holidays in the Sun’ and The Specials’ ‘Rat Race’, clearly representing the UK's three major rock movements of the half decade or so previous to this albums release. Dexy’s new soul vision may not have kicked off the next musical epoch, but they had a damn good stab at it.

Albumaday... rating: 9/10

1.       Burn It Down – 4:21

2.       Tell Me When My Light Turns Green – 3:46

3.       The Teams That Meet in Caffs – 4:08

4.       I’m Just Looking – 4:41

5.       Geno – 3:31

6.       Seven Days Too Long – 2:43

7.       I Couldn’t Help It If I Tried – 4:14

8.       Thankfully Not Living in Yorkshire It Doesn’t Apply – 2:59

9.       Keep It – 3:59

10.   Love Part One – 1:12

11.   There, There, My Dear – 3:31

Listen to ‘There, There, My Dear’:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZwWnXuB_eg

10th July - Coldplay's Parachutes

Artist – Album: Coldplay - Parachutes

Released: 10^th July 2000

Sounds Like: You know how I know you’re gay? You like Coldplay.

As Coldplay have spent the years since Parachutes simultaneously becoming more bloated and banal, it’s easy to forget just how refreshing and accomplished their debut album was. Like Steve Martin or Liverpool FC before them, they have descended into some kind of mega-money but soulless, popular but ultimately much more shit version of their former selves.

But Parachutes is great. ‘Don’t Panic’ shuffles in, almost too timid to enter the room fully, before breaking out of its shell with the bold chorus of “we live in a beautiful world”, ‘Shiver’ races along its glorious indie-rock soundtrack, bursting out its seams in joyous adoration. ‘Spies’ is hushed and sombre, whilst ‘Sparks’ is a gorgeous, gentle love song. And then there’s ‘Yellow’, their breakthrough hit for fans of blue-eyed indie-soul and ‘Trouble’, the one for adherents of darker, more paranoid music. The album has got more hits than a useless boxer.

Of course, as successful as they have always been, Coldplay have never been near to cool. Chris Martin looked unfortunately similar to Napoleon Dynamite and lyrics like those on ‘Everything’s Not Lost’ in his choir boy vocals hardly endeared his band to the stylish contingent. Subsequent stadium rock ubiquity, Bono-esque douchebagness and bully-friendly child naming (Apple! It’s an iMartin!), haven’t helped matters, but I truly and honestly believe that their debut album is terrific. And I don’t care if you never read my blog again (No! Please don’t go!)  

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.       Don’t Panic – 2:17

2.       Shiver – 4:59

3.       Spies – 5:18

4.       Sparks – 3:47

5.       Yellow – 4:29

6.       Trouble – 4:30

7.       Parachutes – 0:46

8.       High Speed – 4:14

9.       We Never Change – 4:09

10.   Everything’s Not Lost – 7:15

Listen to ‘Sparks’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx-K3Il3s_o

Also released on the 10^th July:

1964: The Beatles – A Hard Day’s Night

Also released on the 10^th July:

2006: Guillemots – Through the Window Pane

9th July - Red Hot Chili Peppers' By the Way

Artist – Album: Red Hot Chili peppers – By the Way

Released: 9^th July 2002

Sounds Like: The new and improved Red Hot Chili peppers

The Red Hot Chili’s had been through an awful lot by the time of their eighth studio album. Formed two decades earlier, they had begun life as the infamous cock-rockers (or should that be cock-sockers due to their unique way of wearing socks?) Tony Flow & the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem, dabbling in punk, funk, rock and rap. As they changed their name and first began to release albums and gain a following outside of the Californian underground they operated mostly as a quartet, with the backbone of Anthony Kiedis and Flea backed by Jack Irons on drums and Hillel Slovak on guitar. Unfortunately, years of drug abuse and waywardness reached its inevitable conclusion as Slovak died of a heroin overdose in 1987, and Irons left the band soon after.

New recruits Chad Smith and John Frusciante would complete the most successful line up of the Chili Peppers career, and they soon forged greater success with their 1989 cover of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Higher Ground’, the album Mother’s Milk, and, more completely, with Blood Sugar Sex Magic and lead singles ‘Give It Away’and ‘Under the Bridge’. Things still weren’t quite settled though for the Chili’s though, and it took Frusciante to quit the band and spend a spell in rehab before they found their feet once more with 1999’s Californication. By the start of the new millennium and the release of By the Way, however, things were better than ever before.

Frusciante was seemingly freed from his shackles imposed upon him by crippling addiction and he took a much more prominent place in the band, writing the majority of the songs and embellishing each song with his versatile guitar work and his soaring backing vocals. Kiedis went sober in 2000, but he didn’t shy away from singing about the hard times, with ‘This is the Place’ being the most severe indictment of his previous dependency, containing the line about Slovak “On the day my best friend died I could not get my copper clean”. But for the most part the band seemed to revel in their newfound status as the mature, tee-total, stadium fillers that they had become. ‘Universally Speaking’, ‘Dosed’, ‘The Zephyr Song’ and ‘Cabron’ were joyous, sunny songs, ‘By the Way’, ‘Can’t Stop’ and ‘Throw Away Your Television’ merged the funk-rap of before with the harmonious sound they were perfecting, whilst the latter half of the album, and, in particular, ‘Midnight’, ‘Tear’, ‘Warm Tape’ and ‘Venice Queen’ were near-psychedelic tracks that showcased the Chili’s sky high confidence and their willingness to experiment with the template.

By the Way was the triumphant culmination of years of hard work, resilience and no little talent; an album that won legions of new fans whilst still satisfying the old ones, one that left the critics satisfied but also peppered radio station’s playlist for years afterwards, one that confirmed their status amongst the highest echelon of rock’s elite. Nice one boys.

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.       By the Way – 3:37

2.       Universally Speaking – 4:19

3.       This Is the Place – 4:17

4.       Dosed – 5:12

5.       Don't Forget Me – 4:37

6.       The Zephyr Song – 3:52

7.       Can't Stop – 4:29

8.       I Could Die for You – 3:13

9.       Midnight – 4:55

10.   Throw Away Your Television – 3:44

11.   Cabron – 3:38

12.   Tear – 5:17

13.   On Mercury – 3:28

14.   Minor Thing – 3:37

15.   Warm Tape – 4:16

16.   Venice Queen – 6:07

Listen to ‘Minor Thing’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KHmv2XYMsE

Also released on the 9^th July:

2007: Cherry Ghost – Thirst for Romance

Also released on the 9^th July:

2012: Lianne La Havas – Is Your Love Big Enough?

8th July - Ratatat's LP3

 

 

Artist – Album: Ratatat – LP3

Released: 8^th July 2008

Sounds Like: They’re missing one vital cog

 

Before today I knew Ratatat for two songs: the exhilarating ‘Seventeen Years’, which, like many of my favourite songs from the last half decade or so, I first stumbled upon on one of Pitchfork Media’s top 100 tracks of the year, and which for me is inexorably linked with the party scene before the mega monster rampage in Cloverfield; and ‘Bird Priest’, a foreign sounding piece of electro-indie, which was my ex-girlfriend’s ringtone and hence makes me look for a phone whenever I hear it, Pavlov’s dog style. So what I actually knew about Ratatat was this – they do instrumentals. On guitars and keyboards. And they’re quite cool.
 

What’ve I learned about them after listening to LP3 then? Well, not a lot more to be honest. Half of the album is danceable rock, built around multilayered wailing guitars like ‘Seventeen Years’, whilst the other half is the same electronica as ‘Bird Priest’, bumping and beeping in vaguely interesting ways. They never venture far from this set up -  ‘Black Heroes’ is a memorable ballad, ‘Bruleé’ is whimsical pop and ‘Mi Viejo’ has an element of flamenco to it, but in truth the band operate exclusively within their box here. 
 

What’s more, whilst I’m not exactly a lyrics man – I tend to focus on the music more than the poetry, and on more than one occasion I’ve found out that I had been completely oblivious to the actual meaning of some songs that I’ve listened to (though not as badly as a great friend of mine, who used to naively sing along to the main chorus of Band Aid’s Do They Know? with the words “Beano world”) – some vocals would be nice. I’ve only reviewed one other instrumental album in 190 days of Analbumaday… and that (Copia by Eluvium) had a deep, textured sound akin to classical music, rather than the experimental rock on offer here.

 

They still do instrumentals. Still mostly on guitars and keyboards. And I can’t deny that they’re still cool. I’m just looking for something a bit more exciting.

 

Albumaday... rating: 6/10
 

 

1.       Shiller – 4:18

2.       Falcon Jab – 3:55

3.       Mi Viejo – 2:40

4.       Mirando – 3:52

5.       Flynn – 1:56

6.       Bird-Priest – 3:07

7.       Shempi – 3:58

8.       Imperials – 3:34

9.       Dura – 3:08

10.   Bruleé – 3:43

11.   Mumtaz Khan – 2:38

12.   Gipsy Threat – 1:38

13.   Black Heroes – 4:06

 

Listen to ‘Bruleé’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9_XiVS9w5k