19th June - The Shins' Oh, Inverted World

Artist – Album: The Shins – Oh, Inverted World

Released:  19^th June 2001

Sounds Like: It makes a good first impression

Most days I already know the album I’m listening to pretty well, and I have some sort of accompanying mildly interesting (I hope!) back-story that I can root around and pull out from the back of the sofa of my mind. Every now and again, though, an album comes along that has slipped through my mental net (nice mix of metaphors there Joe). Oh, Inverted World, the debut record by the Shins, is one of those elusive few.

So, quick surf of the internet tells me... this is the splendidly quiffed Scrubber Zach Braff’s favourite album. And... in his film Garden State (which I’ve not seen yet, is it any good?), two of the songs here were used, one of which – ‘New Slang’ – was introduced with the following quote “You gotta hear this one song. It'll change your life, I swear.” Groovy... Also, also, apparently, the album is one of the most important and influential indie albums of the early 00’s. Its gentle, melodic sound, literate lyrics and universal themes made it one of the standard bearers of the genre’s move away from the spiky ironic rock end of the indie spectrum to the mellow, autumnal pop which dominated the 21^st century. So that’s pretty cool.

Welllll, I don’t know about all that. I mean, I do trust Wikipedia and Allmusic, but I didn’t know about all that at least until today. I do know though that this is a sweet and gorgeous album. There are traces of the great baroque pop 60’s bands such as The Beach Boys and The Zombies, and some of the imagery is just plain beautiful. Although its smooth, airy indie pop never really falters, the highlights – ‘Caring is Creepy’, ‘Know Your Onion!’, ‘New Slang’ and ‘Pressed in a Book’ – really sparkle. I’m not sure it’s a life-changer, but it is a wonderful personal discovery.

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.       Caring Is Creepy – 3:19

2.       One by One All Day – 4:08

3.       Weird Divide – 1:57

4.       Know Your Onion! – 2:28

5.       Girl Inform Me – 2:19

6.       New Slang – 3:49

7.       The Celibate Life – 1:49

8.       Girl on the Wing – 2:48

9.       Your Algebra – 2:22

10.   Pressed in a Book – 2:54

11.   The Past and Pending – 5:21

Listen to ‘The Celibate Life’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KMjxAvpUD0

18th June - Beck's Odelay

Artist – Album: Beck – Odelay!

Released: 18^th June 1996

Sounds Like: Attention Deficit Disorder

Despite branding himself a loser on the ultimate slacker anthem of the same name back in 1994, Beck has managed to forge a long, triumphant and still relevant (check out his work on the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World soundtrack – it’s ace!) career from his baggy, chequered shirts and Californian drawl. The highwater mark of a career full of peaks, however, remains his 1996 album Odelay.

Pre-Odelay, Beck was seen as something of a one-hit wonder, despite the considerable acclaim for his second album Mellow Gold (but very much in keeping with the cultish efforts Stereopathetic Soulmanure and One Foot in the Grave). He’d indicated on his breakthrough hit that he was working on something more than just plain rock or mere hip hop or simple folk; he’d been putting together some kind of Unified Theory of Music (UTM™), taking his favourite parts from all genres and making them work together. Unfortunately ‘Loser’ was the only one of his early alchemic concoctions to take off, and by 1996 people were beginning to question whether he’d bloody do anything of bloody note again. Beck himself begun to shy away from his magpie music, and the initial recordings for the album were sombre, melancholic affairs in line with his personal headspace following a number of personal tragedies. Somewhere along the way, however, he was shook out of it and convinced to continue with the uptempo style of before. 

The resulting record was the eclectic work of a genius. From the catchy opening riff of ‘Devil’s Haircut’, the album encorporates hip hop beats, funky bass, countrified slide guitar, and a multitude of samples from artists from MC5 to Grand Funk Railroad, from Lee Dorsey to Sly & the Family Stone to Them to Franz Schubert. There’s even snippets of car horns, donkeys eeyore-ing and, in the Futurama cartoon at least, Bender’s washboard solo. Only occasionally does the pace relent, and beautiful acoustic ditties such as ‘Ramshackle’ show how different things could have been had his initial slower sessions seen fruition. Thankfully though, this energetic hotchpotch was instead laid down and a star was (re)born.

Albumaday... rating:  8/10

1.       Devils Haircut – 3:14

2.       Hotwax – 3:49

3.       Lord Only Knows – 4:14

4.       The New Pollution – 3:39

5.       Derelict – 4:12

6.       Novacane – 4:37

7.       Jack-Ass – 4:11

8.       Where It’s At – 5:30

9.       Minus – 2:32

10.   Sissyneck – 3:52

11.   Readymade – 2:37

12.   High 5 (Rock the Catskills) – 4:10

13.   Ramshackle – 7:29

Listen to ‘Jack-Ass’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDh_hzNh_Vc

Also released on the 18^th June:

2007: Justice - Cross

17th June - Bon Iver's Bon Iver

Artist – Album: Bon Iver – Bon Iver

Released:  17^th June 2011

Sounds Like: Now we are old

My legs are grey. My ears are gnarled. My eyes are old and bent... Increasingly as I get older, and especially as it was just my birthday yesterday, I look at what other people in the world have done and wonder what I’ve done with my life. I mean, granted, I do have a decent job, a nice flat in a great city and a great little rickety old car, and I have seen all of the films in the imdb top 250 movies of all time, but in comparison to some of my peers, that really ain’t all that.

On the other hand, it’s not yet too late to really achieve something special. Back in 2006 Bon Iver founder, singer and chief songwriter Justin Vernon was my age now. His band DeYarmond Edison (now that’s a rubbish name) had just dissolved and, even better, he and his girlfriend also broke up. He probably wasn’t feeling particularly great. He decided to run away to a cabin in Wisconsin, lock himself up and record all his thoughts on his failings, his heartache, his love and his loss. ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’, the result, is now one of the most widely acclaimed records of the 21^st century and one of the all time great breakup albums. So, clearly, that sort of success isn’t quite beyond me yet...

Presumably life picked up a bit for Vernon following that surprise hit, so the next big dilemma must have been what to do next. It’s commendable that he didn’t just try to live off the remembered depression and release ‘For Emma’ #2. Instead, he expanded on their sound and left his little log cabin to explore the wider world (check out the amount of songs with cool place names in the title), bring on a change of sound which reminds me of John Martyn’s One World. It’s like the album artwork itself depicts – the little cabin is now away in the background, colour has been splashed all over and there’s a variety of different pastoral locations on display. ‘Perth’, ‘Towers’ and ‘Holocene’ are the best examples of the extraordinary outcome, dense with atmospheric synths, electric guitars and his beautiful voice. I’m looking forward to bringing out my own similarly awesome album in 5 years time.

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.       Perth – 4:22

2.       Minnesota, WI – 3:52

3.       Holocene – 5:37

4.       Towers – 3:08

5.       Michicant – 3:45

6.       Hinnom, TX – 2:45

7.       Wash. – 4:59

8.       Calgary – 4:10

9.       Lisbon, OH – 1:33

10.   Beth/Rest – 5:17

Listen to ‘Perth’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo6lKQYVUBU

Also released on the 17^th June:

2003: Drive-By Truckers – Decoration Day

Also released on the 17^th June: 

2008: Tilly and the Wall – O

16th June - The Smiths' The Queen Is Dead

Artist – Album: The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead

Released:  16^th June 1986

Sounds Like:  A not Unhappy Birthday!

I’d say it took about 6.23 seconds from setting up my extensive database of albums and release dates for this stupid-boy-project before I checked to see what albums were released on the 16^th June, my birthday.

Wild Beast’s Limbo Panto, 5 years old today, would not have been a bad album, boasting as it does their unique vocal warblings and their peculiar brand of atmospheric indie rock. History’s most infamous difficult album, Trout Mask Replica, also shares my birthday which certainly would have made an interesting post, whilst it’s crazy to think that Spiritualized’s wonderful but heartbreaking Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space turns 16 today. But to be honest I couldn’t have been happier to see that The Smiths’ masterpiece is also a 16^th of Juner, being as it is one of my all time favourite records. What a cracking present.

It’s the sound of the band at the very top of their game. Rourke and Joyce are lithe and powerful throughout, particularly on the spiky opener ‘The Queen Is Dead’, but it’s impossible to ignore the incredible input of the twin powers of Johnny Marr and Morrissey. Marr here produced some of his most dazzling compositions – although he was unsurprisingly pissed off when Morrissey festooned the faintly ridiculous lyrics of ‘Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others’ over a stunningly gorgeous melody, there are plenty of other remarkable tunes untainted by quickly tossed off words. ‘Cemetry Gates’ is splendid bubblegum pop, whilst ‘The Boy With the Thorn in His Side’ might sit only behind ‘This Charming Man’ as their best ever slice of jangly indie rock.

Meanwhile, Morrissey steps up to the mic armed with his finest set of lyrics. He playfully rips apart his record label head on ‘Frankly Mr Shankly’ (“But sometimes I'd feel more fulfilled, Making Christmas cards with the mentally ill”), embraces melodramatic love on fan favourite There Is a Light That Never Goes Out’ and shows his unparalleled gift for shattering despair on ‘I Know It’s Over’ (I know it's over - still I cling, I don't know where else I can go”). The latter song is the albums focal point and the one that brings together each wonderful element most successfully. But as a whole the album is near perfect anyway. Happy birthday to me.

Albumaday... rating: 10/10

1.       The Queen Is Dead – 6:24

2.       Frankly, Mr. Shankly – 2:17

3.       I Know It’s Over – 5:48

4.       Never Had No One Ever – 3:36

5.       Cemetry Gates – 2:39

6.       Bigmouth Strikes Again – 3:12

7.       The Boy with the Thorn in His Side – 3:15

8.       Vicar in a Tutu – 2:21

9.       There Is a Light That Never Goes Out – 4:02

10.   Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others – 3:14

Listen to ‘The Boy with the Thorn in His Side‘: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYp2LGKOF_M

Also released on the 16^th June:

1969: Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band – Trout Mask Replica

Also released on the 16^th June:

1997: Spiritualized – Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space

Also released on the 16^th June:

2008: Wild Beasts – Limbo Panto

15th June - The White Stripes' Icky Thump

Artist – Album: The White Stripes – Icky Thump

Released:  15^th June 2007

Sounds Like: They’ve gone mental!

Things kick off on Icky Thump, The White Stripes’ sixth and final studio album, with the band not straying too far away from their standard stuff. The Led Zeppelin influences are on full display on the title track, whilst the bluesy garage rock of ‘300 M.P.H Torrential Outpour Blues’ has the vibe of their earlier work but with a slightly more polished feel.

On the fourth song though, things take a turn for the weird. Jack White wails “Connnn-quest!” like a psychotic matador, whilst mariachi trumpeters and flamenco guitars provide a suitably theatrical and exciting backdrop. It’s by far the most enthralling, interesting and, well, insane song on this album, and it’s only once you look at the album’s writing credits that you realise that this centrepiece is not a White Stripes song at all, but a near like-for-like copy of Patti Page’s 1950s dramatic pop. You barely have time to get your breath back during the pleasant but hardly ground breaking ‘Bone Broke’ and ‘Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn’ before you’re thrown back into the crazy with ‘St. Andrew (This Battle Is in the Wind’ ), a psychedelic  rocker complete with bagpipes and spoken word verses. Following that is the abrasive and harsh ‘Little Cream Soda’.

Whilst these flights of fancy can be fascinating and original, they’re mostly just baffling. There’s also the inkling that they’re only doing this for the sake of being weird – check out the pearly king and queen outfits on the album cover for exhibit 1, totally unnecessary. Not only do the bizarre bits swing and miss, but when the band decide to go back to basics and rock out they can still occasionally disappoint. Unfortunately, for the first time they sound like they’re no longer making classic rock but just imitating Classic Rock. It’s a decent album, but nowhere near as vital as their earlier output.

Albumaday... rating: 6/10

1.       Icky Thump – 4:17

2.       You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do as You’re Told) – 3:54

3.       300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues – 5:28

4.       Conquest – 2:48

5.       Bone Broke – 3:14

6.       Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn – 3:05

7.       St. Andrew (This Battle Is in the Air) – 1:49

8.       Little Cream Soda – 3:45

9.       Rag and Bone – 3:48

10.   I’m Slowly Turning Into You – 4:34

11.   A Martyr for My Love for You – 4:19

12.   Catch Hell Blues – 4:18

13.   Effect and Cause – 3:00

Listen to ‘Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X69EVJCOKWM

Also released on the 15^th June:

1989: Nirvana - Bleach

Also released on the 15^th June:

1999: The White Stripes – The White Stripes

Also released on the 15^th June:

1999: Santana - Supernatural

14th June - Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures

Artist – Album: Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures

Released:  14^th June 1979            

Sounds Like: That anti-Friday feeling

Well, it’s been a long (looong) slog of a week, but it’s finally the weekend. A bit of a special weekend at that, for I, Joseph Francis Douglas, celebrate my 25^th anniversary of birth on Sunday. It’s also Father’s Day on the 16^th so I get to spend some time in the pub with my Dad, and tomorrow some sort of loose gathering will occur. Tonight I’m getting treated to a meal and drinks on the Manchester’s world famous curry mile. It’s almost too much for my limited vocabulary to express, and so I’ll leave it to the loquacious Rebecca Black to describe exactly how it goes:

“Yesterday was Thursday, Thursday
Today i-is Friday, Friday (Partyin’)
We-we-we so excited
We so excited
We gonna have a ball today
Tomorrow is Saturday
And Sunday comes after...wards
I don’t want this weekend to end”

If Miss Black is at one end of the respective spectrums of excitement, talent and cool, Joy Division are way off on the distant opposite pole. Not for them partyin’ partyin’; instead they serve up for today one of the most melancholic and despairing albums of all time. The robotic percussion and hypnotic bass is one thing, the sparseness of the production and the ominous atmosphere another, but it’s Ian Curtis’ low moan and desperate, simple lyrics that takes the group to another level of bleakness.

Now I know none of you are thinking that you’d rather listen to “Friday” right now, but I feel I may have to reassure you that it's good. Yes, it can be hard work, but with songs like the post-punk disco of ‘Disorder’ and ‘She’s Lost Control’ or the brittle and brooding ‘Shadowplay’ on display, the album remains captivating and awesome. It’s well worth giving a listen. Just maybe not on a Friday.

Albumaday... rating: 9/10

1.       Disorder – 3:32

2.       Day of the Lords – 4:49

3.       Candidate – 3:05

4.       Insight – 4:29

5.       New Dawn Fades – 4:47

6.       She’s Lost Control – 3:57

7.       Shadowplay – 3:55

8.       Wilderness – 2:38

9.       Interzone – 2:16

10.   I Remember Nothing – 5:53

Listen to ‘Disorder’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PldpBJEn4vQ

13th June - Björk's Post

Artist – Album: Björk - Post

Released:  13^th June 1995

Sounds Like: Iceland’s Post-er girl

Why is it that certain parts of the world are so much better at this music thing than others? I mean, for example: Coventry and Leicester are pretty much the same rubbish-y grey cities in the UK, but one gave us splendid ska of The Specials and was the epicentre of the Two Tone movement, whereas the other’s legacy probably ends with Showaddywaddy. Likewise, despite having a population less than that of Luxembourg, Malta or the Bahamas (or even those aforementioned Midlands conurbations), Iceland has had a disproportionate measure of success in making exceptional and original music.

Following hot on the heels of yesterday’s hypnotic and elegant Sigur Rós, today we have their fellow compatriot Björk who happens to be dealing in an entirely different but equally compelling musical realm. Things kick off with the dark electronica of ‘Army of Me’ and it’s abrasive chorus of “if you complain once more, you’ll meet an army of me”, but the real strength of the album is how it flits between styles effortlessly and with little negative impact on the album’s overall quality. Following the menacing, industrial rock of that opener is the delicate electro-pop of ‘Hyperballad’, a gorgeous alternative to the throwaway love song. Just two songs later is the cartoon theatricality of ‘It’s Oh So Quiet’ (annoying and overplayed back in the mid-nineties, energetic and appealing today).

Björk has been one of the most unpredictable and innovative artists in world music for the last 25 years, and each of her eight solo albums have received critical adoration. Other records contain moments of brilliance that surpass anything here (although I do bloody love ‘Hyperballad’) but as a set of songs this is by far her best.

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.       Army of Me – 3:54

2.       Hyperballad – 5:21

3.       The Modern Things – 4:10

4.       It’s Oh So Quiet – 3:38

5.       Enjoy – 3:57

6.       You’ve Been Flirting Again – 2:29

7.       Isobel – 5:47

8.       Possibly Maybe – 5:06

9.       I Miss You – 4:03

10.   Cover Me – 2:06

11.   Headphones – 5:40

Listen to ‘Isobel’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGjGh74n_9U

Also released on the 13^th June:

1995: Alanis Morissette – Jagged Little Pill

Also released on the 13^th June:

2000: Modest Mouse – The Moon & Antarctica