7th November - R.E.M.'s Green

Artist – Album: R.E.M – Green

Released: 7^th November 1988

Sounds Like: Who sell out?

Music history is littered with bands that had amassed an avid underground following, only to supposedly alienate their faithful once they were picked up by a major label and had a chance at mainstream popularity. In fact, just the act of signing for a record company that has such luxuries as access to decent studios, useful contacts and/or paid staff is a heinous crime in some circles; all the more so if the unfortunate band inadvertently score a hit.

In truth, few “sell outs” actually did anything of the sort. With the honourable exception of Robert Johnson, who famously sold his soul to the devil back in the 1930’s, things tend not to be that different when a lucrative contract comes the way of the simple artist – after all, why sign a band if you need to change everything about them? X-Factor and Britain’s Got Talent have proven that there’s already plenty of ready-made pop act play-doh out there, tremendously ready to go and make an absolute arse out of themselves on the whims of a record exec.

So, R.E.M.’s Green, their first album after signing with Warner Bros. Records, is not a sell out. It does contain a few pop songs – ‘Pop Song 89’ is a bit of a no-brainer – but so did their previous albums and, besides, the likes  of ‘Get Up’ and ‘Stand’ were recorded with tongue positioned squarely in cheek. Their first single, in fact, was ‘Orange Crush’, written about the entirely uncommercial subject of the use of chemical defoliants in the Vietnam War. Elsewhere, things sound R.E.M-esque, with the likes of ‘You Are the Everything’ and ‘World Leader Pretend’ being real highlights of a consistently strong set.

If R.E.M. ever did sell out, then it was surely on their next album ‘Out of Time’, which featured the unabashed bubblegum pop of ‘Shiny Happy People’ and a rap-rock crossover with KRS-One called ‘Radio Song’. Despite those dodgy bits, that album is still seen as a classic. Green is nearly as good, and without a sniff of selling out to be snuffed.

Albumaday... rating: 7/10

1.       Pop Song 89 – 3:04

2.       Get Up – 2:39

3.       You Are the Everything – 3:41

4.       Stand – 3:10

5.       World Leader Pretend – 4:17

6.       The Wrong Child – 3:36

7.       Orange Crush – 3:51

8.       Turn You Inside-Out – 4:16

9.       Hairshirt – 3:55

10.   I Remember California – 4:59

11.   11 – 3:10

Listen to ‘You Are the Everything’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e-LF21yFWM

6th November - Joanna Newsom's Ys

Artist – Album: Joanna Newsom - Ys

Released: 6^th November 2006

Sounds Like: A day too late

Fancy me doing a blog on the 5^th of November and not mentioning Bonfire Night! What was I thinking??

For those of you that aren’t from these fair (rainy) isles and don’t know what Bonfire Night is – that’s right guys, I have had readers from some pretty exotic locales: Sri Lanka, the Philippines and, er, Guernsey – it’s an annual celebration with fireworks and massive bonfires, where we celebrate a failed attempt to blow up parliament 400 years ago. We celebrate by burning a big straw effigy of one of the conspirators, Guy Fawkes (wait, are we practicing voodoo?!), braving the rain and the snow and the cold, and eating strange things like toffee apples and a mysterious cake-like substance named parkin.  We British do some strange things eh? 

Then again, you Yanks gave the world a strange enough thing of your own in Joanna Newsom. Her second album Ys is a sprawling folk album – released in the 21^st century but belonging to the 12^th – where ancient, ornate fairy tales are weaved around an emphatically plucked harp and Newsom’s distinctive, gambolling voice. Possibly the most grounded of the five epic tracks is opener ‘Emily’, a tribute to her sister that clocks in at only 12 minutes long.

The thing is, Ys is great but it is weird. Joanna Newsom is weird. Van Dyke Parks (who contributed the orchestra arrangements, and was also responsible for the Beach Boys’ symphonies on Smile) is weird. Combine the two, and you’re bound to get fireworks. Weird fireworks. There’s no point pretending that it’s not. But, like the celebration of Bonfire Night that we have enjoyed for centuries, it’s traditional and unique, earthly, storied and special, and it has the rare power to illuminate your evening.

Albumaday... rating: 7/10

1.       Emily – 12:07

2.       Monkey & Bear – 9:29

3.       Sawdust & Diamonds – 9:54

4.       Only Skin – 16:53

5.       Cosmia – 7:15

Listen to ‘Emily’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak8S8FN3ycA

5th November - The Mountain Goats' Tallahassee

Artist – Album: The Mountain Goats - Tallahassee

Released: 5^th November 2002

Sounds Like: This is for loners

In a few weeks time, Paul will be the first of my group of friends to take the plunge and get married. If, for whatever reason, I wanted him to reconsider (and I don’t!), then I would simply have him listen to this 40 minute long hurting and spiteful spew of marital vitriol.

Barely concealed under the clean but simple arrangements of delicate acoustic guitars and Josh Darnielle’s lovely voice, the lyrics serve to skewer any concept of marital bliss and give flesh to the idea of trouble in paradise. Each and every song is fantastically scornful and desperate, but the greatest lyrics are on the brilliant, venomous ‘No Children’:

“And I hope when you think of me years down the line
You can't find one good thing to say
And I'd hope that if I found the strength to walk out
You'd stay the hell out of my way
I am drowning
There is no sign of land
You are coming down with me
Hand in unlovable hand”

Paul, I implore you, don’t listen to this album! Just ignore it son.

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.       Tallahassee – 4:42

2.       First Few Desperate Hours – 3:03

3.       Southwood Plantation Road – 2:45

4.       Game Shows Touch Our Lives – 3:48

5.       The House That Dripped Blood – 2:53

6.       Idylls of the King – 3:32

7.       No Children – 2:46

8.       See America Right – 1:54

9.       Peacocks – 3:44

10.   International Small Arms Traffic Blues – 2:50

11.   Have to Explode – 3:21

12.   Old College Try – 2:52

13.   Oceanographer’s Choice – 4:08

14.   Alpha Rats Nest – 2:10

Listen to ‘No Children’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRP6egIEABk

Also released on the 5th November:
2005: Johnny Cash - American IV: The Man Comes Around

4th November - My Bloody Valentine's Loveless

Artist – Album: My Bloody Valentine - Loveless

Released: 4^th November 1991

Sounds Like: What you want 

Next to Top of the Pops 2 and Pitchfork Media.com, below my parents’ CD and tape collections but ahead of just listening to the radio, the now sadly defunct The Word magazine had a huge impact on my music taste. The free cover CDs, attached to the front by a strange slither of snot-like glue, were invariably amazing and they introduced me to, amongst others, Sigur Rós, Sufjan Stevens and The Go! Team (or, if you prefer, Half Man Half Biscuit, The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain and Lord Kitchener). 

I remember that the first copy I bought also had an engrossing piece on the greatest underrated albums of our time. Thanks to Rocklist.net (a website you need to check out if you, like me, enjoy a good list) I’ve managed to track down the full 100, with the following introduction: 

 “… what of those masterpiece records that were undernourished at birth, or cold-shouldered by the critics, or simply slipped between the floorboards of the industry, those discs whose ever-expanding virtues genuinely deserve to be trumpeted from any available rooftop? … a few of our favourite writers & musicians offer their personal bids for The Great Underrated Albums of Our Time”.

Below choices from Johnny Marr and Phil Jupitus (Roy Harper’s Stormcock and Madness’ Keep Moving respectively), and before Nick Lowe’s selection of Jimmie Vaughan’s Strange Pleasure, was the former editor of NME Danny Kelly’s pick: My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless.

That magazine came out in June 2005, so I was on the cusp of my 17^th birthday. I bought Loveless on the strength of that review, and I can honestly say that no album before or since has so blown my mind on first listen. If – somehow – you haven’t yet heard the Irish band’s 1991 shoegazing classic, I implore you to drop all that you’re doing, enter itunes, pay the £7.99 and play the whole album in its entirety. Once finished, repeat (at least three times).

Maybe one day you’ll write a blog about your various musical influences and this post will get a mention. 

Albumaday... rating: 10/10

1.       Only Shallow – 4:17

2.       Loomer – 2:38

3.       Touched – 0:56

4.       To Here Knows When – 5:31

5.       When You Sleep – 4:11

6.       I Only Said – 5:34

7.       Come in Alone – 3:58

8.       Sometimes – 5:19

9.       Blown a Wish – 3:36

10.   What You Want – 5:33

11.   Soon – 6:58

Listen to ‘What You Want’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azXLPL-iuSI

Also released on the 4^th November:
1983: Paul Simon - Hearts and Bones

Also released on the 4^th November:
1991: Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque

Also released on the 4^th November:
2008: Explosions in the Sky - The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place

3rd November - Beck's Mutations

Artist – Album: Beck – Mutations

Released: 3^rd November 1998

Sounds Like: The genre spanner

Howard Moon: I do many things. I span the genres - they call me the genre spanner.

Vince Noir: Yeah, they call you the spanner...

Getting started on Beck’s back catalogue can be something of a daunting task for any music fan – over his 20 year career he’s racked up 11 albums and 40 singles, hopping from style to style on each one like Howard Moon’s genre spanner. Take a wrong turn as you explore his music unguided and you could unwittingly find yourself in bossa nova territory, or stranded in some electro-indie-hip hop no-man’s-land, unprotected against stray DJ scratches and obscure samples. No one wants that.

Luckily I’ve come up with a cheat, which should help you to avoid potential pratfalls. Begin with Odelay, Beck’s seminal 1996 recording. Even here the eclectic varieties come at you thick and fast, but they’re so well-crafted and brilliant that you should be immune to them. However, you can – and this is my  point – use the songs as springboards into whichever Beck-osphere is best suited to your particular tastes. For example, if you like ‘Where It’s At’ and ‘High 5 (Rock the Catskills)’ best, then Midnite Vultures might be the album you turn to next. If the chameleon-esque approach of ‘Devil’s Haircut’ and ‘The New Pollution’ sit easy with you, then you’re safe to make the move to Mellow Gold and Guero. If, like me, ‘Ramshackle’ and ‘Jack-Ass’ are your favourites, then the lush sound of Sea Change and the acoustic Mutations are great albums.

Beck himself revels in the laid back psychedelic bluesy folk surroundings of Mutations. There’s less need to be the shape-shifting showman and we’re treated to a more open and reflective individual on the likes of mandarin-led ‘Nobody’s Fault but My Own’. Being Beck there’s still a degree of diversity, diving from The Kinks-inspired ‘Lazy Flies’ to the Brazilian ‘Tropicalia’ to the bar room band ‘Bottle of Blues’, but the changes here seem minor and seamless compared to other albums. The mellow gold of Mutations is one of the best Beck mutations.

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.       Cold Brains – 3:41

2.       Nobody’s Fault but My Own – 5:02

3.       Lazy Flies – 3:44

4.       Canceled Check – 3:14

5.       We Live Again – 3:05

6.       Tropicalia – 3:20

7.       Dead Melodies – 2:36

8.       Bottle of Blues – 4:56

9.       O Maria – 3:59

10.   Sing It Again – 4:19

11.   Static – 5:18

12.   Diamond Bollocks – 6:02

Listen to ‘Cold Brains’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl-337I6RH0

Also released on the 3^rd November:
1978: The Jam – All Mod Cons

Also released on the 3^rd November:
1992: Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine

2nd November - The Police's Outlandos d'Amour

Artist – Album: The Police – Outlandos D’Amour

Released: 2^nd November 1978

Sounds Like: a Stinging review

What to make of The Police, eh? True, they were consistent deliverers of perky pop-rock and they did pick up a highly impressive five UK no. 1 singles. ‘Every Breath You Take’ is quite rightly considered amongst the greatest songs of all time, although that’s only correct if you view it as a delightfully sinister ode to stalking and not some ill-conceived love song.

On the other hand, it’s all just a little bit naff isn’t it? Their ill-conceived forays into reggae are like those early nineties dalliances with dance music: sounding old waaaaay sooner than it should do, and uniformly rubbish. Initially labelled punks, the band was in truth about as edgy as a balloon. They were about as edgy as I am. And then there’s Sting, rock’s most pretentious frontman this side of Bono (how did people cope in the 80’s??). A poll in US magazine Blender pegged him as the worst lyricist ever, which may be a little harsh but was no doubt aided by the mindless likes of ‘De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da’.

It all started for Sting and Co. with Outlandos D’Amour, which in name alone manages to convey everything that is pompous and wrong about the band. With a song featuring a spoken monologue about a blow up doll (‘Be My Girl – Sally’, it’s true!) and a horrible, experimental, semi-instrumental closing track (‘Masoko Tanga’), it has the potential to be a nightmare. But the main thing about The Police, right, is that if you look beyond the “reggae” and the posturing, there is actually something about them that is both entertaining and endearing, like watching an overly-enthusiastic drunk person dance. ‘So Lonely ‘ is enjoyably raucous, ‘Can’t Stand Losing You’  is great fun if you take the lyrics with a pinch of salt, ‘Truth Hits Everybody’ and ‘Next to You’ have great singalongy choruses and ‘Roxanne’ is hands down the greatest drinking song all time. Roxanne (DRINK!)!

Albumaday... rating: 6/10

1.       Next to You – 2:50

2.       So Lonely – 4:49

3.       Roxanne – 3:12

4.       Hole in My Life – 4:52

5.       Peanuts – 3:58

6.       Can’t Stand Losing You – 2:58

7.       Truth Hits Everybody – 2:53

8.       Born in the 50’s – 3:40

9.       Be My Girl – Sally – 3:22

10.   Masoko Tanga – 5:40

Listen to ‘So Lonely’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX6MvV8cbh8

1st November - Nick Drake's Bryter Layter

Artist – Album: Nick Drake – Bryter Layter

Released: 1^st November 1970

Sounds Like: A crisp November morning

Whether yesterday evening for you consisted of drunken debauchery at a Hallowe’en party or, like me, watching scary movies with no lights on, the chances are you require some gentle, soothing music this morning. Enter: Nick Drake.

Bryter Layter was Drake’s second album, and it’s also his most unchallenging; one where’d he moved very slightly away from the pastoral folk countryside of debut Five Leaves Left to a poppier setting, and one where he hadn’t yet been possessed by the demons that consumed him on final record Pink Moon.

‘Northern Sky’, though understated, stands amongst the greatest love songs of all time, the Hazey Jane’s (actually the name of a pretty good Scottish group) are brilliantly light folk-pop efforts, ‘Fly’ is as delicate as insect wings and ‘One of These Things First’ is busy and fun, bouncing along on Drake’s gossamer croon. All told, it’s a fantastically assured album and one that softly but confidently blows those Hallowe’en cobwebs away.

Albumaday... rating: 9/10

1.       Introduction – 1:33

2.       Hazey Jane II – 3:46

3.       At the Chime of a City Clock – 4:47

4.       One of These Things First – 4:52

5.       Hazey Jane I – 4:31

6.       Bryter Layter – 3:24

7.       Fly – 3:00

8.       Poor Boy – 6:09

9.       Northern Sky – 3:47

10.   Sunday – 3:42

Listen to ‘Hazey Jane II’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSZ9oX0rLgg

Also released on 1^st November:

1988: My Bloody Valentine – Isn’t Anything

Also released on 1^st November:

1970: Grateful Dead – American Beauty

Also released on 1^st November:

1994: Nirvana – MTV Unplugged in New York