9th August - Gravediggaz's 6 Feet Deep

Artist – Album: Gravediggaz – 6 Feet Deep

Released: 9^th July 1994

Sounds Like: If Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers joined forces with Eminem and Busta Rhymes
 

Gravediggaz hold exulted status as one of the pioneers of the small hip hop sub genre dubbed Horrorcore. Its proponents were famed for their horror movie soundtracks and evil fantasy lyrics (rather than for producing horrifically bad hip hop a la Vanilla Ice), with a few of the other colourful stars of the movement include Flatlinerz (named after the fantastically trashy cult movie of the near-same name) and the brilliantly named duo of Insane Clown Posse and Kung Fu Vampire.

As you may have guessed, the violence and terror promoted by these guys contained at least a pinch of cartoon, and Gravediggaz had it in spades. It’s there quite obviously in the maniacal Woody Woodpecker-esque cackle in ‘Constant Elevation’ and the even more evil laugh at the end of ‘1-800 Suicide’, it’s there in the Hammer Horror titles such as ‘2 Cups of Blood’, ‘Diary of a Madman’ and ‘Mommy, Whats A Gravedigga?’, and it’s there in the gruesome, death obsessed lyrics. The music here may be of the sort that can terrify your parents, but Frukwan, Poetic, and the more well known RZA and Prince Paul had their collective tongues at least hovering close to cheek.

Whilst it’s rare that I have two hip hop albums in a row on my Albumaday… project (and it’s unprecedented to have consecutive records that both contain the rhyming couplet “tortoise” and “rigor mortis”) it’s been an absolute pleasure to have two such interesting and experimental albums from hip hop’s golden age.

Albumaday... rating: 7/10

1.       Just When You Thought It Was Over (Intro) – 0:10

2.       Constant Elevation – 2:30

3.       Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide – 3:55

4.       Defective Trip (Trippin’) – 5:04

5.       2 Cups of Blood – 1:24

6.       Blood Brothers – 4:47

7.       360 Questions – 0:33

8.       1-800 Suicide – 4:18

9.       Pass The Shovel – 3:36

10.   Diary of a Madman – 4:34

11.   Mommy, What’s a Gravedigga? – 1:44

12.   Bang Your Head – 3:24

13.   Here Comes the Gravediggaz – 3:44

14.   Graveyard Chamber – 4:57

15.   Death Trap – 2:57

16.   6 Feet Deep – 4:36

17.   Rest in Peace (Outro) – 2:01

Listen to ‘Constant Elevation’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anvDbCK_ODI

Also released on the 9^th August:

1994: Machine Head – Burn My Eyes

Also released on the 9^th August:

1996: Therion – Theli

8th August - N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton

Artist – Album: N.W.A. – Straight Outta Compton

Released: 8^th August 1988

Sounds Like: Crompton's Most Wanted

N.W.A may have courted controversy as a matter of course, releasing the firebrand single ‘Fuck tha Police’ and generally populating their music with vibrant profanities and tales of guns and hoes and rock and roll, but in truth they were a lot less humourless than their gangsta rap contemporaries such as Public Enemy. They were angry young men undoubtedly, and they showed as much on the likes opening trio of ‘Straight Outta Compton’, the aforementioned ‘Fuck tha Police’ and ‘Gangsta Gangsta’ which squared on fakers, the boys in blue and the obscene level of violence in the South Central L.A. in the late of Eighties. Ice Cube channelled this passion in a phenomenal performance in the 1991’s powerful drama Boyz n the Hood.

But what truly separated N.W.A from their peers were their lighter touches. Where Public Enemy assaulted the senses, N.W.A’s funky approach had you nodding along like the dog from Churchill. Dr Dre and DJ Yella formed a production team that has rarely been bettered in the history of hip hop, and Ice Cube plied their grooves with greatly fluid flows. Album closer ‘Something 2 Dance 2’ experiments with danceable templates, whilst ‘I Ain’t the 1’ hilariously runs the rule on gold diggers. They knowingly produced their most accessible single yet in the commercially-minded-rappers-skewering ‘Express Yourself’. Funky, fulfilling, influential stuff.

 

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.       Straight Outta Compton – 4:19

2.       Fuck tha Police – 5:45

3.       Gangsta Gangsta – 5:36

4.       If It Ain’t Ruff – 3:34

5.       Parental Discretion Iz Advised – 5:16

6.       8 Ball – 4:52

7.       Something Like That – 3:35

8.       Express Yourself – 4:25

9.       Compton’s N the House – 5:20

10.   I Ain’t tha 1 – 4:54

11.   Dope Man – 5:20

12.   Quiet on tha Set – 3:59

13.   Something 2 Dance 2 – 3:22

Listen to ‘Express Yourself’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u31FO_4d9TY

Also released on the 8^th August:

2007: M.I.A. – Kala

7th August - Okkervil River's The Stage Names

Artist – Album: Okkervil River – The Stage Names

Released:  7^th August 2007

Sounds Like: Hardly the Stand-ins

 

“Let me go home, let me go home, I wanna go home, let me go home, Why don't you let me go home? I have a blog to write, I don’t even know what the album is yet”

 

This sentiment may become all the more familiar to my soon-to-be housemate in the coming months, but tonight was the first that I had real cause to use it, with tonight being the first of potentially many completely impromptu piss-ups with the best mate.

Thankfully, being left with an hour to review an Okkervil River album is something that I feel that I am more than equipped to deal with, considering they’re one of the most reliably gifted bands of the last ten years. Will Sheff consistently delivers his dramatic vocals that are part lamentable but part perfect indie, whilst his intelligent lyrics are no less clever here than on the awesome previous album Black Sheep Boy. The rest of the band seem to have found a new found confidence that turns them bombastic at times, such as on the never-more-theatrical ‘Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe’, one of the absolute highlights of the record. ‘A Girl in Port’ proves the band aren’t all about high intensity rock, however, as it’s country tinged brilliance comes close to stealing the show. The knowing references of ‘Plus Ones’ is also a highlight, as is the album closer ‘John Allyn Smith Sails’, a strange mix of the Beach Boys’ ‘Sloop John B’ and Sufjan Stevens.

 

Being that I’m a little bit drunk, listening to this album for the first time only half an hour ago, and I have just 25 minutes to finalise and finish my post, it would be easiest for me to dismiss the album as complete tosh. It honestly is a huge complement that I’m driven to do the almost complete opposite –viewing the album as one of the modern greats and giving it a glowing reference that is almost more than my lazy imagination can cope with. As previously explained on April’s Black Sheep Boy blog (http://analbumadaykeepsthebluesaway.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/5th-april-okkervil-rivers-black-sheep.html), these guys are brilliant.

 

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

 

1.       Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe – 4:23

2.       Unless It’s Kicks – 4:38

3.       A Hand to Take Hold of the Scene – 3:59

4.       Savannah Smiles – 3:38

5.       Plus Ones – 3:43

6.       A Girl in Port – 6:36

7.       You Can’t Hold the Hand of a Rock and Roll Man – 4:53

8.       Title Track – 5:22

9.       John Allyn Smith Sails – 4:33

 

Listen to ‘Plus Ones’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaXvayF2vog

6th August - Jens Lekman's Oh You're So Silent Jens

Artist – Album: Jens Lekman – Oh You’re So Silent Jens

Released:  6^th August 2005

Sounds Like: The love child of Jonathan Richman and Amélie

 

Being a bit of a manly man (ha!), a heterosexual male with a beautiful sort-of-girlfriend (yes, it's not Facebook official yet, and yes, it will be awkward if I go round to hers tonight and she's read this...), I find it hard to reconcile just how much I love Jens Lekman. The guy is dreamy. In his heavily accented Swedish vocals, he weaves wryly humorous tales of love and life in your mid-to-late twenties, all over deftly orchestrated indie pop gems. His European style and cute romanticism mark him out as the musical equivalent to Amélie Poulain, a cultish icon for the bashful, mildly-geeky bloke.

Lekman has been a star in his native Sweden almost from the off, with 'Maple Leaves' and 'Black Cab' from the 2003 EP Maple Leaves receiving heavy radio rotation and 'You Are the Light' from his debut album When I Said I Wanted to Be Your Dog reaching #6 in the Swedish charts. International success has been harder to come by, although consistently high critical praise and the use of 'An Argument with Myself' in the latest Kindle advert means that he is slowly beginning to permeate the indie consciousness.

For those of you wishing to follow me down the path of Lekman-love, Oh You're So Silent Jens, a compilation taking pieces from his first album, his first three EPs and various other obscure or unreleased odds and sods, is the please to start. Along with the majestic 'Maple Leaves' ("she said it was all make believe, but I thought she said maple leaves") and the jaunty 'Black Cab', highlights include the heartfelt Television Personalities cover 'Someone to Share My Life', the piano led 'Pocketful of Money', the witty folk lullaby 'Julie' and the gorgeous 'Rocky Dennis' trilogy. Heck it, they're all brilliant.

Albumaday... rating: 10/10

 

1.       At the Dept. of Forgotten Songs – 1:32

2.       Maple Leaves – 3:59

3.       Sky Phenomenon – 4:34

4.       Pocketful of Money – 4:20

5.       Black Cab – 4:54

6.       Someone to Share My Life With – 3:32

7.       Rocky Dennis’ Farewell Song – 5:22

8.       Rocky Dennis in Heaven – 1:02

9.       Jens Lekman’s Farewell Song to Rocky Dennis – 3:55

10.   Julie – 3:02

11.   I Saw Her in the Anti War Demonstration – 3:11

12.   A Sweet Summer’s Night on Hammer Hill – 3:27

13.   A Man Walks into a Bar – 4:20

14.   Another Sweet Summer’s Night on Hammer Hill – 3:22

15.   F-Word – 4:36

16.   The Wrong Hands – 4:21

17.   Maple Leaves – 3:45

 

Listen to ‘Rocky Dennis’ Farewell Song’ : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wXMr_JYTCs

Also released on the 6^th August:

1965: The Beatles – Help!

5th August - The Beatles' Revolver

Artist – Album: The Beatles - Revolver

Released:  5^th August 1966

Sounds Like: The Daddy

The Beatles kicked off 1965 with Help!, the last album of the Fab Four’s mop top era, which featured classic pop tunes such as ‘Help!’ and ‘Ticket to Ride’, as well as olde-worlde folk songs like ‘Yesterday’ (apparently the most covered song of all time, which is just crazy, as I can’t recall a single other version of it). Two years later, they released the psychedelic kaleidoscopic menagerie that is Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. What happened in between? The daring, inventive, masterpiece Rubber Soul, and the daringer, inventivier, and masterpiecier Revolver.

Every single one of the Fabs were on top form for this landmark album. Ringo’s most obvious contribution may have been the lead vocals on the Technicolor nursery rhyme ‘Yellow Submarine’, but his real strength was to be able to cope admirably with the rhythmic demands and styles that the wide variety of genres and moods required. George Harrison provided his biggest input yet, chipping in with the acerbic album opener ‘Taxman’, the raga tinged ‘Love You To’ and the frustrated ‘I Want to Tell You’, all of which are excellent.

Lennon and McCartney, as always, supplied the majority of the works here though and as wonderful as the likes of ‘I’m Only Sleeping’, ‘And Your Bird Can Sing’, ‘For No One’ and ‘Got to Get You into My Life’ are, they are overshadowed by the each of the duo’s crowning glories. McCartney gave us ‘Eleanor Rigby’ an orchestral, spooky paean to those in society who are desperately lonely. It serves as a counterpoint to his nostalgic ‘Penny Lane’ – both are character studies, but where the latter is charmingly goofy, the former is chillingly desolate. Lennon’s ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, meanwhile, is a blistering, hypnotic slice of sequenced experimental rock, one which was completely unique until the Chemical Brothers stumbled upon its alchemical formula 30 years later and proceeded to forge a long and successful career out of rehashing it time and time again.

Revolver is the greatest album in the history of the greatest band in the history of music. It’s as good as an eleven out of ten, could it be anything else?

Albumaday... rating: 10/10

1.       Taxman – 2:39

2.       Eleanor Rigby – 2:08

3.       I’m Only Sleeping – 3:02

4.       Love You To – 3:01

5.       Here, There and Everywhere – 2:26

6.       Yellow Submarine – 2:40

7.       She Said She Said – 2:37

8.       Good Day Sunshine – 2:10

9.       And Your Bird Can Sing – 2:02

10.   For No One – 2:01

11.   Doctor Robert – 2:15

12.   I Want to Tell You – 2:30

13.   Got to Get You into My Life – 2:31

14.   Tomorrow Never Knows – 2:57

Listen to ‘I Want to Tell You’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y9W8tgXKQU

Also released on the 5^th August:

1969: Creedence Clearwater Revival – Green River

4th August - Snow Patrol's Final Straw

Artist – Album: Snow Patrol – Final Straw

Released:  4^th August 2003

Sounds Like:  The abominable Snow Patrol

Snow Patrol first found mainstream success with their third album Final Straw and, in particular, the Coldplay-esque single ‘Run’ (covered in typically overwrought fashion by The X Factor winner Leona Lewis in 2008). Given that the record was followed by the earnest Eyes Open and its own anthems ‘Chasing Cars’ and ‘Set the Fire to the Third Bar’, it’s hard not to lump the group with Coldplay and other such purveyors of bland adult-orientated rock/tosh. However, once you’ve passed the gentle (but interesting) lovers’ quarrel of ‘How to Be Dead’, the band reveal a spikiness and penchant for distortion on ‘Wow’ and ‘Spitting Games’ that signifies the additional influence from the alternative likes of Pavement and Dinosaur Jr.

‘Chocolate’ was the third single released from the album, and probably settles the argument on what Snow Patrol are trying to achieve from their music. Theirs is commercially accessible indie rock, designed to please both poppy audiences with their sincere love songs, and placate fans of heavier stuff with edgy guitars and driving percussion (very similar to Doves’ ‘Pounding’ on this particular track). They are masters are what they do, and whilst it’s easy for critics to dismiss it as derivative or humdrum, it’s unquestionably hard to dislike.

Albumaday... rating: 7/10

1.       How to Be Dead – 3:21

2.       Wow – 4:02

3.       Gleaming Auction – 2:04

4.       Whatever’s Left – 2:39

5.       Spitting Games – 3:46

6.       Chocolate – 3:02

7.       Run – 5:54

8.       Grazed Knees – 2:55

9.       Ways & Means – 4:47

10.   Tiny Little Fractures – 2:28

11.   Somewhere a Clock Is Ticking – 4:32

12.   Same – 3:54

Listen to ‘Same’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHUhLy2obSw

3rd August - Stevie Wonder's Innervisions

Artist – Album: Stevie Wonder – Innervisions

Released:  3^rd August 1973

Sounds Like: A true visionary

Much like the fact that it’s difficult to compare music from different genres, it can be even more problematic to judge albums that have differing aspirations. After all, some records are composed purely to make you dance, and it hardly seems fair to weigh them up next to albums made to push the boundaries of music, or served to make some commentary on the state of the world. For one, those albums with superior motives are more likely than not just be a bit naff – difficult to listen to and tiresome. Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions, however, is an exception to this rule, as he effortlessly supplies an album laden with weight of the world’s ills and yet one which is somehow an unbridled pleasure to listen to.

Little Stevie’s got his back up about a lot of things on this album, from the dangers of dope in ‘Too High’ to the perils of urban life in the epic ‘Living for the City’ – which, unlike on the single version, contains a mini-drama in the middle, where Wonder assumes multiple personalities and acts out the unfortunate circumstances that befall those that lack the requisite savvy in the streets. The political acrimony surrounding Richard Nixon’s occupation of White House gets covered on ‘He’s Misstra Know-It-All’, and Tricky Dicky gets his biggest kicking from a black artist this side of 2009 comedy Black Dynamite. There are some more tender moments though, with the beautiful ‘Golden Lady’ the best of many splendid ballads.   

Innervisions is the 29^th perfect score in Albumaday... history, although, along with In the Aeroplane over the Sea, Doolittle, Odessey & Oracle and Pet Sounds, it belongs in the absolute top echelon of those 10 out of 10s. Thanks to a bit of forward thinking, I also know that the next album to join this most exulted company is not too far away... Don’t go anywhere folks!

Albumaday... rating:  10/10

1.       Too High – 4:36

2.       Visions – 5:23

3.       Living for the City – 7:22

4.       Golden Lady – 4:58

5.       Higher Ground – 3:42

6.       Jesus Children of America – 4:10

7.       All in Love Is Fair – 3:41

8.       Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing – 4:44

9.       He’s Misstra Know-It-All – 5:35

Listen to ‘Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOz3p6k5O2g

Also released on the 3^rd August:

1979: AC-DC – Highway to Hell

Also released on the 3^rd August:

1979: Talking Heads – Fear of Music