1999 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

September 27, 2024 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

Welcome to 1999, the year I started primary school, the year war started in Kosovo after Yugoslavia's president Slobodan Milosevic clamped down on the province, massacring and deporting ethnic Albanians, the year Nelson Mandela stepped down, the year everyone freaked out about the Y2K bug, the year everyone partied like it was… well….

Our lovely rateyourmusic.com masses rated the following albums as the year’s top five:

#1 Sigur Rós - Ágætis byrjun
#2 Fiona Apple - When the Pawn
#3 Mos Def - Black on Both Sides
#4 Gustavo Cerati - Bocananda
#5 The Roots - Things Fall Apart

And I’ll add a bunch from further down the list:

#6 Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
#7 Opeth - Still Life
#8 The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
#9 Built to Spill - Keep It Like a Secret
#10 American Football - American Football
#23 Tom Waits - Mule Variations
#27 Advantage Lucy - Fanfare

And from NPR’s best female albums of all time list, we’ll take Sleater-Kinney’s The Hot Rock.

Let’s finish of the 90s in style.

“Still Life is the fourth studio album by Swedish progressive metal band Opeth. In 2014, TeamRock put Still Life at #83 on their "Top 100 Greatest Prog Albums Of All Time" list with Jordan Griffin stating that it is "still regarded by many fans as a career high point, Still Life’s deft blend of beauty and brutality was lauded by metal and prog fans. Opeth’s first true classic.". Loudwire placed the album at #54 on their "Top 90 Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Albums of the 1990s" list commenting that Opeth closed out the 90s with their strongest album yet.In 2021, it was named one of the 20 best metal albums of 1999 by Metal Hammer magazine.” - Wikipedia

Still Life is a concept album, following the narrative of someone banished from their hometown due to a difference of faith. This is quite hard to pick up on amongst the unintelligible roars that Mikael Åkerfeldt’s vocals generally consist of. The album is a great mix of brutal riffs, and more delicate clean and intricate guitar sections (Benighted a fine example of this). Once again, it’s never going to be my favourite album due to the roaring and overly theatrical vocals, but I did thoroughly enjoy this, and I can see how influential it is.

Song Picks: Benighted

7/10

12. American Football

American Football

“American Football, also known retrospectively as LP1, is the debut studio album by the American emo band of the same name. American Football was positively received by critics and US college radio stations, but the band split up soon after its release. The album has since received further critical acclaim and attained cult status and is today considered one of the most important math rock and Midwest emo records of the 1990s.” - Wikipedia

‘Never Meant’ is a masterpiece, the next three tracks are superb, and then it kind of meanders to a nice warm finish, with nothing else being particularly memorable. I feel like it’s an album to get lost in, but it’s just never quite pulled me in enough for that to happen. At times sublime, always pretty, but occasionally a bit unexciting.

7.5/10

“The Hot Rock is the fourth studio album by the American rock band Sleater-Kinney. The Hot Rock marks a considerable change in the band's sound, veering into a more relaxed and gloomy direction than the raucous punk rock style of its predecessors. The lyrical themes of the album explore issues of failed relationships and personal uncertainty. The album received positive reviews from music critics, who praised the songwriting and the vocal and guitar interplay between band members Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein.” - Wikipedia

This is a really dynamic album, with more vocal range and complex instrumental arrangements. The great riffs are still there, but they’re now backed by more intricate beats from Janet Weiss, more varied songwriting in general, and great guitar interplay from Tucker and Brownstein. It all adds up to another kick ass album from the band, but one with a bit more pizzazz. It also feels like the entirety of 2000s indie’s riffs were probably based off the ones on this album in some way. I still don’t love the more bellowed vocals, I find them a bit monotone, but it’s a minor gripe.

Song Picks: Start Together, Burn Don’t Freeze, God is a Number

8/10

“Bocanada (Puff) is the second solo album by Argentine rock musician Gustavo Cerati. The album, an eclectic mix of neo-psychedelia and trip hop with a variety of styles, is considered by critics and fans as a highlight in Cerati's career and one of his best albums. His first album release after the breakup of Soda Stereo, Bocanada followed Cerati's time with the groups Plan V and Ocio, two bands oriented towards electronic music. Bocanada is mostly an electronic music album, with an art pop, trip hop, and neo-psychedelia sound, making a huge change of Cerati's classic pop rock sound and influences. Similar to other artists of trip hop scene like Massive Attack or Portishead, several songs use one or more samples.” - Wikipedia

Considered one of the most important influences in Latin rock, Bocanada is an album that ties together his rock background and contemporary electronic influences. Tracks like Puente are fairly straight rock numbers (though very good ones), while most tracks lean much more into the electronic side of things, clearly taking influence from the trip-hop scene, with simple, tunneling beats. Cerati’s vocals have an enticing huskiness to them, but they also sound like some lost genius from the 60s, his Beatles influences being obvious. The production and instrumental variation doesn’t always feel that cohesive, but the variety is exciting, and Cerati’s enticing melodies sung with the slight haziness of that glorious album art are the wonderful glue that holds it all together.

Song Picks: Rio Babel, Perdonar es Divíno, Paseo Inmoral

8.5/10

9. Keep It Like a Secret

Built to Spill

“Keep It Like a Secret is the fourth studio album released by American indie rock band Built to Spill. After feeling burned out from constructing the lengthy songs on his previous album, Perfect from Now On, Doug Martsch made a conscious decision to write shorter, more concise songs for Keep It Like a Secret.” - Wikipedia

Keep it Like a Secret is Built to Spill cut up into more bite-sized chunks. Martsch’s twisting riffs are still there, the vocals are still infectious, and the the jam element is still evident, even if it has been cut down significantly. Speaking of which, the final track, Broken Chairs, has a jam outro which is one of my favourite ways for an album to end. If Perfect from Now On was standard Weetabix, Keep it Like a Secret is those bite-sized ones with chocolate in. Just as nice, some might even prefer them, but they’re probably a tad less wholesome.

Song Picks: The Plan, Center of the Universe, Broken Chairs, Sidewalk, Else

8.5/10

“Mule Variations is the thirteenth studio album by American musician Tom Waits. It was Waits' first studio album in six years, following The Black Rider (1993). Mule Variations won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album and was nominated for Best Male Rock Performance for the track "Hold On". It has sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide. In 2012, the album was ranked number 416 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Upon its release, Mule Variations received widespread critical acclaim. AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine stated that "the album uses the ragged cacophony of Bone Machine as a starting point, and proceeds to bring in the songwriterly aspects of Rain Dogs, along with its affection for backstreet and backwoods blues, plus a hint of the beatnik qualities of Swordfish.” - Wikipedia

That bloke from AllMusic above pretty much sums it up. Mule Variations feels like a combination of everything that’s come before from Waits. It’s packed full of great songs; growling vocals; percussive, ramshackle production and a sense of sincerity. I think the fact it’s a Tom Waits melting pot means it lacks some of the distinct character that Waits’ albums from his famous trilogy had, but this is still the kind of album any songwriter would kill to write. I think you could also make a pretty strong argument that this features, as a whole, his best vocal performances on a single record. Basically, I can’t fault it other than by saying it’s not quite as good as Rain Dogs, but considering that’s now one of my favourite albums, that doesn’t mean much.

Song Picks: Hold On, Get Behind the Mule, Picture in a Frame, Georgia Lee, Filipino Box Spring Hog

9/10

7. Emergency & I

The Dismemberment Plan

“Emergency & I is the third studio album by American indie rock band the Dismemberment Plan. At its release, the album was met with critical acclaim, receiving praise for its instrumental performances and lyrics. Initially released on CD, Barsuk Records reissued Emergency & I in vinyl format for the first time on January 11, 2011 where it received further praise from critics and listeners, with many calling it a landmark indie rock album and the band's best release.” - Wikipedia

Emergency & I feels like a confluence of alt-rock, prog rock, emo and punk which then splits out again, influencing countless records well into the 2000s and 2010s. Although Morrison had aimed to make the album less wacky, it still has plenty of wackiness to it. It also has a refreshingly optimistic world view, something not all that common in this style of music. Apparently inspired by the birth of his sister's daughter, and the death of their father, Morrison was keen to get into more real life topics, but to address them in a less self-absorbed manner which is again, refreshing. Emergency & I gets crazier as it goes on, like a speeding car gaining a little too much confidence in the corners (and nearly crashing on Girl O’Clock in particular) finishing with a perfect mix of catchy choruses, bouncy riffs, restless time-signatures, and energetic. slightly unhinged vocals. It’s a ride.

Song Picks: Memory Machine, The City, Back and Forth, Girl O’Clock

9/10

“The Fragile is the third studio album by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released as a double album. Looking to depart from the distorted production of their previous album, The Downward Spiral, the album features elements of ambient and electronic music within a wide variety of genres. The album continues some of the lyrical themes from The Downward Spiral, including depression and drug abuse. The album notably contains more instrumental sections than their previous work, with some entire tracks being instrumentals. The Fragile is also one of the band's longest studio releases, clocking in at nearly 1 hour and 45 minutes long.

Upon release, critics applauded the album's ambition and composition, although some criticised its length and perceived lack of lyrical substance. However, in the years following its release, it has come to be regarded by many critics and listeners to be among the band's best work.” - Wikipedia

Pitchfork gave this a paltry 2.0 in 1999, and then an 8.7 in 2017, which I think is fine. Two different people reviewed it, which just re-emphasises (shock!) this is all subjective opinion, which, again, is fine. My subjective opinion is that this thing slaps. Maybe I’m mad, but this thing sounds very nu-metal to me. It’s 1 hour 44 of face-smashing riffs with simple melodies growled over the top through a very loud transistor radio. Trent Reznor essentially says it’s about the chaos of his existence when struggling with drug abuse and depression, but it sounds more like a cohesive statement than that makes out. As it’s final, simple and targeted chaos ends, I can just see Trent Reznor dropping his mic, exhausted that he’s let all his demons out. At the same time, he’s inadvertently rendered much of the heavier music that followed in the 2000s a bit redundant.

Song Picks: The Wretched, We’re In This Together, La Mer, Where Is Everybody, The Mark Has Been Made

9/10

“When the Pawn... is the second studio album by the American singer-songwriter Fiona Apple. In 2010, Spin named the album the 106th-greatest of the last 25 years, and Slant Magazine named it the 79th best album of the 1990s. The album received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Alternative Album. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked When the Pawn... at number 108 on its "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.” - Wikipedia

The album title, which is posted out below in full (yes, that’s all the title) is a response to an unflattering piece Spin wrote about her in 1997.

When the pawn hits the conflicts he thinks like a king
What he knows throws the blows when he goes to the fight
And he'll win the whole thing 'fore he enters the ring
There's no body to batter when your mind is your might
So when you go solo, you hold your own hand
And remember that depth is the greatest of heights
And if you know where you stand, then you know where to land
And if you fall it won't matter, cuz you'll know that you're right

When the Pawn... is an album that sounds unlike anything else, and yet features very accessible and mature songwriting. The production choices give space to Fiona’s deep vocals, and everything pulls in the same direction: just the right amount of embellishment and never over-dramatic. It is what it is. It feels like the musical equivalent of that hyper-realistic film about a slice of life that hits harder than the one with a million special-effects about the future of mankind. I’m not sure you’ll ever necessarily be singing along, but somehow - even though the songs are not particularly complex - it never loses its significant intrigue. It’s hard to describe - but you owe it to yourself to listen.

Song Picks: Limp, Paper Bag, Fast as You Can

It’s hard to find much about Advantage Lucy online, besides the fact that this is their debut album, and that they were initially called ‘Lucy van Pelt’ after the Peanuts character, but changed to their current name due to copyright concerns. I want to thank the rateyourmusic.com community for enlightening to me to this bundle of joy.

While it’s in no way ground-breaking it’s just so darn ‘nice’ that I have completely fallen in love with it. Much like reading the Peanuts comics that inspired their name, listening to their debut fills me with a nostalgic warmth, optimism, and the childhood innocence that the album’s cover portrays. The band’s melodies are happy, and just the right side of twee, with the instrumentation never being particularly attention grabbing and but always serving the song. Want a feeling of contentment? Get that gentle lighting on and put this on at a room filling volume. Sit back, maybe sketch some cartoon characters on a pad with a nice pencil, stare at the ceiling, whistle along, smile. Relish in the beauty that music, and the sheer amount of it us humans have made for each other, really is rather wonderful. I can see myself putting this one on regularly for as long as the world lets me.

Song Picks: Armond, Metro, So,

“Things Fall Apart is the fourth studio album by American hip hop band the Roots. Recording sessions for the album took place at Electric Lady during 1997 to 1998, coinciding with recording for other projects of the Soulquarians collective, including D'Angelo's Voodoo (2000), Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun (2000), and Common's Like Water for Chocolate (2000). According to Spin magazine, the album became a landmark moment for the Roots and the collective, as it "swelled the Roots clique into a movement-style posse." - Wikipedia

Thee album has been considered by music writers as the Roots' breakthrough album, earning praise from major publications and critics, while becoming the group's first record to sell over 500,000 copies. It includes the song "You Got Me", which won the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, while Things Fall Apart was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album of the same year, losing to Eminem for The Slim Shady LP. Rolling Stone called it a "top-flight record", while AllMusic cited it as "one of the cornerstone albums of alternative rap." The album takes its title from Chinua Achebe's novel of the same name.” - Wikipedia

The Roots are always known as a hip-hop ‘band’, and that’s definitely something that distinguishes them from many other hip-hop artists who are more apt to put together a bunch of samples than play instruments. But on Things Fall Apart, the Roots blend more into that more traditional hip-hop sound, with Questlove’s beats seemingly put through a food processor, while the bass lines wobble like something synthesised on Pro Tools, rather than played by the laid back maestro Hub, who sadly died in 2021. On the hit You Got Me (you’ll know it trust me) everything is so relaxed it’s impossible not to bop from side to side, lost in the groove as Black Thought raps in the pockets with the smooth flow of an angrier Nas. Questlove’s drums tap, tap, tap and skitter like the restless limbs of a being that is actually at its core very relaxed. Things Fall Apart is lyrically dense, but it’s the production that sets it apart. Questlove’s drum grooves are some of the best in hip hop, and the way they work with Hub’s chatty basslines has me hop-stepping on pretty much every track. They’re cut down to their essential elements, Questlove’s snare sounding almost like a clap, Hub’s bass so low it’s underground, the guitars and key stabs as precise as a laser. It’s perfect, and yet human.

Song Picks: You Got Me, Don’t See Us

9/10

“Black on Both Sides is the debut solo studio album by American rapper Yasiin Bey, then known as Mos Def. Released after his successful collaboration Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star, Black on Both Sides emphasises live instrumentation and socially conscious lyrics. Black on Both Sides received universal acclaim from critics.” - Wikipedia

Black on Both Sides feels prophetic, not since Nas’ Illmatic have I listened to hip-hop so buttery smooth and clever. The beats are laid back, the vocals more creamy than tart, and the lyrics deft and intelligent - written by a man who seems to see everything from a bird’s eye view. In an era of gangsta-rap and egotistical, self-interested rap (not that there’s anything wrong with those), it’s refreshing to have something like Black on Both Sides, which says it like it is. It being more or less everything - doing so in a manner that is pretty much irresistible, with beats that got me boppin’ like it’s 1994.

Song Picks: Hip Hop, Love, Speed Law, Rock ‘n’ Roll

9.5/10

“Ágætis byrjun (A good beginning) is the second studio album by Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós, Ágætis byrjun represented a substantial departure from the band's previous album Von, with that album's extended ambient soundscapes replaced by Jónsi Birgisson's cello-bowed guitar work and orchestration, using a double string octet amongst other chamber elements.”

Ágætis byrjun was a commercial and critical breakthrough for the band. It won numerous awards, and has appeared on multiple critics' lists of the best albums of the 2000s.” - Wikipedia

Ágætis byrjun sounds otherworldly. Birgisson playing the guitar with a cello-bow is probably the most famous aspect of Sigur Rós‘ sound, but it’s his falsetto singing and the general atmosphere they create that really pulls them apart. He hits some frankly daft notes, and his falsetto vocals give the whole thing an angelic, ethereal feel, but without the religious connotations that come with that. It’s one of those albums that changes the hue of the world when you put it on, but also seems to make everything float. It’s an anti-gravity album, a spiritual journey for those of no religion. I don’t believe in god, nor do I feel there’s any grand meaning to our existence beyond the one we give it and the effect we have on those around us, but I can listen to this and feel aconnection with everything around me. Not necessarily in a euphoric way, but just that, a connection. It feels like a reminder that everything and everyone is a minuscule cog in a ginormous, random machine. And I’ve always found that pretty glorious. It sounds like nothing else, it’s its own thing, a glorious, emotive gift.

I’ve said this before of other albums, but this feels like another where the word ‘magical’ feels completely appropriate.

Song Picks: Svefn-G-Englar, Staralfur, Flugufrelsarinn

9.5/10

1998 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

August 14, 2024 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

Here we are in 1998, the the penultimate year of the 90s. Besides containing France 98, the first World Cup I can remember, it’s also the year that: the Kosovo War broke out, the Good Friday Accord was reached in Northern Ireland, members of the EU agreed on a single currency, and President Clinton got himself into bother with that whole affair scandal. Also, the Game Boy Color was released (it pains me to write colour like that).

But onto the music. Here’s a list of what rateyourmusic.com users think were the top five albums of the year:

#1 Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
#2 OutKast - Aquemini
#3 Massive Attack - Mezzanine
#4 Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children
#5 Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

And I’ll grab this lot from further down:
#6 Duster - Stratosphere
#7 Elliott Smith - XO
#8 Gang Starr - Moment of Truth
#16 Refused - The Shape of punk to Come
#18 Silver Jews - American Water
#21 PJ Harvey - Is This Desire?

And from NPR’s best female albums of all time list, a couple are already represented above, but I’ll also grab Tori Amos - From the Choirgirl Hotel, and Cat Power - Moon Pix.

Let’s go

“From the Choirgirl Hotel is the fourth studio album by American musician Tori Amos. In contrast with the sparse, minimalist sound of Amos's previous albums, From the Choirgirl Hotel features a greater emphasis on full band arrangements. Additionally, the album sees Amos integrate elements of electronica, trip hop, and dance music.

From the Choirgirl Hotel was commercially and critically successful. It peaked at number 5 in the US, becoming Amos's second straight top ten album in her home country, and reached number 6 in the UK. "Spark", the album's lead single, reached number 49 on the Billboard Hot 100, her highest position on the chart.” - Wikipedia

From the Choirgirl Hotel’s productions are packed to the rafters, but the song writing at its core isn’t as consistent or interesting as her previous records we’ve had on this challenge. There are undoubted bright spots like the masterful Jackie’s Strength, which brilliantly conveys an empathy with Jackie Kennedy following her husband’s brutal assassination. It’s haunting, perfectly performed, and sticks with you more than any of the other tracks. The opener Spark is another highlight, with Amos’ ghostly vocal, conveying another fantastic chorus as Amos’ sings of her denial of a recent miscarriage ‘you say you don’t want it, again and again, but you don’t really mean it’ as the piano cries along. There are other strong moments, Cruel and liee for example, and the high moments really are high, but there’s a few too many tracks that don’t do much for me, blending into the background and meaning I can’t quite call the album great - only good.

Song Picks Spark, Jackie’s Strength, Cruel

6.5/10

“XO is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Elliott Smith and Smith's first solo album on a major record label. XO was well received by critics upon its release. Mark Richardson of Pitchfork wrote, "Smith's songwriting continues to improve, as each of [the album's] fourteen tracks displays his inarguable mastery of the pop song structure more clearly than ever." - Wikipedia

Another great indie-pop album from Smith, who continues to up the production around his efficient songwriting. Smith knows how to craft effective pop-songs, and the productions tastefully add to his knack for evocative melodies. There’s also enough variation in the instrumentation to take it well above the average ‘singer songwriter with a band’ album, and though it loses some its intimacy when compared to earlier, less busy recordings, there’s still plenty of space, and the instrumental melodies play well with Smith’s. It’s one of those albums that pretty much anyone can enjoy; doing what it does with a seasoned maturity, while never being particularly challenging.

Song Picks: Bled White; Waltz, No. 2; Baby Britain

8/10

“Stratosphere is the debut studio album by American slowcore band Duster. In the years following its release, Stratosphere developed a cult following among online message boards.The album has since been cited as an influence on artists and bands such as Ricky Eat Acid, Peaer, Girlpool, Hovvdy, Ovlov, and Alex G.” - Wikipedia

It all unfolds at a tempo reminiscent of someone who woke up 5 minutes ago, and grabbed the guitar by their bedside. The fuzzy strums, the barely audible mumbles, the lazy melodies. It’s impossible not to be lulled into its relaxing and gently evocative mood within the first few songs, and I always find myself doing everything just that little more slowly and presently for many hours after its final notes.

Song Picks: Topical Solution, Heading for the Door, Gold Dust, Stratosphere

8/10

“Moon Pix is the fourth album by Cat Power, the stage name and eponymous band of American singer-songwriter, Chan Marshall. Much of the album was written in a single night, following a hallucinatory nightmare Marshall experienced while staying at a farmhouse in South Carolina. Prior to that, Marshall had intended to retire from music. Released to modest acclaim, the album has since been described as Cat Power's "magnum opus" and "one of the Nineties great singer/songwriter triumphs." In 2022, it was ranked at number 66 in Pitchfork's "The 150 Best Albums of the 1990s" list.

Marshall woke from her nightmare, and daren’t fall back to sleep, so she went into another room of the barn she was staying in, and played her guitar to a tape-recorder for 60 minutes. Or so the story goes. Though the recordings here aren’t the ones from that tape recorder but more professionally produced ones, the integrity of the originals seems to have been kept. These arrangements are incredibly sparse - often involving a slowly picked guitar changing between two chords for the duration. When Mick Turner and Jim White join in on bass and drums on tracks like Moonshiner - it’s done in a way that gently seasons Marshall’s central guitar and vocals, rather than overdoing it. Moon Pix sounds like we’ve stumbled into that barn, and Marshall is singing to herself - oblivious to our presence. It’s an album that sounds like dark nights I’ve spent unburdening my own soul to the sound of my guitar, just a whole lot better.

Song Picks: Moonshiner, American Flag, Colour and the Kids

8.5/10

“Mezzanine is the third studio album by English electronic music group Massive Attack. For the album, the group began to explore a darker aesthetic, and focused on a more atmospheric style influenced by British post-punk, industrial music, hip hop and dub music. Mezzanine topped the charts in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand, becoming the group's most commercially successful album to date. It has appeared on multiple "best albums" lists, and is now widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of the 1990s.” - Wikipedia

I’m not sure there’s a more low-key iconic start to an album than the bass rumble and taps that open Angel. Mezzanine is a walk down a corridor in the future, from the known to the unknown. You’ve been sent by the world, to save the world. You’re probably carrying an array of futuristic laser weaponry, and you’ve no idea what awaits, at some point - around when the sublime vocal on Teardrop comes in, everything disintegrates and you’re just floating through nothingness. And it’s glorious.

Seriously though, Mezzanine is a dark, brooding, unforgettable album; a perfect example of how an album can be a mood piece, while still containing tracks that are iconic in their own right.

Song Picks: Angel, Teardrop, Mezzanine

8.5/10

“Is This Desire? is the fourth studio album by English musician PJ Harvey. It marked a move away from Harvey's earlier guitar-driven rock style into subtler, quieter, atmospheric soundscapes and mood pieces based around keyboards, bass and electronics.” - Wikipedia

I’ve read some criticism of Flood’s production on this, but I disagree. It’s heavily compressed and electronic sounding, but I think that blends really well with Harvey’s vocals on this one, creating a stark and somewhat industrial atmosphere underneath her very un-industrial vocals. It’s all wonderfully bleak, and there’s a slight Radiohead feel to it - if less complex. It’s the tracks where Flood’s production choices are perhaps the most extreme that I like the best. For example, on My Beautiful Leah, where Flood distorts the bass to within an inch of its life, so its left struggling to splutter out the death march it plays. On A Perfect Day Elise, where the heavier-than-lead riff both manages to sound like its coming out of a tin can and stratospheric at the same time. When Harvey sings the song’s perfect chorus the whole thing sounds utterly humongous, setting us up wonderfully for her going full Nick Cave on the comparatively gentle, Catherine and Electric Light. On perhaps the album’s most maligned track, Joy, the lead instrument is so crushed it’s hard to tell what it is. Distorted bass? Guitar? Piano? Who cares? Whatever it is I think it sounds glorious - marching along as Harvey howls above it creating a tapestry that sounds like liquid catharsis. I think Is this Desire? is yet another glorious album from one of the most consistent artists of the decade.

Song Picks: A Perfect Day Elise, Joy, My Beautiful Leah

9/10

“The Shape of Punk to Come: A Chimerical Bombination in 12 Bursts, often shortened to The Shape of Punk to Come, is the third album by Swedish hardcore punk band Refused. Although Refused broke up only months after the album's release, The Shape of Punk to Come has since found an audience for the band and largely contributed to their posthumous fame, as well as inspiring many later artists in a wide range of genres. Kerrang! magazine listed The Shape of Punk to Come at #13 on their 50 Most Influential Albums of All Time list in 2003.

This album marked a sharp and conscious departure from Refused's earlier work. The philosophy of the album was that punk and hardcore music could not be anti-establishment by continuing to package revolutionary lyrics in sounds which had been increasingly co-opted into the mainstream. The sound of the record challenged existing punk sensibilities.” - Wikipedia

The Shape of Punk to Come was as prophetic as its title suggested, influencing many of the hardcore punk bands we still see today, so much so that it still sounds fresh in 2024. Swirling from riff to riff as Lyxzén sounds like he’s ripping his throat out, TSoPtC is notable for its abandoning of the ‘3 chords and the truth’ approach that many earlier punk bands took, instead crafting songs with great rhythmic complexity, aided by Sandström’s great, off-beat but clockwork, drumming which makes those riffs hit harder when he sets into a standard 4/4 groove (see the brilliant Refused are Fucking Dead). The Shape of Punk to Come keeps you on your toes, focusing as much on innovative musical parts as anti-establishment lyrics. in an album that contains a whole heap of the decade’s most bouncy and crushing riffs.

Song Picks: Refused are Fucking Dead, New Noise, Summerholidays vs Punkroutine

9/10

“Moment of Truth is the fifth studio album by American hip hop duo Gang Starr. It is widely regarded as Gang Starr's magnum opus, and one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time.” - Wikipedia

In a year where we have two hip-hop albums teetering close to the 80 minute mark they both somehow don’t overstay their welcome. Moment of Truth is relentlessly smooth, and the beats remind me of Nas’ Illmatic (the highest compliment that can be paid to a hip-hop album) in the way they put a pep in my step whenever I put the album on. DJ Premier’s productions are not as varied, or indeed as interesting as Outkast’s in the other lengthy hip-hop release this year, but they are so infectious it barely matters. Blend this with Guru’s (and his guests’) gliding vocals, and the album provides one of the chillest, most enjoyable hip-hop albums I’ve ever experienced. The title track deserves a particular shoutout for being absolutely heavenly.

Song Picks: Work, Above the Clouds, Moment of Truth, B.I. vs Friendship

9/10

“Aquemini is the third studio album by the American hip hop duo Outkast. The title is a portmanteau of the two performers' Zodiac signs: Aquarius (Big Boi) and Gemini (André 3000), which is indicative of the album's recurring theme of the differing personalities of the two members. Aquemini expands on the previous record's outer space-inspired compositions by incorporating live instrumentation and drawing on 1970s funk, southern soul, gospel, country, psychedelic rock, and other influences.

Aquemini has gone on to be considered one of the greatest hip hop albums ever made, as well as one of the greatest albums of all time. In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked the album number 500 on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". In a 2020 updated list, it was moved up to number 49.” - Wikipedia

An endless rotation of session musicians helps to create one of the most musically interesting hip-hop albums ever created. That spacey sound on Da Art of Storytelling’ (Pt.1), the funky strummed guitar on the infectious Rosa Parks, I could list all the interesting instrumental touches here that add to the album’s rich tapestry, but we’d be here all day. Safe to say pretty much every song sucks you in with a fresh sound. The rapping ain’t bad either - bouncy flows, energy, diverse topics - but it’s the superlative beats that elevate the album to greatness.

Song Picks: Return of the “G”, Rosa Parks, Skew it on the Bar-B, Synthesizer, Da Art of Storytellin’ (Pt. 1), Liberation

9/10

4. Music Has the Right to Children

Boards of Canada

“Music Has the Right to Children is the debut studio album by Scottish electronic music duo Boards of Canada. The album continued their distinctive style of electronica, featuring vintage synthesisers, degraded analogue production, found sounds and samples, and hip hop-inspired rhythms that had been featured on their first two EPs. The album received critical acclaim upon its release, and has since been acknowledged as a landmark work in electronic music, going on to inspire a variety of subsequent artists. It has been included on various best-ever lists by publications such as Pitchfork and Mojo.” - Wikipedia

As this Pitchfork review so eloquently says, nothing on Music Has the Right to Children is completely new, but the way it’s all combined is. The sound palette is cohesive, they’re not introducing 33 new sounds every track like many electronic albums, and yet the creativity within this palette is immense. The delicate layers of Sixtyten and An Eagle in Your Mind are great examples of the way Boards of Canada know exactly how to fill the gaps, and which gaps to leave, whether that be in time or in the frequency spectrum. The way that bouncy bass, sandy snare, and conga like rat-a-tat-tat play off each other on Sixtyten is nothing short of majestic, and magical moments like that are spread throughout the album, and interspersed with textures so lush the whole thing feels like the musical equivalent of rolling around in the finest silk bedding. Music Has the Right... is one of those albums that it’s very difficult to find any fault with, it’s the most intricately woven journey, and yet one that has a seductive simplicity.

Song Picks: Bocuma, An Eagle In Your Mind, Rue the Whirl, Aquarius, Pete Standing Alone

9.5/10

3. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

Lauryn Hill

“The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is the debut solo studio album by American rapper and singer Lauryn Hill. Recorded after the Fugees embarked on a hiatus, the album was almost entirely written and produced by Hill. It is a concept album about learning love, with lyrical themes encompassing relationship complexities, interpersonal conflicts, motherhood, and faith. Predominantly a neo soul and R&B record, it incorporates genres such as hip hop, reggae, and soul.

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was met with unanimous critical acclaim and became one of the most acclaimed albums of 1998, with most praise directed towards Hill's presentation of a woman's view on life and love, and her artistic range. A substantial commercial success, the album debuted atop the US Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 422,000 copies, largest for a female artist at the time. At the 41st Annual Grammy Awards (1999), it won Album of the Year and Best R&B Album, while Hill broke records for most nominations and wins in a single ceremony for a woman. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is among the best-selling albums of all time. Despite its immense success and achievements, it remains Hill's sole studio album.” - Wikipedia

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is the perfect example of that late 90s pop-sound. Hill’s vocals are consistently superb, and show a range both melodically and stylistically that many of her contemporaries could only wish for. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill has the soul and personality that many other 90s pop seemed to lack, as a kind of clean sound was seemingly prioritised above all else, and the genre became increasingly formulaic (I’m looking at you Steps, All-Saints and S-Club 7). It’s not that the production isn’t clean here, it is, but it’s also interesting, layered and rich. You’re continuously kept on your toes, both because things slide effortlessly between influences (see unexpected reggae number Forgive them Father), but also because the infectious energy demands you get off your heels and bop-around. I’ve not heard many people drop the Stevie Wonder comparison, but I think it feels apt here, with the added dimension that Hill can rap with attitude. Basically, she’s very, very good.

Song Picks: Lost Ones, Forgive them Father, Every Ghetto, Every City; Everything is Everything

9.5/10

“American Water is the third studio album by indie rock group Silver Jews. Berman was struggling with drug addiction during the recording of the album. Lyrically, this is expressed in a sense of solidarity with the downtrodden. He described the album's sessions saying "I was taking a lot of drugs at that time. And there were a lot of drugs in the studio. And all these things that would have horrified indie rock people, that I would never want them to know. I wanted to make a record that wasn't some terrible, big, painful experience. I wanted to make records like other people make records, where you're having fun when you're doing it." - Wikipedia

Berman was apparently somewhat of an obsessive when it came to his lyrics, rewriting and crafting them endlessly until he was happy with them. In some ways it shows, this album is lyrically superb, but in other ways they seem more spontaneous than that makes them seem. There are endless lines on this album that I adore, and the almost spoken, and yet still melodic way that Berman delivers aids in their poetry.

Here’s a few:

“In 1984, I was hospitalized for approaching perfection/Slowing screwing my way across Europe, they had to make a correction.”

“I see you gracefully swimming with the country club women
In the Greenwood South Side Society Pool.
I love your amethyst eyes and your Protestant thighs.
You’re a shimmering socialite jewel.”

“Broken and smoking where the infrared deer plunge in the digital snake.
I tell you, they make it so you can’t shake hands
When they make your hands shake.”

“Is the problem that we can’t see, or is it that the problem is beautiful to me?”

“My ski vest has buttons like convenience store mirrors
and they help me see, that everything in this room right now is a part of me.”

“We’ve been raised on replicas. Fake and winding roads. and day after day upon this beautiful stage. We’ve been playing tambourine for minimum wage. But we are real.”

Ok that’s enough. But it’s not just Berman’s lyrics and his delivery, it’s the instrumentation too, which rather perfectly matches their tone while simultaneously making some songs catchy when they really have no right to be. American Water is so laid back, it literally demands no attention, and yet you can’t help but give it your full attention because it’s that good. It’s that kid in the corner who says nothing, and yet you just know they’re the most interesting person in the room.

Song Picks: Random Rules, Smith and Jones Forever, Night Society, Federal Dust

9.5

1. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

Neutral Milk Hotel

“In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is the second and final studio album by the American band Neutral Milk Hotel. The album is predominantly indie rock and psychedelic folk and is characterized by an intentionally low-quality sound. Traditional indie rock instruments like the guitar and drums are paired with less conventional instruments like the singing saw and uilleann pipes. The lyrics are surrealistic and opaque, exploring themes that range from nostalgia to love. An important influence for the album was The Diary of a Young Girl, a book of writings from the diary of Anne Frank.

Contemporary reviews were moderately positive; over time, however, the album developed a cult following. This negatively affected Mangum, whose mental health began to deteriorate; as a result, he withdrew from touring, and Neutral Milk Hotel went on hiatus shortly after. In the years since its release, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea has been described by music journalists as both a landmark album for indie rock and as one of the best albums of the 1990s and its critical standing has risen considerably.” - Wikipedia

Absolutely one of the best albums of the decade, Mangum’s vocals are consistently sublime, carrying emotional melodies while seemingly showing very little restraint - every song is sung as if it’s his last. The production is deliberately rough and over-compressed - leading to an iconic acoustic guitar sound in particular - but I wouldn’t call it lo-fi necessarily. What it does really well is keep the emphasis on Mangum’s vocals, almost sounding like a (very good and raucous) AI band following him as he expresses himself spontaneously. I’ve already gone on about Mangum’s vocals, but I need to go on about them some more; his lyrics are ‘opaque’ as Wikipedia notes, but they’re also friggin’ beautiful. Every listen I notice another line and go ‘now that’s a line and a half’. I don’t use this word often, but I think this album is vocally, both lyrically and performance-wise, perfect. I find both the expression and words riveting on every listen. Mangum makes tracks like Two-Headed-Boy sound bigger than the most intense Hans Zimmer score, using only a very harshly played acoustic guitar and his voice. He’s a magician, and this is his prestige. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is sprawling and fuzzy enough for anyone to relate to, and I think it’s one of those masterpieces that will mean so many different things to so many people. To me it’s just a gorgeous and confident expression of being, and what can be more beautiful than that?

Song Picks: King of Carrot Flowers Pt1 & 2, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Two-Headed Boy

10/10

1997 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

July 08, 2024 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

1997, the year I turned 10, Titanic was released and became the highest grossing movie in history at the time, the first Harry Potter book was released and the sovereignty of Hong Kong was passed from the UK to the People’s Republic of China, and perhaps most famously here in the UK, Princess Diana died.

Here’s the top rated albums of the year by the music nerds over at rateyourmusic.com:

#1 Radiohead - OK Computer
#2 Bjork - Homogenic
#3 Godspeed You Black Emperor! - F#A#
#4 Elliot Smith - Either / Or
#5 Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West

And some from further down the list:

#6 Built to Spill - Perfect from Now On
#7 Fishmans - Uchū Nippon Setagaya
#8 Stereolab - Dots and Loops
#9 Janet Jackson - The Velvet Rope
#10 Ween - The Mollusk
#13 Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One

And a couple more albums by women from NPR’s list.

Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out
Erykah Badu - Baduizm

Let’s go.

“The Mollusk is the sixth studio album by American rock band Ween. It is a multi-genre concept album with a dark nautical theme, with most songs incorporating elements from psychedelia and/or sea shanties, while also featuring a heavy progressive rock influence.” - Wikipedia

I really liked this on first listen, it reminded me of a what a whole album of ‘I am the Walrus’ era Ringo Starr might have sounded like. But on subsequent listens it just felt like too much, and I very quickly burnt out on it. A shame.

6/10

“Uchū Nippon Setagaya (Japanese: 宇宙日本世田谷) is the seventh and final studio album by Japanese dream pop band Fishmans. The album's title roughly translates to Space, Japan, Setagaya. After signing a deal with Polydor Records for a three-album deal, Fishmans put out Kuchu Camp and Long Season (both 1996). The band returned to their studio, Waikiki Beach, to record a third album, but the band was plagued with internal struggle. Frontman Shinji Sato would often come to rehearsals with nearly-complete home demo recordings, which alienated the other members of the band. This would be the band's last studio album before initially disbanding, but was followed up by two live albums, 8月の現状 (1998), and 98.12.28 男達の別れ (1999). Sato died from lifelong heart conditions three months after the recording of the latter.” - Wikipedia

This is all very lovely and I particularly like the continuously melodic bass-work which has an almost dub feel to it. However, it just isn’t as compelling as their previous effort Long Seasons in my view. It feels safer and cosier, but in a way that makes it more background music for me than something I’m going to get really lost in.

Song Picks: Pokka Pokka, Weather Report

7/10

“Either/Or is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Elliott Smith. Book-ended by its two singles, "Speed Trials" and "Ballad of Big Nothing", Either/Or did not chart in the US, but was acclaimed by critics.” - Wikipedia

Smith’s songwriting prowess is evident here, but I’m just not getting into it as much as I have his self-titled album, maybe it sounds a bit too glossy? Dunno. It’s in the ‘thoroughly pleasant’ rather than ‘wow’ camp for me, but I know I’m an outlier.

Song Picks: Rose Parade, Say Yes

7/10

“The Velvet Rope is the sixth studio album by American singer Janet Jackson. Prior to its release, she renegotiated her contract with Virgin for US$80 million, marking this as the largest recording contract in history at that time. Upon experiencing an emotional breakdown, Jackson began facing a long-term case of depression. She developed her new record as a concept album, using introspection as its theme.” - Wikipedia

I’ve never been massively into straight 90s (or early 2000s) pop, there’s just something a bit sanitised about it that I can’t quite put my finger on. The Velvet Rope has much more interesting production than other pop albums of the time, but it still has that overly clean 90s sound which just tends to skim off me like a well thrown pebble on the water. I very much appreciate Jackson’s lyrical content here, which is anything but sanitised, and her melodies are as wonderful as ever. There’s some absolute 90s pop bangers here with Got ‘Til It’s Gone, Together Again, I Get Lonely and Every Time all being some of the decade’s best pop-tracks, and ones that still see plenty of airplay today. For me it’s a smidge too long, but undoubtedly one of the strongest straight-pop albums of the decade. On a side note, she sounds particularly like her brother on this album, especially on the softer tracks.

Song Picks: You, Got ‘Til It’s Gone, Together Again, I Get Lonely, Every Time

8/10

“Dig Me Out is the third studio album by the American rock band Sleater-Kinney. Dig Me Out marked the debut of Janet Weiss, who would become the band's longest-serving drummer. The music on the record was influenced by traditional rock and roll bands, while the lyrics deal with issues of heartbreak and survival. The album was acclaimed by music critics, who praised the album's energy and feminist lyrics. Retrospectively, Dig Me Out is considered the band's breakthrough record and is frequently included on several publications' best album lists. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked it No. 189 on its list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” - Wikipedia

Corin Tucker’s vocals are just the right side of piercing, with a tone and passion that cuts right through the mix, helped by how uncluttered things generally are from this three-piece, who forgo any studio trickery for a very raw sound. Dig Me Out is a superb, no-nonsense punk record, representing an important feminist message that has been all too rare in music to this point.

Song Picks: One More Hour, The Drama You’ve Been Craving

8.5/10

**8. F# A#** ∞

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

“F♯ A♯ ∞ (pronounced "F-sharp, A-sharp, Infinity") is the debut studio album by Canadian post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor. The CD version and the LP version have substantial differences between them. Recorded at the Hotel2Tango in the Mile End of Montreal, the album, as became common for the band, is devoid of traditional lyrics and is mostly instrumental, featuring lengthy songs segmented into movements. Pitchfork ranked the album number 45 on their list of the top 100 albums of the 1990s.” - Wikipedia

F♯ A♯ ∞ feels like the stomp to a final post-apocalyptic battle, it rolls with the rhythm of a march, and swells with the emotion of knowing that this is the end. A gloriously evocative record.

8.5/10

“Perfect from Now On is the third full-length album released by Built to Spill, and the band's first major label (Warner Bros.) release. Stylistically, the album was marked by its experimentation with longer song structures and philosophical lyrics.” - Wikipedia

I’m unsurprised to hear Built to Spill were a key influence on Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, as Doug Martsch’s vocal style and ear for melody is very similar. Musically they’re a bit more jam orientated than Death Cab for Cutie, with long, often raucous instrumental sections filling out the gaps in vocals. Clearly influential on a whole raft of late 90s and early 2000s indie, Perfect from Now On is a wonderful blend of affecting vocals, simple lyrics, and slightly off-kilter instrumental parts unafraid to march off a cliff and see what happens. It feels like emo and an atmospheric, edgy jam band had a baby. Martsch’s guitar work deserves a mention too, picking you up like an errant sandworm and smashing you into the horizon, Velvet Waltz being a particularly great example of this.

Song Picks: Really Described Eternity, I Would Hurt a Fly, Mad-up Dreams, Velvet Waltz, Kicked it in the Sun

8.5

“Baduizm is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Erykah Badu. After leaving university in order to concentrate on music full-time, Badu then began touring with her cousin, Robert "Free" Bradford, and recorded a 19-song demo, Country Cousins, which attracted the attention of Kedar Massenburg. He set Badu up to record a duet with D'Angelo, "Your Precious Love," and eventually signed her to a record deal with Universal. Baduizm was a commercial success, debuting at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart and number one on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.” - Wikipedia

Like one of those chill-hop study playlists but with a hundred times more soul. Badu's buttery smooth vocals effortlessly express melodies over a wholesome bedding of bass and snare claps. It all unravels at a pace so leisurely it feels like it might fall over any second. Sublime.

Song Picks: On & On, Appletree, Certainly

8.5/10

“Homogenic is the third studio album by Icelandic recording artist Björk. The album marked a stylistic change, focusing on similar-sounding music combining electronic beats and string instruments with songs in tribute to her native country Iceland. Homogenic was originally to be produced in her home in London, but was halted due to media attention from Björk surviving a murder attempt by a stalker. Homogenic has continued receiving critical acclaim, being listed among the best albums of all time by numerous critics.” - Wikipedia

Bjork can always be relied upon to make albums that stand out creatively, and Homogenic is no exception. Pounding, crystal soundscapes back Bjork’s soaring vocals like a beam of light taking them to the heavens. It’s an album not of songs as such, but of moments, where repeated phrases bore their way into your brain, often finally driven home by Bjork’s roar. Homogenic’s use of electronic programming seems very ahead of its time, and I can here lots of later Radiohead here for example. Engaging from start to finish, and so very interesting.

Song Picks: Unravel, 5 years, Jóga, Alarm Call

9/10

“Dots and Loops is the fifth studio album by English-French rock band Stereolab. It was their first album to be recorded straight to Digital Audio Tape and produced with Pro Tools. The album explores jazz and electronic sounds, and is influenced by bossa nova and 1960s pop music. Its lyrics address matters such as consumerism, the "spectacle", materialism, and human interaction. Several music critics have praised Dots and Loops for its blend of accessible music with experimental and avant-garde sounds.” - Wikipedia

Dots and Loops warms up the room like an exotic fire in the corner. It turns rainy days to sunshine. Is there anything more essential if you live in the UK? Probably not. It’s well over an hour long, but never outstays its welcome, in fact I’ve more often than not found myself starting it again as soon as it’s finished.

Song Picks: Miss Modular, Brakhage

9/10

3. The Lonesome Crowded West

Modest Mouse

“The Lonesome Crowded West is the second studio album by American rock band Modest Mouse. The two towers pictured on the album's cover are The Westin Seattle The Lonesome Crowded West received positive reviews from critics, and appeared on several lists of the best albums of the 1990s.” - Wikipedia

Here’s what I said back when I first reviewed this album back in 2013:

“Another Modest Mouse album at the top. This one’s essentially inspired by the ‘Mallfucking’ of America (as singer Isaac Brock puts it) and also by the experiences of a band being on the road. It’s wacky, it’s memorable and it’s long (around 78 minutes). The main reason for the album’s length is that the band often breaks into impromtu jams and while most producers would have cut these short to make the songs more radio ready I’m glad this wasn’t done here. It really has the raw feel of a band at the top of their game having fun without barriers. As with The Moon & Antarctica last month I love the sheer variation in the songs, hell even within one song, ‘Teeth Like God’s Shoeshine’ being a prime example, you can have screaming one second, tender bits the next, and a complete change of rhythm and time signature the next. Like The Moon and Antarctica it’s a journey, this time slightly more raw, but with no less passion. I also have to mention Jeremiah Green’s excellent drumming, top drawer stuff and the bass (particularly on the groovy songs inspired by being on the road such as Out of Gas) is awesome.. This is a great, great album and Modest Mouse are swiftly making their way into my very favourite bands.”

You know what 2013 Clive, I still agree. I feel like the review needs more daft analogies though to really fit into the context of this challenge. ‘The Lonesome Crowded West is like a pacing, friendly tiger. It walks backwards and forwards with a sense of unspent energy, a sense of frustration needing release, but satisfying itself instead by slowly deflating via the low rumbling purr of its endless great basslines.’

There we go. That’s better.

Song Picks: Teeth Like God’s Shoeshine, Convenient Parkin’, Doin’ the Cockroach, Trailer Trash, Out of Gas, Trucker’s Atlas

9.5/10

2. I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One

Yo La Tengo

“I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One is the eighth studio album by the American indie rock band Yo La Tengo. The album expands the guitar-based pop of its predecessor Electr-O-Pura to encompass a variety of other music genres, including bossa nova, krautrock, and electronic music. The album received widespread acclaim from music critics, who praised the band's ability to successfully expand the boundaries of nearly any pop style. The album is widely regarded as the band's best work and is frequently included on several publications' best album lists. In 2020, Rolling Stone included it on its list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time as no. 423.” - Wikipedia

I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One is magic. I’d listened to the album a few times and thought it was pleasant, but it was on a morning where I was playing with my son that it really hit home. There’s an understated beauty, variety, and melancholy to every track, in a way that is somehow full of hope. It’s rare that an album perfectly encapsulates your mood at a particular time, but I had one of those magical moments with this as I thought of the past, some of my struggles, and how it’s all ended up in a place where I finally feel content. And how I’d never change any of it, given where it’s led me.

The often mumbled vocals, those melodic basslines, the world music influences, the trance-like repetition, there’s something truly beautiful about the melancholy contentment it portrays.

Song Picks: Return Hot Chicken, Sugarcube, Little Honda

9.5/10

“OK Computer is the third studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. They distanced themselves from the guitar-centred, lyrically introspective style of their previous album, The Bends. OK Computer's abstract lyrics, densely layered sound and eclectic influences laid the groundwork for Radiohead's later, more experimental work. The album's lyrics depict a dystopian, futuristic world fraught with rampant consumerism, capitalism, social and modern alienation, emotional isolation and political malaise, with overall themes like transport, technology, insanity, death, modern British life, globalisation and anti-capitalism; in this capacity, OK Computer is said to have prescient insight into the mood of 21st-century life. The band used unconventional production techniques, including natural reverberation, and no audio separation. Most of the album was recorded live.” - Wikipedia

I’m not sure there’s much left to say about OK Computer, rateyourmusic.com’s current #1 album of all time, but I’ll try anyway. I’ve been looking forward to getting to 1997 to cover this ever since starting the challenge. The instrumental production is deliberately messy owing to the live sound and lack of instrument separation, and I feel this helps to bring Thom Yorke’s vocals and lyrics to the front, which are superb throughout. The way he soars above the storm of Airbag as he sings ‘an interstellar burst, I’m back to save the universe’ is one of the most life-affirming moments in music for me, not just this album; the way Paranoid Android batters around before settling into the gently strummed part as Yorke croons for it to rain on him, being another. OK Computer is irresistible musically, full of melody, chaos and feeling, but it does this while being a perfect statement on modern life. It’s both very accessible and very ambitious. I’m not clever enough to put my finger on exactly why, but more than any other album, it represents that feeling of growing up in the modern world.

Song Picks: Airbag, Paranoid Android, Subterranean Homesick Alien

1996 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

April 25, 2024 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music, Clive

Welcome to 1996 y’all, the year Britain was alarmed by an outbreak of mad cow disease, the world’s first sheep was cloned and named Dolly, Tupac Shakur was shot, and Clinton appointed the first female US secretary of state, Madeleine Albright.

Here’s rateyourmusic.com users’ top 5 albums of the year:

#1 Fishmans - Long Season
#2 DJ Shadow - Endtroducing
#3 Swans - Soundtracks for the Blind
#4 Outkast - ALiens
#5 Belle and Sebastian - If You’re Feeling Sinister

Obviously 5 isn’t enough now is it? So I’ve grabbed this lot from further down the list:

#6 Cryptopsy - None So Vile
#7 Burzum - Filosofem
#8 Unwound - Repetition
#9 Tool - Aenima
#10 Weezer - Pinkerton
#11 Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album
#16 Ruyichi Sakamoto - 1996
#26 Modest Mouse - This Is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About
#17 Tori Amos - Boys for Pele

And finally, One in a Million by Aaliyah, the only album from the year on NPR’s best albums of all time by women list that I haven’t already got in the mix.

Right, let’s go.

As smooth as those secret agent sunglasses she’s wearing on the cover, One in a Million is a remarkably mature effort considering Aaliyah was only 15 at the time. At times this maturity is somewhat alarming, considering the topics she is singing about. Linked to that, I’ll not mention the producer of this album, who is thankfully now in prison, but I will mention Timbaland who’s simple and effective beats work a treat with Aaliyah’s great vocals. Looked at purely from a musical perspective, One in a Million is a real treat.

Song Picks: Choosey Lover

8/10

“Filosofem (Norwegian for "Philosopheme") is the fourth studio album by Norwegian black metal solo project Burzum. It was recorded in March 1993 and was the last recording before Varg Vikernes was sentenced to prison in 1994; the album was not released until January 1996, however. It was released through Misanthropy Records and Vikernes's own record label, Cymophane Productions. The album is noted for its experimental sound when compared to most other second wave black metal. Vikernes considers Filosofem an "anti-trend album." - Wikipedia

Imprisoned for stabbing another leading guitarist in the Norwegian black metal scene and burning down three churches, and notorious for his controversial views and a period of neo-Nazism, Varg Vikernes is hardly someone you want to model yourself on. All that aside though, and knowing close to nothing about the Norwegian black metal movement (other than it seems a bit mad), this is an album of pulverising riffs and screams, all seemingly routed through a distortion pedal with the drive knob on max. It’s a fuzzy sandstorm, where Vikernes’ screams are indecipherable above the din, which is probably for the best. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this, it’s fuzziness seemingly the equivalent of drinking a pint through a straw, it goes to your head that much quicker.

It will also now forever remind me of a time at Rock Im Park festival when a Norwegian bloke was brought back to our campsite after a Rage Against the Machine gig. He spent the next morning charging around the campsite naked screaming ‘let’s burn churches!!’ while throwing peoples’ tents around before being arrested.

Song Picks: Jesus’ Tod, Erblicket die Tochter des Firmaments

8/10

13. This Is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About

Modest Mouse

“This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About is the debut studio album by American rock band Modest Mouse. Many of the album's tracks focus on traveling by automobile and the loneliness associated with rural life.” - Wikipedia

Modest Mouse’s debut is long, simple and repetitive musically. But it’s also full of Isaac Brock’s unique vocals, and lyrics of loneliness and long journeys. It rumbles along like a rusty car along a long, empty American highway. Reflections of the past and visions of the future like alternating magnets to the mind.

Song Picks: Dramamine, Tundra/Desert

8/10

“Ænima is the second studio album by the American rock band Tool. It is the first album by Tool to feature bassist Justin Chancellor, who replaced original bassist Paul D'Amour the year prior. In 2003, Ænima was ranked the sixth most influential album of all time by Kerrang!, Rolling Stone listed the album at No. 18 on its list of The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time.” - Wikipedia

Weird time signatures, pulverising riffs and drum beats that pound like a blue whale’s heart. This is a powerful album from a band on the way up. The album is clearly hugely influential, so much so that listening now it all sounds a bit generic. Effective, head bangingly enjoyable, and with a satisfying ‘mathiness’ to it, Ænima is a little too repetitive to blow my socks off completely, but they have been slightly dislodged.

Song Picks: Stinkfist, Forty Six & 2

8/10

“None So Vile is the second studio album by Canadian death metal band Cryptopsy, None So Vile is the first album to feature bassist Eric Langlois, and the last to feature vocalist Lord Worm, until his return on 2005's Once Was Not. The art featured on the cover of the album is a painting by Italian Baroque painter Elisabetta Sirani titled Herodias with the Head of John the Baptist, reversed. None So Vile is critically acclaimed as one of the most influential death metal albums of the 1990s, influencing many later acts and musicians in both technical death and brutal death metal subgenres.” - Wikipedia

I think I’ve called albums a barrage of noise before, but forget I ever said that, this album makes those feel like your ear being tickled. The bass drum barely stops bashing out 16th notes, there’s roaring, guitars churning hyperactive riffs and general ordered chaos. A slice of relentless brutality.

Song Picks: Crown of Horns, Slit Your Guts, Orgiastic Disembolwment

8.5/10

“1996 is a 1996 album by Japanese composer and pianist Ryuichi Sakamoto. It contains a selection of Sakamoto's most popular compositions plus two new compositions, all arranged for a standard piano trio. The arrangement of "Bibo no Aozora" that appears on this album has appeared in several film and television projects; one notable example is the film Babel, whose soundtrack features both the 1996 version and the /04 version of the song.” - Wikipedia

Where this could have been in danger of sounding like a greatest hits collection, the re-arrangement of songs for a standard piano trio means there is a real cohesiveness in the sound throughout the album, which helps to reign in some of the thematic inconsistencies. This is a wonderful collection of evocative and yet understated soundtrack pieces.

Song Picks: Bibo No Aozora, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence

8.5/10

“ATLiens is the second studio album by the American hip hop duo Outkast. The record features outer space-inspired production sounds, with Outkast and producers Organized Noize incorporating elements of dub and gospel into the compositions. Several songs feature the duo's first attempts at producing music by themselves. Lyrically, the group discusses a wide range of topics including urban life as hustlers, existential introspection, and extraterrestrial life. The album's title is a portmanteau of "ATL" (an abbreviation of Atlanta, Georgia, the duo’s hometown) and "aliens", which has been interpreted by critics as a commentary about the feeling of being isolated from American culture. Since its release, ATLiens has been listed by several magazines and critics as one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time.” - Wikipedia

I bloody love 90s hip-hop, and this album encapsulates why. Smooth beats, slick rhymes, not taking itself to seriously - and space noises. Okay the last one is specific to this album. It’s a bit long, and front loaded - though more in a first half is magical, second half just great kind of a way. I didn’t think I’d ever rate an album with the lines ‘put your hands in the air and wave them like you just don’t care’ this highly, but it’s delivered with a knowing wink and the larger-than-life personality that’s spread thick throughout this odyssey.

Song Picks: "Two Dope Boyz (In a Cadillac)", “ATLiens“

8.5/10

“Repetition is the fifth studio album by the American post-hardcore band Unwound, the album has been hailed as a masterpiece among those in the punk rock scene.” - Wikipedia

Taking a more studio-orientated approach than is perhaps common in punk, Repetition goes far beyond the usual ‘three chords and the truth’, live oriented sound of the genre, with sleek production and intricately thought out arrangements. The title is apt, as songs often feature repetitive, rumbling bass which create a foundation for the album’s more experimental guitar screeches, synth drones, gongs and bells. Repetition can be as emotional (Lady Elect) as it is energetic (Corpse Pose), and it’s easily one of the most interesting and varied punk albums I’ve heard.

Song Picks: Corpse Pose, Lady Elect, For Your Entertainment

8.5/10

“Pinkerton is the second studio album by the American rock band Weezer. The guitarist and vocalist Rivers Cuomo wrote most of Pinkerton while studying at Harvard University, after abandoning plans for a rock opera, Songs from the Black Hole. It was the last Weezer album to feature bassist Matt Sharp, who left the group in 1998.

To better capture their live sound, Weezer self-produced Pinkerton, creating a darker, more abrasive album than their self-titled 1994 debut. Cuomo's lyrics express loneliness and disillusionment with the rock lifestyle; the album is named after the character BF Pinkerton from Giacomo Puccini's 1904 opera Madama Butterfly, whom Cuomo described as an ‘asshole American sailor similar to a touring rock star’”. - Wikipedia

Voted the third worst album of the year by Rolling Stone readers at the time, it has since become known as a masterpiece, and a huge influence on the emo scene. Pinkerton’s lyrics are simple, at times cringeworthy in content (sniffing an 18 year old fan’s knickers anyone?), but I feel like that’s the point. It’s written from the perspective of the asshole touring rockstar Cuomo is referring to, which is of course him. Matt Sharp’s bass rumbles throughout, determined to make his last album with the band count. The guitars saw, and the drums sound massive. It’s an album that sounds raw, but that hits hard, a perfect backdrop to Cuomo’s self-pitying, immature musings, which are sung to an endless selection of catchy melodies.

I have no desire to be friends with the Cuomo who wrote Pinkerton, he sounds insufferable. But I do appreciate how honest he is about it, and how his and the band’s energy practically explodes off the disc, or cloud streaming service - whatever the case may be.

Song Picks: Why Bother?, Butterfly, El Scorcho

8.9/10

“Richard D. James Album is the eponymous fourth studio album by Irish-British electronic musician Richard D. James, under his pseudonym Aphex Twin. Richard D. James Album was composed by James on his Macintosh computer, and took longer to complete than his previous efforts. The album features faster breakbeats and intricate drum programming which draw influence from jungle and drum and bass, combined with lush string arrangements, unstable time signatures, and slow ambient melodies reminiscent of James' earlier work, as well as modulated vocals by James.” - Wikipedia

32 minutes of electronic madness. The beats sound like a drum machine becoming sentient and expressing a complex bewilderment with the world. The instrumentation goes from ambient (though with notes not quite starting or finishing when you’d expect) to completely off the wall (Carn Marth). The cover would have you believe this is somehow sinister. It isn’t, it’s just completely unpredictable and glorious fun, and the final salvo of tracks are some of the most life-affirming I’ve heard for a while.

Song Picks: To Cure a Weakling Child, ‘4’, Goon Gumpas, Girl/Boy Song

9/10

“Boys for Pele is the third studio album by American singer and songwriter Tori Amos. P Despite the album being Amos's least radio friendly material to date, Boys for Pele debuted at number two on both the US Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart, making it her biggest simultaneous transatlantic debut, her first Billboard top 10 debut, and the highest-charting US debut of her career to date.

Boys for Pele was recorded in rural Ireland and Louisiana and features 18 songs that incorporate harpsichord, clavichord, harmonium, gospel choirs, brass bands and full orchestras. Amos wrote all of the tracks, and for the first time, she served as sole producer for her own album. For Amos, the album was a step into a different direction, in terms of singing, songwriting, and recording, and is experimental in comparison to her previous work.” - Wikipedia

70 minutes of varied instrumentation, wonderful songwriting, and vocals that are constantly engaging, with melodies seemingly falling to Tori like raindrops in a British drizzle. Boys for Pele captivates for its full, significant running length.

Song Picks: Beauty Queen/Horses, Father Lucifer

9/10

4. If You’re Feeling Sinister

Belle and Sebastian

“If You're Feeling Sinister is the second album by the Scottish indie pop band Belle and Sebastian. It is often ranked among the best albums of the 1990s, including being ranked #14 in Pitchfork's list of Top 100 Albums of the 1990s. Band leader Stuart Murdoch said If You're Feeling Sinister is probably his best collection of songs in 2005.” - Wikipedia

Murdoch’s vocals are understated, sung shyly, and atop gorgeous arrangements that bounce along like a more relaxed Blonde on Blonde. All that considered. it’s pretty remarkable that his vocals demand your attention, and that is a testament to his great lyricism, story telling, and subtle expression. I hadn’t realised how far ahead they were (in terms of timeline) of obvious bands they’ve influenced like the Shins, Death Cab for Cutie, and pretty much any indie-pop band that followed them. They set a template here, but they also made an album that more than stands the test of time almost 30 years on.

Song Picks: Get Me Away from Here I’m Dying, The Stars of Track and Field, Seeing Other People. Me and the Major, If You’re Feeling Sinister

9.5/10

“Endtroducing..... is the debut studio album by American music producer DJ Shadow. It is an instrumental hip hop work composed almost entirely of samples from vinyl records. DJ Shadow produced Endtroducing over two years, using an Akai MPC60 sampler and little other equipment. He edited and layered samples to create new tracks of varying moods and tempos.

Endtroducing was ranked highly on various lists of the best albums of 1996, and has been acclaimed by critics as one of the greatest albums of the 1990s. It is considered a landmark recording in instrumental hip hop, with DJ Shadow's sampling techniques and arrangements leaving a lasting influence. In 2020, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Endtroducing 329th on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.” - Wikipedia

There’s not much left to say about DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing that hasn’t already been said. A masterpiece of sampling, clearly ahead of its time, and put together with a level of research akin to a PhD thesis. It continues to influence music across the spectrum today, while maintaining an alluring individuality that hums under its atmospheric beats and instrumental lines.

Song Picks: Building Steam With a Grain of Salt, The Number Song, Mutual Slump, Midnight in a Perfect World

9.5/10

“Long Season is the sixth studio album by Japanese musical group Fishmans. It consists of a single 35-minute composition based on the band's earlier song "Season". The album was released to modest success in the Japanese alternative scene, but was scarcely known outside Japan until the 2010s, and has since garnered critical acclaim and online media attention. Fishmans performed the entire Long Season album as one piece during their final live shows in December 1998, a recording of which was included on the album 98.12.28 男達の別れ.” - Wikipedia

Long Season feels like a 3 part symphony to me (though it is split into 5 sections on certain issues). It starts as a meditative walk through the park with your favourite album playing; reliably comforting. The middle section feels like a frantic distraction - you check your phone and the state of the world shatters your peace; Motegi’s drums are quiet but chaotic like the background hum of everything happening out of sight and earshot. Finally, you catch yourself, put the phone away, and look at the path winding off into the distance. There’s a feeling of elation as your favourite song comes on, but now you let the birds in as well as the shuffling stream. It’s all too much, you start running for no reason other than you feel too elated to stand still. There’s no one else around, you laugh, you collapse on a patch of grass, you feel about as happy as you ever have, maybe as happy as you ever will. You thank your fellow humans for the music, for without it you’re not sure you’d feel very much at all.

9.5/10

“Soundtracks for the Blind is the tenth studio album by Swans. It was intended, as suggested by the title, to function as a "soundtrack for a non-existent film." Upon its release, it received critical acclaim, but was the last studio album released by the band until 2010's My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope to the Sky.” - Wikipedia

Regularly listed among the 90s’ best albums, Soundtracks for the Blind’s Brian Eno influence is obvious. This is more in the ambient category than previous crushing efforts of theirs. In its over two hour running length it builds a whole new world around you through its numerous samples, grainy conversations and the occasional cathartic release. It sounds huge, but without stacking instrument upon instrument to create a wall of sound. Rather it creates these grinding, industrial soundscapes that are surprisingly tuneful. If the film this thing soundtracked did exist, I’d be very keen to see it. I imagine it as a tale of isolation, a factory worker taking the floor day by day with thousands of others, trying to restrain his soul from bursting through his enforced mechanical exterior. The machines rattle around him, he turns their noise pollution into melodies, and imagines talking over the top, or the odd scream.

Soundtracks for the Blind is completely unique, and completely unforgettable. Its not the kind of album you’ll be recommending to everyone necessarily, but for those among us seeking inventive, atmospheric music that goes beyond an idea of songs to focus more on creating an atmosphere than a set of hits, then you’ll be hard pressed to find another album that does that better than this.

2023 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

February 16, 2024 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

So, as I try to keep up with the present while writing about my favourite albums of every year from 1960, here’s my two pence worth on the albums from 2023. I’ve listened to all of Pitchfork’s ‘Best New Music’, the top 10-15 or so of rateyourmusic.com and albumoftheyear.org’s (aggregate) lists and some other stuff that has tickled my fancy. Below are all the ones I enjoyed enough to give my thoughts on.

I usually give a bit of a summary about the years I’m talking about news-wise before launching into the best music, but I think we could all do without being reminded about 2023 on the news front.

As is customary with my contemporary reviews, they’re a lot shorter. I’ve got a child now and would like to get back to the past (1996 to be precise) and finish this challenge sometime before global warming kills us all.

To save your data plans and such, I’m only going to do the pretty album cover style for the top 20, rather than for all 40+ here.

50. Tomb Mold - The Enduring Spirit

I can get on board with pretty much anything in music, but roaring is still something that eludes me. Shouting and screaming I’m game with, hell I do a lot of that myself, but roaring has always just sounded like I’m listening to some minotaur front a band, rather than a human. The music here is impressive, with angular riffs and beats performed with surgical precision, and if I could just get past the indecipherable roaring I’d love it, but alas, I can’t. I know it’s a personal thing.

6/10

49. Kelela - Raven

Much like the cover, Kelela’s second album feels like treading water in a lovely fluid soundscape, but in the end I got a little tired and felt like it hadn’t really gone anywhere.

48. Yaeji - With a Hammer

Yaeji’s debut is decent, varied pop that just hasn’t quite jumped out and grabbed me, though I very much admire its understated artistry.

6/10

47. Julia Byrne - Greater Wings

Byrne supported the Tallest Man on Earth on a gig I went to a few years ago. They seemed a little mis-matched, Byrne being perhaps the least energetic solo performer I’ve seen, while TTMOE is more energetic than most bands, never mind solo performers. Much like that Byrne performance, Greater Wings is lush, full of lovely, breathy vocals, but just not all that exciting.

Song Picks: The Greater Wings, Hope’s Return

6/10

46. Hotline TNT - Cartwheel

A fuzzy shoegaze factory. Enjoyable but not standing out.

Song Picks: Protocol

6/10

45. Pangea - Changing Channels

Big fish - little fish - cardboard box. Dubstep artist Pangea’s second album is more trance than dubstep, and though I very much enjoy listening to it’s energising beats and sandy synth lines, it’s not one I’m finding all that memorable.

Song Picks: Hole Away

6.5/10

44. Andre 3000 - New Blue Sun

Lovely spacey flutey stuff. A bit of a ‘let’s stick some lovely mood music on’ album, rather than one I’ve got as much out of with active listening. I’m not sure if anyone expected this of Mr 3000, the first song title suggests otherwise. A pleasant curveball.

6.5/10

43. Liv.e - Girl in the Half Pearl

Sumptuous beats and melodies, and a real joy to listen to, but a bit too wishy-washy to have left a solid imprint.

Song Picks: Clowns, NoNewNews!

6.5

42. ANOHNI and the Johnsons - My Back Was a Bridge

Vocals are full of feeling and wholesome mixes. There Wasn’t Enough is probably a masterpiece.

Song Pick: There Wasn't Enough

41. Blue Lake - Sun Arcs

If I retreated to a Swedish cabin with nothing but a dog for company for an extended period of time, I’d either leave and head back to society, or be driven to suicide. Jason Dungan however was a lot more productive, and came out with a beautifully optimistic piece of instrumental music ‘driven’ by his own custom-made zither. I put ‘driven’ in inverted comma because it’s more of a meander than anything with a concrete purpose or destination. The journey on Sun Arcs twinkles and rings like the dawn of a new day of nothing, but in a hopeful way, not the way shrouded in ennui that I’d be prone to write about.

Song Picks: Bloom, Dallas, Writing

40. Lankum - False Lankum

Very trad-folky at its core, but more dissonant and dark than that. A kind of dark, foggy day on the Moors at dusk rather than your folky walk through a forest full of elves. Get me?

Song Picks: Go Dig My Grave

7/10

39. Youth Lagoon - Heaven is a Junkyard

It's no Wondrous Bughouse, but it is an album of nice melodies drowned in reverb, and sometimes that’s just what the doctor ordered.

Song Picks: Rabbit, Trapeze Artist, Mercury

7.1/10

38. JPEGMAFIA / Danny Brown: Scaring the Hoes

JPEGMAFIA produces so it’s the hyperactive, skipping affair you’d expect. Danny Brown’s idiosyncratic vocals fit like a glove. It’s a chaotic, continuously entertaining, but I can't fully wrap my head around it.

Song Picks: God Loves You, Scaring Hoes

7/10

37. PJ Harvey - Inside the Old Year Dying

PJ Harvey’s tenth album is an opaque folk album that opens up only if you study the lyrics, when it’ll swallow you whole, even if you come out the other end none the wiser as to what you’ve just experienced.

Song Picks: Prayer at the Gate, Lwonsome Tonight,

7.5/10

36. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation

I think we’ve all lost count of just how many albums King Gizzard... have unleashed on the world before now, I mean it looks like they put out three in one year in 2023. Never standing still, and constantly trying new concepts, PetroDragonic… is a thrash metal album, and having just got past Slayer in my album challenge, it’s nice to hear a modern version. I can take or leave the lyrics, they’re the kind of dragon, wizard, lizard stuff you’d expect from the band’s name and the cover (which I rather like), but the riffs are consistently roaring and the whole thing is just a lot of fun. PetroDragonic doesn’t take itself too seriously, despite the impressive instrumental skill going on, and you get the feeling that every riff is winking at you.

Song Picks: Witchcraft, Motor Spirit, Dragon

7.5/10

35. Billy Woods & Kenny Segal - Maps

Segal’s beats are consistently wholesome, Woods’ rapping the perfect accompaniment. Like a bowl of Shredded Wheat. Cleansing.

Song Picks: Baby Steps, Soft Landing, The Layover

7.5/10

34. Wednesday - Rat Saw God

The vocals are nothing new, and at times I'd go so far as to say they're uninspiring. However, musically and lyrically this is a bit of a gem. The way the lead guitar fights with the more straightforward slacker rock sound at points is great, creating a variety of interesting textures, which Karly Hartzman’s murky lyrics work well with. Rat Saw God is unafraid to be ambitious (see the spectacular Bull Believer), and the somewhat derivative vocals are its only drawback.

Song Picks: Bull Believer, Chosen to Deserve

7.5/10

33. Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want to Turn Into You

A glorious arena pop album. Polachek’ second album crawls up to you as you cower in the corner hiding from the world. Within about 3 minutes you're up dancing to the rat-a-tat-tat of the lights, hands a stuttering silhouette. The record dips a little in the second half, but finishes as strongly as it started.

Song Picks: Welcome to My Island, Bunny is a Rider, Smoke

7.5/10

32. Panopticon - The Rime of Memory

The highest ranking album that has vocals that roar, so make of that what you will. I’m told it’s about the passing milestones of life, but as I can’t understand a word Austin Lunn roars, I wouldn’t get that unless I read the lyrics. Anyway, The Rime of Memory is huge, it has moments of folk instrumentation which interchange perfectly with the black metal onslaughts that drown out Dunn’s yells like fog obscuring a roaring beacon. A clinic in atmosphere and ‘epicness’, for want of a better word. This album sounds important, it sounds serious, and I like to listen to it and think about the fact I’m going to die one day, and that that’s a bit rubbish. Anyway stop reading this and go listen to Cedar Skeletons, it’s glorious. Also note that pretty much everything is played by Mr Lunn himself, which is impressive.

Song Picks: Cedar Skeletons, Enduring the Snow Drought

7.5/10

31. Jaimie Branch - Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly

Branch’s final album was completed following her death last year, according to notes she left. What remains is not a sad funeral to her death, but a joyful, final celebration in jazzy experiments and variety. I do feel like it’s not quite cohesive enough as a whole, but it has that ‘slightly over-reaching album before the masterpiece’ feel to it. As such the only real sadness to the album is that said inevitable masterpiece will remain unwritten.

7.5/10

30. Boygenius - The Record

Supergroup Boygenius achieve what so few supergroups manage: a record that pulls on all their skillsets and talents, while remaining cohesive and not sounding like songs from a bunch of different artists thrown together. There’s a clear leader on many of the tracks (Emily, I’m Sorry has Bridgers’ stamp all over it), but the others contribute in ways that pull the tracks towards sounding like boygenius songs, rather than those of the three individual artists.

Song Picks: Emily, I’m Sorry; True Blue; Letter to an Old Poet

7.5/10

29. Sampha - Lahai

Sampha’s second album is a gorgeously easy-drifting collection of lovely melodies and pitter-patter drum beats that feels like a flock of birds dancing in a blue sky. “I am lifted by your love, I am lifted from above” he sings of his newborn daughter on Suspended. Us too Sampha, us too.

Song Picks: Only, Suspended, Jonothan L. Seagull

8/10

28. NoName - Sundial

Silky smooth rhymes and luxuriously laid-back and angular beats, Sundial is another great hip-hop album and one with a protagonist that has a refreshing ability to take aim at herself just as willingly as she takes aim at Kendrick and Jay-Z.

Song Picks: holde me down, namesake, oblivion

8/10

27. yeule - Softscars

Yeule’s third album is a wonderful dip back into 90s alternative; a grainier, more industrial and less corporate Avril Lavigne & co, full of evocative and cathartic melodies you want to scream your dreams along to.

Song Picks: ghosts, software update,

8/10

26. McKinley Dixon - Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?

One of the most lyrically and instrumentally interesting hip-hop albums of the year. There are obvious soul, jazz and pop influences, with a rock-solid rhythm section groove holding it together as it colourfully fires in all directions.

Song Picks: Mezzanine Tippin’; Run, Run, Run; Live! From the Kitchen Table

8/10

25. 100 Gecs - 10,000 Gecs

10,000 Gecs is the result of asking a robot to create an album that is cathartic, catchy, nostalgic, and fun, with as much efficiency as possible. The album synthesises a whole heap of genres into the skeletons that hold them together in a way so sharp that it’ll cut to the core of anyone listening to it. Your reaction to this will be one of viscerlal love or distaste.

Song Picks:

8/10

24. L’Rain - I Killed Your Dog

Whether this grabs you or not will correlate with how well you mange to get lost in it. It took me a few listens, but on the final one, I’d clearly found the right moment. I was drowned in its varied soundscapes, melodies, structurelessness and mystery, and I was sold.

Song Picks: I Killed Your Dog, 5 to 8 ours a day,

8/10

23. Model/Actriz - Dogsbody

The New York noise outfit’s debut has an elaborate phallus on the cover and concerns itself with making sex as unsexy as possible. It’s a grimey waddle into the club toilets, only for the cubicle to open into some slime covered underworld. Once you make it back out you’re left feeling a level of filthy that can’t be washed off with the next morning’s shower.

Song Picks: Donkey Show, Divers, Pure Mode, Sun In

8/10

22. Fever Ray - Radical Romantics

A twisted synth dream pumped full of personality (Kandy’s layered synth pads are a world I want to live in), the vocals either piercing through the synthetic underworld or mellowly holding its more erratic edges together for fear they might break off. Radical Romantics is an album of understated hooks, and overstated soundscapes.

Song Picks: Shiver, New Utensils, Even it Out, Kandy, Tapping Fingers

8/10

21. Kara Jackson - Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?

A majestic record where the instrumentation, whether it be Jackson’s guitar, or the more lush embellishments on many of the tracks, follows her every word and note. Jackson’s past as National Youth Poet Laureate is obvious in her free verse structures to these songs, where the melodies rarely repeat, and her messages are delivered with an extreme confidence only matched by the spontaneous but pinpoint accurate instrumentation that flows in its wake.

Song Picks: Lily, Brain, Dickhead Blues

8/10

Uchis’ third album is the musical version of that buzz of contentness you get when starting a new relationship.

Song Picks: I Wish You Roses, Moral Conscience, Moonlight

8/10

Not completely sure what the album name is all about, and every song here is essentially different shades of the same thing, but it’s done with such timeless simplicity that it burrows its way in your brain. Pretty much constantly anthemic, the album’s drums are soft and sandy, and the synths layered to create a whole wash of melodies underneath Clanton’s obvious vocal ones. I could imagine it getting old fairly quickly due to its repeated formula, but while it lasts its a glorious oral pillow to get lost in.

Song Picks: Everything I Want, Justify My Life, Punching Down,

8/10

Rodrigo’s second album takes the ‘straight-pop’ title this year. It’s full of catchy songs, delivered in a manner that doesn’t feel completely sanitised (she’ll happily throw out some ‘explicit lyrics’ if the mood dictates). Rodrigo’s vocal range effortlessly fits with the various pop-productions on offer here. It’s just a bloody good pop-album, and the adolescence-to-adulthood theme is one we can all relate to. Not necessarily pioneering, but consistently fun and entertaining, and that’s what pop is all about right?

Song Picks: All American Bitch, Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl, Logical, The Grudge

8/10

A feel good record that rocks the party like it's 1976. Jubilant brass cacophonies, groovy bass lines and melodies that worm their way into your brain like the hungry caterpillar. It's nothing new as such, and there's numerous moments that sound like hits of yesteryear, but it's refreshing to have a great disco record come out in 2023, and it's my favourite party record of the year.

Pearls, Free Yourself, Freak Me Now, Lightning

8.5/10

The Mexico duo create one of the most refreshingly idiosyncratic albums of the year. With Mabe Fratti’s cello and vocals taking centre stage, Titanic builds a world of jazz, classical and folk that seems to take influence from here, there and everywhere. It’s a spacious record, one where the wind is as important as the chimes and, like a tree grasping for the sun, it branches off many times to a common goal, light.

Song Picks: Anónima, Te evite

8.3/10

All hail the pop-punk king! Rosenstock unexpectedly hits a professional studio, but expectedly makes the studio bend to his DIY will, rather than compromising to its allure of a shiny, clean sound. Hellmode is probably the most cleanly produced album of Jeff’s I’ve heard, but it’s far from your Butch Vig style commercialised punk effort. As if making a point that he might be in the studio, but this is still the Jeff we know and love, he opens the album with the anthemic WILL U STILL U, which features vocals so grainy, they sound like they’ve been recorded through a tin can. He continues to make creative decisions that serve his music, which errs on the raw side. Hellmode is another pop-punk triumph, and one with a refreshing self-awareness.

Song Picks: WILL U STILL U, HEAD, LIKED U BETTER, HEALMODE, LIFE ADMIN

8.5/10

Arooj Aftad - Love in Exile

Pakistani-American Arooj Aftad’s fourth album, and her first in collaboration with Vijay Iyer and Shahzad Ismaily is a gorgeous, atmospheric and minimalistic journey through soundscapes that feel like they’d shatter at the slightest touch. It’s as though you’re tip-toeing through a place of prayer, not wanting to disturb anyone’s delicate threads of connection to the etheral.

Song Picks: Haseen Thi, To Remain/To Return

8.5/10

I’ve not listened to enough Yo La Tengo, as this is excellent. There’s more than a hint of the 1970s band Can here, and that is always a good thing. The meditative repetition evident on the opening Sinatra Drive Breakdown, creates a calmness by the back door, as it turns itself inside out and back again, Ira Kaplan’s distorted guitars burning like an effigy of Hendrix, and his vocals quietly contemplating over the top. Kaplan’s vocals drive the album’s hungover feel, where feelings are blurry, undefined, and never overpowering. While the guitars have a satisfying anarchy to them, Kaplan’s vocals feel like a collection of mantras. The tracks Georgia Hubley sings on have a more conventionally melodic feel, like light shining in through the album’s already pleasant machinery. This Stupid World is an acceptance of a world that could be so much better, and taking it dy by day, beat by beat, thought by thought.

Song Picks: Sinatra Drive Breakdown, Fallout, Aselestine, Miles Away

8.5/10

Putting Javelin pretty much has the same effect as putting a fire on in a room, and is much cheaper and more environmentally friendly. Thanks Sufjan, in these times of insane energy bills, this is exactly what we needed. You never disappoint.

Song Picks: My Red Little Fox, Goodbye Evergreen, Genuflecting Ghost, A Running Start,

8.5/10

**11. The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We**

Mitski

Those backing vocals coming in at the start of the beautiful Bug Like an Angel are one of my favourite musical moments of the year. The dynamic volume shift took me completely aback, and is something we don’t hear enough. The Land is Inhospitable isn’t just studio trickery though, it’s an album that sounds as accomplished in terms of songwriting as it is beautifully produced. Things are stripped back, Mitski’s vocals hover delicately as a hummingbird above the gentle stream of other, mainly acoustic, instrumentation. The whole thing feels kind of timeless.

Song Picks: Bug Like an Angel, Heaven, My Love Mine All Mine

8.5

**10. Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd**

Lana Del Rey

Del Rey’s ninth album is my favourite yet. An epic 1 hour 17 minutes long, it’s only held back by the last few tracks sounding a bit out of sync with the rest, perhaps its the featured musicians? Overall though this is a gorgeous journey of stories, melodies, and atmospheres. It feels like a vivid, poetic book in musical format, and I want to bathe in it.

Song Picks: Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd; Paris, Texas; Candy Necklace

8.5/10

Danny Brown’s sixth album, coming after time in rehab to recover from drug and alcohol addiction, is also his most relaxed and personal. It’s my favourite hip-hop album of the year due to its range. We’ve got the frenetic Tantor, to the laid back Bass Line and everything in between. The production is continually intriguing, and adds to each song’s atmosphere, while never taking away from Brown’s introspective vocals. Every track pulls you in. Also he rhymes ‘celibate’ with ‘sell a bit’, which is superb.

Song Picks: Down Wit It, Tantor, Celibate,

8.5/10

27 minutes of fuzzy delight. Simultaneously lo-fi and yet clearly heavily produced, Girl With Fish is an album of gentle hooks, and constant left turns in instrumentation. Very much guitar led, but in a modern way which takes influence from more electronic ways of recording to create constantly changing, creative and deep soundscapes. Lydia Slocum’s understated and warm vocals certainly help to hold the various sections together, but it’s the production that is most impressive. Unlike the chaos of say a Guided by Voices record (many of which I adore), this somehow makes what could be chaotic sound completely unchaotic. It’s like someone’s taken a huge explosion of music, and squished it into a small cohesive ball. It’s wonderful.

Song Picks: Freak, Sweet, Pocket

8.5/10

The ‘queer antifascist black metal/doom duo’ sound like the final cries of those left on a dying planet. Those cries are broken, grainy and throat rattling, and the primal, pounding drums and apocalyptic guitar only further add to the image of the world going down. The band switch roles back and forth with each song, and it’s this subtle variety of two strong individuals working towards a common sound that makes those peaks and troughs even more dynamic and powerful. It’s dramatic, all encompassing, and bloody glorious, like the death cries of an atheist in a crumbling cathedral as he collapses to the ground with a scream of “why?”.

Song Picks: Ruins, DTA,

9/10

Young Fathers’ fourth album is a jubilant march of chants, pounding drums, and circular instrumental parts that build and build into a cacophony of positive feeling. It’s quite remarkable how original the band continues to sound, while being so completely accessible. Their lyrics are at times hard to decipher, and when you can decipher them they’re hard to penetrate. But as this lovely Pitchfork review says, it’s all about the feeling, which in this case is nearly euphoric. I’ve been a fan of this band for a while, but to me this is their best album yet. It doesn’t feel as gridded as previous efforts, it feels more spontaneous, fun, and communal, and that suits the band just perfectly. It’s hard to listen to Heavy, Heavy attentively and not come out the other side with a rejuvenated zest for live, and in 2023, that was a welcome thing indeed. It could have been 5 minutes or so longer, but its brevity only serves to make it feel more precious; that buzz of happiness that never quite lasts long enough.

Song Picks: Rice, Drum, Tell Somebody,

9/10

Oh Me Oh My is a story, an expression, one beyond choruses and verses, one as much of silence as noise, one of decay, one written in pain, pain overcome but constantly in the rearview mirror. It's an artistic statement one can't help but admire, lifted by its two best pieces, the beautifully simple opener and None of Us Have but a Little While, and the masterfully evocative Mount Meigs, documenting Holley's time in the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children, and the horrific abuse that took place there, in a malaise of noise, thrashed drums, and Holley’s spoken word. It's a challenging album, an expression of a man dealing with a traumatic past that still gives him night terrors to this day, but it’s one you owe yourself to tackle.

Song Picks: Testing, Mount Meigs, None of us Have But a Little While

9/10

It’s a bit of a conincidence that I’m listening to this right after having loved Cocteau Twins’ Heaven or Las Vegas as part of my favourite albums of 1990, as there’s more than a few similarities here. Parannoul pushes what Cocteau Twins did yet further, so far that at times whatever recording software he is using is struggling to contain it, as bits cut in and out, struggling to not explode on themselves. After the Magic is the beautiful sound of saturated emotion.

Song Picks: Polaris, Sketchbook,

9/10

**3. Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds)**

**Yves Tumor**

Yves Tumor is back with a wall of sound whirling dervish of an album. With the 80s pop sensibilities of Prince and the fuzzy guitars and bass of a much unrulier Muse he creates a world of his own. He's that guy who keeps trying to write a pop hit but can't help making it so elaborate and dense that radio airwaves would quiver at the thought of playing them. There's a whole host of hits at their core here, but they're covered by glorious amounts of intricate fuzz and distortion, not least the soaring guitar solos that snake under many of the tracks. On the glorious In Spite of War the final chorus feels like Tumor's magnum opus, as if all the stars are aligning like a murmuration of birds weaving across the night sky. It's bloody majestic.

Song Picks: Lovely Sewer, Meteora Blues, In Spite of War

9/10

One of those rare albums that sounds instantly classic. Maybe because it's so rooted in it's unembellished songwriting. There's nothing spectacular about the chord progressions here, or indeed any of the musical score, but it's precisely this that leaves the focus on Sternberg's songwriting, which is some of the most consistently great I've heard. The best melodies are often in a major key, but they walk that tightrope above a vat of cheese. I've Got Me walks the tightrope with aplomb, and never looks close to falling off. How refreshing to have an album with a positive/empathetic outlook that will never get old.

Song Picks: People are Toys to You, I've Got Me, Mountains High, Stockholm Syndrome

9/10

I’ve always preferred the bit after a party where everyone is laid around as the sun comes up to all the dancing and such beforehand. Something chilled bounces of the speaker, people talk with worn voices, the odd person gets up and asks if people want a beer bringing. It’s calm, reflective, the interactions are real, there’s a kindness to everyone’s worn glows, the world is on pause and there’s nothing more important to be doing right now. Madre encapsulates that feeling for me, it’s beats are warm and soft, it’s global influences sprinkled on tastefully, its heart on its sleeve, its ego thoroughly dimmed. Madre is all those rare early mornings happily spent just being myself, surrounded by others doing the same.

Song Picks: Madres, How Music Makes You Feel Better, Estacion Esperanza

9/10

1995 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

December 08, 2023 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

So, here we are in 1995, when OJ Simpson’s trial started, 2,000 people died in the Rwanda Massacre, and on the lighter news front Steve Fossett completed the first solo transpacific balloon flight.

Here’s what rateyourmusic.com’s users have as the year’s top 5 albums:

#1 Genius/GZA - Liquid Swords
#2 Death - Symbolic
#3 Mobb Deep - The Infamous
#4 Björk - Post
#5 Radiohead - The Bends

And let’s grab some more from further down the list:

#6 Elliott Smith - Elliott Smith
#7 Three-6 Mafia - Mystic Stylez
#8 Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...
#9 The Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
#11 Pulp - Different Class

#15 P J Harvey - To Bring You My Love
#18 Cap'n Jazz - Burritos, Inspiration Point, Fork Balloon Sports, Cards in the Spokes, Automatic Biographies, Kites, Kung Fu, Trophies, Banana Peels We've Slipped On and Egg Shells We've Tippy Toed Over
#29 Guided by Voices - Alien Lanes

Finally, to add another female composed album to the list I’m taking Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill from NPR’s best albums by women of all time list.

Let’s go.

14. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

The Smashing Punpkins

“Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is the third studio album by American alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins. It features a wide array of musical styles, including art rock, grunge, alternative pop, and heavy metal.

Propelled by its lead single "Bullet with Butterfly Wings", the album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 246,500 units. It remains the band's only album to top the Billboard 200. Lauded by critics for its ambition and scope, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness earned the band seven Grammy Award nominations in 1997, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year ("1979").” - Wikipedia

It's so long I find it hard to find time to absorb it attentively in one sitting, which I'm sure would up it in my estimations. As it is, I really enjoy it every time I put it on, but it rarely wows me or feels particularly cohesive.

Song Picks: 1979, Bullet with Butterfly Wings

7/10

“Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... (commonly referred to as the Purple Tape) is the debut studio album by American rapper and Wu-Tang Clan member Raekwon. The album was loosely composed to play like a film with Raekwon as the "star", fellow Wu-Tang member Ghostface Killah as the "guest-star", and producer RZA as the "director". It features appearances from every member of the Wu-Tang Clan. Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... has received acclaim from music critics and writers over the years, with many lauding it as one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time.” - Wikipedia

Everything here is very solid, the beats, the rhymes, the vocals, it just hasn't quite grabbed me as much as other hip hop releases this decade.

Song Picks: Criminology, Rainy Dayz

7/10

“Mystic Stylez is the debut studio album by American hip hop group Three 6 Mafia. Produced completely by founding members DJ Paul and Juicy J, the LP was published via Prophet, an independent record label.” - Wikipedia

Our first ‘horrorcore’ record lives up to the genre name with lyrics of murder, blood, violence, more blood, satanism, and other such delights. It’s thematically cohesive, and tied together by a bunch of haunting and intimidating beats. There is restbite in more relaxing tracks like Da Summa, and overall I thoroughly enjoyed my journey through this gory mess.

Song Picks: Da Summa, Break Da Law ’95’, Mystic Styles

8/10

11. Jagged Little Pill

Alanis Morisette

“Jagged Little Pill is the third studio album by Canadian singer Alanis Morissette. It marked a stylistic departure from the dance-pop sound of her first two albums, Alanis (1991) and Now Is the Time (1992). The lyrics touch upon themes of aggression and unsuccessful relationships, while Ballard introduced a pop sensibility to Morissette's angst. Rolling Stone ranked Jagged Little Pill at number 69 on its 2020 list of ‘The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time’.” - Wikipedia

Yes, most of the things in Ironic aren’t actually ironic, but maybe that’s ironic in itself? Meta. Jagged Little Pill is full of powerfully sung melodies; Morissette’s cleaner, and technically impressive vocals soaring above instrumentation clearly influenced by grunge. A punk bluntness, a poppy accessibility, and a rough instrumental texture all combine to create a darn punchy record.

Song Picks: Forgiven, You Oughta Know, Ironic

8.5/10

“Different Class (released in Japan as Common People) is the fifth studio album by English rock band Pulp. The album was a critical and commercial success, entering the UK Albums Chart at number one and winning the 1996 Mercury Music Prize. Widely acclaimed as among the greatest albums of the Britpop era, in 2013, NME ranked the album at number six in its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time while Rolling Stone ranked it number 162 in their 2020 revised version of the same list.” - Wikipedia

They're from Sheffield, I live in Sheffield, so that's at least a bonus point. Seriously though, this is just great, relatable songwriting. Cocker's lyrics are so simple every song plays like an anthem and his accented delivery was to inspire a whole heap of indie bands in my youth. Musically it's simple, serves the songs, and doesn't invite much comment other than 'sounds solid, mate', but Cocker’s anthemic vocals (both lyrically and vocally) put Different Class thoroughly in ‘great’ territory. It's a bit daft how many bangers are on this thing really.

Song Picks: Common People, Disco 2000,

8.5/10

“Symbolic is the sixth studio album by American death metal band Death. It is the only album to feature Bobby Koelble and Kelly Conlon on guitar and bass, respectively, and the second and last album to feature drummer Gene Hoglan. The album has received unanimous critical acclaim.” - Wikipedia

I’m not sure what there is left to say about Death, the band that is, not the thing we’re all hurtling towards. This is another technically brilliant and pulverising death metal record, the title’s a bit tame though isn’t it?

8.5/10

“Liquid Swords is the second solo studio album by American rapper and Wu-Tang Clan member GZA. The album heavily samples dialogue from the martial arts film Shogun Assassin and maintains a dark atmosphere throughout, incorporating lyrical references to chess, crime and philosophy.

Liquid Swords received critical acclaim for its complex lyricism and hypnotic musical style. Over the years, its recognition has grown, with a number of famous publishers proclaiming it to be one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time. In 2007, the Chicago Tribune cited it as "one of the most substantial lyrical journeys in hip-hop history". - Wikipedia

Liquid production, and lyrics that slice like freshly sharpened swords. Seriously though, this thing sounds crystal clear. GZA’s lyrical content aligns pretty strongly with Wu-Tang Clan’s, it’s operating on an intellectual plane above most lyrics out there, and the whole thing feels like something created by that cool kid in the corner who does his own thing and has no care for stepping into the middle of the room. Not because he’s in any way shy, but because he’s confident enough not to feel the need. Liquid Swords feels meditative due to it’s gorgeously repetitive samples, and GZA and his features’ vocals rarely demand attention in their tone as much as in their content. It’s reassured, and refreshingly confident in its quietness when comapred to other hip-hop albums of the time.

Song Picks: Gold, Cold World, Shadowboxin’

8.5/10

“Alien Lanes is the eighth full-length album by American lo-fi band Guided by Voices. According to James Greer's book the advance for the record was close to a hundred thousand dollars, one of the more expensive deals in Matador's history. In contrast to the lucrative deal, Greer mentions that "The cost for recording Alien Lanes, if you leave out the beer, was about ten dollars." - Wikipedia

The strokes of genius are still here in spades, and there's that lightning in a bottle feeling of it being captured at its source, it's just not quite as magical as it is on Bee Thousand, mainly because it's interspersed with 20 second 'songs' that don't add much, and only serve to break up the flow. Nevertheless, Alien Lanes is another celebration of songwriting above all else, and despite its flaws, it’s still glorious.

Song Picks: As We Go Up, We Go Down, Game of Pricks, A Good Flying Bird, Pimple Zoo, King and Caroline, Little Whirl

9/10

“Elliott Smith is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Elliott Smith. It was preceded by the single "Needle in the Hay". The album is of a similar musical style to Roman Candle in its minimalist, acoustic folk sound. Smith mostly appears alone on his acoustic guitar, although he is occasionally backed up by the odd musical instrument, such as a harmonica and drums. Rolling Stone wrote of the album, ‘the music burrows, digging up gems of structure, melody and lyrical vividness that belie his naïve delivery [...] the sound is hummable pop, slowed and drugged, with tricky but unshowy guitar work driving the melodies forward’.” - Wikipedia

Sometimes I read something by someone else, and they put it much better than I ever could, this is such a case. As highlighted in this lovely Pitchfork review, Rebecca Gates (who sings accompanying vocals on St. Ides Heaven), “wrote about her experience working with Swith in a posthumous collection’s liner notes. She writes about a night , some time later, wandering around Portland with Smith. At one point they’re commiserating about the music industry; she remembers him being moody, wearing a raggedy old raincoat. Then somewhere along the way, they burst into laughter. It’s the kind of vague, half-remembered scene that always comes to mind when I hear these songs. You can see the rain on the street, the moon in the sky. It’s getting dark. They have the whole night ahead of them.”

I agree, there’s some spaced out lamplight too, their silhouettes appear and disappear as they pass them, and each time they’ve swapped sides.

Song Picks: Needle In the Hay, Alphabet Town, Christian Brothers, Clementine

9/10

“To Bring You My Love is the third studio album by the English alternative rock musician PJ Harvey. Recorded after the break-up of the PJ Harvey trio, it stands as her first proper solo album. The songs on the album are heavily influenced by American blues music.

To Bring You My Love is considered to be PJ Harvey's breakthrough. It garnered massive critical acclaim worldwide and became her best-selling studio album. The album was placed on Rolling Stone magazine's original list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.” - Wikipedia

Dark, modern blues. To Bring You My Love is much less aggressive than her previous Rid of Me, but it’s just as confident. Harvey’s vocals range from murmur to scream, and the instrumentation is generally dominated by one instrument repeating a riff, whether that be the low rumbles of a synthesised organ (Working for the Man), the djangle of an acoustic guitar (Send His Love to Me) or an absolutely filthy distorted guitar riff (Long Snake Moan). It’s an album very much her own, packed with engrossing tracks, and driven by her gritty, passionate vocals.

Song Picks: Working for the Man, C’mon Billy, To Bring You My Love, Teclo, Long Snake Moan

9/10

“The Infamous (stylized as The Infamous...) is the second studio album by the American hip hop duo Mobb Deep. The album features guest appearances by Nas, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, and Q-Tip. The album's dark style, defined by its evocative melodies, rugged beats, and introspective lyrics concerning crime in New York's inner city neighborhoods, received special recognition and critical praise. In 2020, the album was ranked 369th on Rolling Stone's updated list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” - WIkipedia

I love the production on this thing, everything has this infectiously laid back groove to it, with atmospheric, and at times slightly haunting embelishments. Deep’s vocals are as smooth as yoghurt, and the lyrics work brilliantly both rhythmically, but also when you pay the content close attention. It’s a pretty close to flawless hip-hop album.

Song Picks: Survival of the Fittest, Shook One Pt II, The Start of Your Ending

9/10

**3. Burritos, Inspiration Point, Fork Balloon Sports, Cards in the Spokes, Automatic Biographies, Kites, Kung Fu, Trophies, Banana Peels We've Slipped On and Egg Shells We've Tippy Toed Over**

Cap’n Jazz

“Burritos, Inspiration Point, Fork Balloon Sports, Cards in the Spokes, Automatic Biographies, Kites, Kung Fu, Trophies, Banana Peels We've Slipped On and Egg Shells We've Tippy Toed Over is the only full-length studio album by the American emo band Cap'n Jazz. It is also referred to as the Shmap'n Shmazz LP. For a long period of time, the record in its original form was completely out of print—only recently has it been reissued on Polyvinyl Records on cassette tape and digitally.” - Wikipedia

Well, that’s easily the longest album name we’ve had on the challenge isn’t it? I’ll stick with Shmap’n Shmazz LP. This is a gloriously cathartic and messy gem of an album. It sounds like 3 (or 4?) blokes got into the basement, all wanted to play something different, and one of them was having a slightly pretentious and very loud emotional breakdown. Frontman Mike Kinsella says it was more a ‘weirdo punk band’ than an emo one, and that makes sense. There’s a definite ‘we’re just going to make a racket and have fun’ punk mentality to the record, and there’s also the feeling that not too much thought was given to song structures, or indeed anything. It sounds like they bumped into each other, got out their respective instruments, and created some chaos that just happened to turn out rather spectacular. Of course, the band split up shortly after this album’s release, but their coming together to create this feels like one of the universe’s random little miracles.

Song Picks: Little League, Oh Messy Life

9/10

“Post is the second studio album by Icelandic singer Björk. Continuing the style developed on her first album Debut (1993), Björk conceived of Post as a bolder and more extroverted set of songs than its predecessor, featuring an eclectic mixture of electronic and dance styles such as techno, trip hop, IDM, and house, but also ambient, jazz, industrial, and experimental music. She wrote most of the songs after moving to London, and intended the album to reflect her new life in the city.

Considered an important exponent of art pop, Post has been praised by critics for its ambition and timelessness. It was named one of the greatest albums of 1995 by numerous publications, and has since been named one of the greatest albums of all time by publications including Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone.” - Wikipedia

Post is a wonderfully creative mix of genres that somehow manages to feel completely cohesive, despite its remarkable variety. Post is poppy, though it doesn’t deal in catchy-choruses preferring instead spontaneous, often theatrical melodies. It’s these melodies, performed with aplomb by Bjork, that hold the shattered fragments of musical crystal together

Song Picks: Army of Me, I Miss You, Hyper-Ballad

9/10

“The Bends is the second studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. The Bends combines guitar songs and ballads, with more restrained arrangements and cryptic lyrics than Radiohead's debut album, Pablo Honey (1993).

It is frequently named one of the greatest albums of all time, and was included in the third edition of Colin Larkin's “All Time Top 1000 Albums” and all three editions of Rolling Stone's “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” list. The Bends is credited for influencing a generation of post-Britpop acts, such as Coldplay, Muse and Travis.” - Wikipedia

Radiohead have arrived, The Bends is probably my favourite straightforward alt-rock album of all time. Thom Yorke’s vocals soar like some sad, sad bird across a full moon, plucking my heart-strings like a Spanish guitar. It’s an album that is packed with great songs from start to finish, but one that also works thematically, managing to keep a feeling that could easily get tiresome going for its entire duration in such a way that when it finishes you want to put it straight back on again. I want to live my life to those emotive chord changes and Yorke’s melancholy vocals. Sometimes it’s fun to be sad you know?

Song Picks: High and Dry, Fake Plastic Trees, Street Spirit (Fade Out)

9.5/10

1993 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

September 28, 2023 by Clive in Music, Clive's Album Challenge

1993 was the year the Maastricht Treaty took effect, creating the European Union, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was appointed to Supreme Court and River Phoenix died of a drug overdose on Halloween, aged 23.

Rateyourmusic.com’s users have these as the top five albums of the year:

#1 Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
#2 Slowdive - Souvlaki
#3 A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders
#4 Nirvana - In Utero
#5 Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream

I’m also grabbing this lot from further down the list:

#7 Red House Painters - Red House Painters [Rollercoaster]
#9 De La Soul - Buhloone Mindstate
#10 Snoop Doggy Dogg - Doggystyle
#11 Yo La Tengo - Painful
#13 Björk - Debut

Finally, here’s some others, voted onto NPR’s all-time best albums by women list:

PJ Harvey - Rid of Me
Liz Phair - Exile in Guyvvile

Off we go…

“Doggystyle is the debut studio album by American rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg. The album was recorded and produced following Snoop's appearances on Dr. Dre's debut solo album The Chronic (1992), to which Snoop contributed significantly. The West Coast style in hip-hop that he developed from Dre's first album continued on Doggystyle. Critics have praised Snoop Dogg for the lyrical "realism" that he delivers on the album and for his distinctive vocal flow. - Wikipedia

Snoop’s debut doesn’t hold a candle to the year’s other hip-hop releases in terms of sophistication but it does compete, and potentially beat them all, on the fun scale. I suspect that’s the only scale Snoop cares about. Snoop’s flow is unique, playful and catchy, though his lyrics are controversial (read misogynistic). It’s backloaded, which I guess is appropriate given the album’s title and cover…

Song Picks: G-Funk Intro, Serial Killa, Who I Am

7.5/10

Souvlaki is the second studio album by English rock band Slowdive. On its initial release, Souvlaki peaked at number 51 on the UK Albums Chart and was greeted with tepid reviews from critics. It has since received retrospective critical acclaim and has been hailed as a classic of the shoegaze genre. - Wikipedia

Want to be bathed in atmospheric, cathedralic, sustained guitar notes, gently strummed chords, patted drums, and wistful melodies that sound like they’ve been slowed down ten percent or so? Souvlaki is the album for you. It does all that, and it’s absolutely gorgeous to boot.

Song Picks: Alison, Dagger

7.5/10

10. Midnight Marauders

A Tribe Called Quest

“Midnight Marauders is the third studio album by American hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest.Its production was mainly handled by Q-Tip, with contributions from Skeff Anselm, Large Professor and the group's DJ, Ali Shaheed Muhammad. A culmination of the group's two previous albums, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm and The Low End Theory, it features an eclectic, gritty sound based on jazz, funk, soul and R&B samples, in addition to socially conscious, positively-minded, and humorous lyrics.

The album received mostly positive reviews from critics upon release. In the following years, Midnight Marauders has acquired further acclamation from within the hip hop community for its production, chemistry and influence, with some regarding it as the group's best work, and one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time. “ - Wikipedia

I’m not surprised that Q-Tip, the man in charge of the beats on this album, was also involved with the beats on Nas’ Illmatic, my favourite hip-hop album of all time. Midnight Marauders has me bopping to every track, it suffers with the repetitiveness that I think all ATCQ albums suffer from a little, and I found the greater variety in the beats and instrumentation on De la Soul’s Buhloone Mindstate more able to keep my attention, but this is another rock solid hip-hop album that excels when you really pay attention to the socially conscious lyrics.

Song Picks: Award Tour, Eye Patch

8/10

“Debut is the international debut studio album by Icelandic recording artist Björk. It was Björk's first recording following the dissolution of her previous band, the Sugarcubes. The album departed from the rock style of her previous work and drew from an eclectic variety of styles, including electronic pop, house music, jazz and trip hop.” - Wikipedia

Debut is definitely eclectic - one minute you’re listening to to pumping disco on There’s More Than This, the next the delicate harp trappings of Like Someone in Love - which wouldn’t feel out of place as a song Audrey Hepburn might play out of a window on an acoustic guitar. It’s an album that is packed with creativity, well thought out production, great vocal performances and a sense of mischief. Serious mischief.

Song Picks: Venus as a Boy, Like Someone in Love, Big Time Sensuality

8/10

8. Red House Painters (Rollercoaster)

Red House Painters

“Red House Painters is the second album by American band Red House Painters. The album is often referred to as Rollercoaster or Red House Painters I to distinguish it from the band's second eponymous album, often referred to as Bridge. A double album, Red House Painters features fourteen songs culled from bandleader Mark Kozelek's back-catalog. The album received highly positive reviews from critics upon release, with praise directed at the album's melancholic instrumentation and emotional depth.” - Wikipedia

Kozalek is the master of ‘this too will pass’ resigned sadness. His music is undoubtedly melancholy, but also glows with a warm hope. Musically, the beats per minute rarely go above ‘slow’ territory, and the instrumentation is blurry and uncommited - a slow jam. Kozalek’s melodies are effortless, wistful, and, to me, eminate a feeling of nostalgia, much like the album’s evocative cover.

Song Picks: Grace Cathedral Park, Mistress, Take Me Out

8.5/10

“Painful is the sixth studio album by American indie rock band Yo La Tengo. The album marked a creative shift from Yo La Tengo's previous work, blending atmospheric and ambient sounds with their famous noise jams. Painful features a much more melody-driven Yo La Tengo in its hazy, dream-like songwriting.” - Wikipedia

Annoyingly Wikipedia has stolen the two adjectives I mainly wanted to use to describe this album. Dreamy and hazy. The soft, often mumbled melodies blend with hypnotic synth and guitar lines that weave in and out of each other like an unpredictable strand of DNA flying through space, as it slowly expands and contracts. Something like that anyway. I love Painful, it takes me to a new place, one that is mostly a soft cloudy dreamscape, but that also throws plenty of tension at you to remind you just how comfortable that cloud you were on a minute ago was.

Song Picks: The Whole of the Law, A Worrying Thing, I Heard You Looking

9/10

“Siamese Dream is the second studio album by American alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins. Despite the album's recording sessions being fraught with difficulties and tensions, Siamese Dream debuted at number ten on the Billboard 200, and was eventually certified 4× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), with the album selling over six million copies worldwide, cementing the Smashing Pumpkins as a significant group in alternative music.

The album received widespread acclaim from critics and audiences alike, with its musical influences and lyrical material standing out compared to other releases during the alternative rock and grunge movements of its time. The album has since been considered "one of the finest alternative rock albums", and is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of the 1990s and of all time.” - Wikipedia

Smashing Pumpkins are just a bloody good band you know? The bass, drums and sawing guitar riffs go together like the finest honey and err… yoghurt. Lead singer Billy Corgan wanted the thing to sound huge, but not too reverby, and producer Butch Vigg duly complied by compressing up to 100 guitar tracks per song to create a guitar sound thicker than clotted cream. It’s a miracle that Jimmy Chamberlain’s deft drumming can be heard at all, but it’s not only audible but damn punchy too. Corgan’s hushed falsetto is one of alternative rock’s most recognisable, and sits above the comfortably warm production perfectly, inviting you in. In a decade where alternative rock really took off, Siamese Dream gave the genre a kick up the arse much like one of its punchy quiet to loud transitions.

Song Picks: Cherub Rock, Silverfuck, Quiet, Mayonaise, Today, Hummer

9/10

5. Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

Wu-Tang Clan

“Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) is the debut studio album by the American hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan. The album was produced by the group's de facto leader RZA. Its title originates from the martial arts films Enter the Dragon (1973) and The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978).

Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) has since been widely regarded as one of the most significant albums of the 1990s, as well as one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time. In 2020, the album was ranked 27th on Rolling Stone's updated list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” - Wikipedia

Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) is a hip-hop masterpiece. Gritty beats, seamless chemistry between its multiple distinctive and talented rappers, and an influence that is obvious in oodles of subsequent releases in the genre (particularly East Coast hip-hop). 36 Chambers is both accessible as an album to switch off and bop to, and deep as a studyable piece of art. Tracks like C.R.E.A.M and Can It All Be So Simple feature some of the slickest beats ever put to tape.

Song Picks: Bring da Ruckus, Can It Be All So Simple, C.R.E.A.M, Tearz

9/10

“Buhloone Mindstate is the third studio album by American hip hop group De La Soul. It was the group's last record to be produced with Prince Paul.” - Wikipedia

A relentlessly smooth record, the beats and vocals drip with condensation like an ice cold can of your favourite beverage. As refreshing lyrically as we’ve come to expect from De la Soul, complete with the perfect amount of jazz influence (Maceo Parker’s saxophone is particularly sublime on I Be Blowin’) to nail a certain ambience. It’s hard to fault Bohloone Mindstate, and you’ll be so lost in it’s chill you’ll feel no need to.

Song Picks: Eye Patch, En Focus , I Be Blowin’

9.5/10

“Rid of Me is the second studio album by English singer-songwriter and musician PJ Harvey. It marked a departure from Harvey's previous songwriting, being more raw and aggressive than its predecessor.

Most of the songs on the album were recorded by Steve Albini. Rid of Me was met with critical acclaim, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of the 1990s and of all time, ranking at number 153 on the 2020 version of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (up from 406 on the list's previous edition).” - Wikipedia

Rid of Me is a gritty, raw masterpiece of aggressive vocals and pulverising and rotating guitar riffs. Produced in a manner where the quiet sections are actually quiet, and thus the louder sections hit like a truck, it’s one of the most cathartic albums I’ve heard on this challenge for a long time. Harvey’s vocals are unpredictable, angry, raw and brilliant, and she has an unbelievable knack of jumping from superb riff to superb riff while all the while making it sound completely spontaneous. Rid of Me is pent up energy released through shouts and distorted guitar, and you can bet if it had been recorded by a man it’d be up there in discussions with Nirvana’s finest, and as you’ll see later there’s really no higher praise I can give it.

Song Picks: Highway ‘61 Revisited, Man-Size, Rid of Me, Missed

9.5/10

“Exile in Guyville is the debut album by American singer-songwriter Liz Phair. The album received critical acclaim and in 2020, it was ranked No. 56 by Rolling Stone in its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. It was certified gold in 1998 and as of July 2010 it had sold 491,000 copies.” - Wikipedia

Exile in Guyville is a tour-de-force in stripped down punk attitude and catchy riffs and vocals. It injects a large, and much needed, dose of the female perspective into the singer-songwriter sphere with brutal honesty, plenty of swearing, and vocals that defy the ‘pretty’ ones that were expected from female solo efforts. All this would be great on its own, but what really sets this album apart is that it is so chock-full of great, memorable, and thoroughly accessible songs, which for an album nearly 60 minutes long is more than impressive.

Song Picks: 6”1”, Never Said, Dance of the Seven Veils, Explain it to Me, Johnny Sunshine

9.5/10

“In Utero is the third and final studio album by the American rock band Nirvana. After breaking into the mainstream with their second album, Nevermind (1991), Nirvana hired Steve Albini to record In Utero, seeking a more complex, abrasive sound that was also reminiscent of their debut album, Bleach (1989).

In Utero was a major commercial and critical success. Critics praised the album’s raw, unconventional sound and Cobain's lyricism. The album is certified 5x platinum in the US and has sold 15 million copies worldwide. It was the final Nirvana album before Cobain's suicide in 1994.” - Wikipedia

In Utero is quite probably the most cathartic album ever recorded. It roars and bangs with a primal rage unlike anything else. Dave Grohl drums like an ape, Cobain bashes out power chords with a similar angry simplicity as he screams and howls. This would have all been for nought though if it had then been cleaned up and sanitised in the studio, but Steve Albini made sure that didn’t happen. In Utero captures the live energy of the band perfectly, hell at some points it sounds as if you can hear Cobain’s vocal chords about to snap (e.g Scentless Apprentice) as he shouts about his inner turmoil. As the last album by the band before Cobain blew his head off with a shotgun, it serves as a masterpiece of a goodbye.

Song Picks: Serve the Servants, Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle, Heart Shaped Box

10/10

1992 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

July 31, 2023 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

Here’s a bit of news round-up for 1992. The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was broken up, Bush and Yeltsin proclaimed a formal end to the Cold War, Bill Clinton was elected president and Mae Jemison became the first African American woman to go into space, on board Endeavour STS-47.

Onto the music, here’s what our trusty rateyourmusic.com members rate as the year’s top 5 albums:

#1 Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92
#2 Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
#3 Alice in Chains - Dirt
#4 Sade - Love Deluxe
#5 Tom Waits - Bone Machine

And here’s a few more I’m grabbing from further down the list:

#7 R.E.M - Automatic for the People
#8 The Pharcyde - Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde
#18 Dr Dre - The Chronic
#23 Kyuss - Blues for the Red Sun

Finally, here’s some others, voted onto NPR’s all-time best albums by women list:

k.d lang - Ingenue
Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes
Annie Lennox - Diva

“Dirt is the second studio album by the American rock band Alice in Chains, released on September 29, 1992, through Columbia Records. Peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 chart, the album received critical acclaim. It has since been certified 5x Platinum by the RIAA, making Dirt the band's highest selling album to date. The album features dark subject matter, focusing primarily on depression, pain, anger, anti-social behavior, relationships, drug addiction (primarily heroin), war, death, and other emotionally charged topics.” - Wikipedia

Dirt features battering guitar riffs aplenty, which are thoroughly enjoyable, particularly when they explode into action on tracks like Rooster. Unfortunately Layne Thomas Staley’s vocals are a bit too heavy metal for my tastes (I think it’s the warble), which holds it back a little. That’s on me though.

Song Picks: Them Bones, Rain When I Die, Rooster

7/10

11. Selected Ambient Works 85-92

Aphex Twin

“Selected Ambient Works 85–92 is the debut studio album by Aphex Twin, the pseudonym of British electronic musician Richard D. James. In 2012, Selected Ambient Works 85–92 was named the greatest album of the 1990s by Fact. It re-entered the dance chart just after the release of Aphex Twin's 2014 album Syro.” - Wikipedia

Regularly touted as one of the best electronic albums of all time, Selected Ambient Works 85–92 is an infinitely listenable set of tracks that are ambient in their simplicity and repetition, but also more energetic than one would expect from the genre. James didn’t have today’s digital audio workstations which make creating more glitchy, skittery, and cerebral dance music possible, and what results is an album that sounds like a template for other albums to jump off of. A kind of ‘here’s the fundamentals guys, now go write’. I don’t find these fundamentals all that exciting to listen to necessarily, but James does nail an atmosphere here, and it’s an album I can see myself putting on when in a specific mood, but more in the background than to listen to attentively.

Song Picks: Green Calx, Xtal

7.5

“Little Earthquakes is the debut solo album by the American singer-songwriter Tori Amos, featuring the singles Silent All These Years, China, Winter and Crucify. After Atlantic Records rejected the first version of the album, Amos began working on a second version with her then-boyfriend Eric Rosse. The album was first released in the UK on January 6, 1992, where it peaked at number 14 in the charts. It is frequently regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time; it was voted number 73 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000) and ranked number 233 on Rolling Stone's 500 greatest albums of all time.” - Wikipedia

Feels like some sort of 90s prog-pop, which I mean entirely as a compliment. Instrumental skill, powerful vocals, and songs that are unpredictable while never turning inaccessible.

Song Picks: Precious Things, Mother, Crucify

8/10

“Diva is the debut solo studio album by Scottish singer Annie Lennox, released on 6 April 1992 by RCA Records. The album entered the UK Albums Chart at number one and has since sold over 1.2 million copies in the UK alone, being certified quadruple platinum.” - Wikipedia

You’d do well to find a better opening salvo to a pop album than the transcendent Why?, the disco hit Broken Glass, and the spanky bass driven Precious. Indeed much of the first half of Diva continues in a similarly brilliant vein. The second half takes a bit of a dip, but still stays around the ‘good’ mark on the x-axis.

Song Picks: Why, Walking on Broken Glass, Precious

8/10

“Ingénue is the second solo album by Canadian singer k.d. lang, released in 1992. It is Lang's most successful album on the pop charts, both in her native Canada and internationally, and has more of a cabaret flavour than her earlier more country-influenced work.” - Wikipedia

A lovely country album sprinkled with some ABBA-like pop-melodies. It’s got soul and heart and all that good stuff in expertly measure spades.

Song Picks: Save Me, Season of Hollow Soul

8/10

“Blues for the Red Sun is the second studio album by American rock band Kyuss, released in 1992. While the album received mainly favorable reviews, it fared poorly commercially, selling only 39,000 units. It has since become a very influential album within the stoner rock genre.” - Wikipedia

This album is all about the fuzzed out serpentine riffs by Josh Homme, who of course went on to front Queens of the Stone Age. John Garcia's vocals tip a little too far into the howling vocals from the 70s and 80s that I'm less keen on, but there's a gruffness there, and a lesser tendency for theatrics which makes them work.

Song Picks: Molten Universe, Caterpillar March, Green Machine

8.5/10

“Love Deluxe is the fourth studio album by English band Sade, released by Epic Records in the United Kingdom on 26 October 1992 and in the United States on 3 November 1992. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked the album 247th on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In September 2022, Pitchfork ranked Love Deluxe as the 52nd best album of the 1990s.” - Wikipedia

Sade are back with an album that is as lush as an un-touched field of grass after a rainy day. Sade Adu’s vocals are the definiton of smooth, though maintaining a lot more soul than that would suggest, while the production is as irresistible as Lindt milk chocolate. Although certainly not at the forefront, I think Stuart Matthewman’s understated guitar playing deserves specific mention, adding so much texture to tracks, and lifting them - along with Adu’s voice - above other well produced, more generic music in the genre.

Song Picks: No Ordinary Love, Like a Tattoo, Feel No Pain

8.5/10

**5. Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde**

The Pharcyde

“Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde is the debut album by American hip hop collective The Pharcyde, released on November 24, 1992, through the Delicious Vinyl and EastWest labels. Released during the dominant Gangsta rap era of West Coast hip hop, Bizarre Ride was described as "refreshing" due to its playful, light-hearted humor and lush, jazzy production.” - Wikipedia

On initial listen, I thought the lyrics were far too misogynistic for my tastes, but on further listening it’s clear they’re satirising a lot of the Gangsta rap of the time, and that I can appreciate more. This lot can rap, they’re self-depricating and they’re unafraid to make songs that are completely childish (one of them involves them all insulting each others’ mums like some sort of playground argument) in the services of making fun of Gangsta rap song topics of the time. Couple this with some of my favourite hip-hop beats on tracks like Soul Flower and Passing Me By, and you’ve got an album that is just a lot of fun.

Song Picks: Soul Flower. Passing Me By

9/10

“Bone Machine is the eleventh studio album by American singer and musician Tom Waits, released by Island Records on September 8, 1992. It won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album and features guest appearances by David Hidalgo, Les Claypool, Brain, and Keith Richards. The album marked Waits' return to studio albums, coming five years after his previous effort Franks Wild Years (1987). Recorded in a room in the cellar area of Prairie Sun Recording studios, described by Waits as "just a cement floor and a hot water heater", the album is often noted for its rough, stripped-down, percussion-heavy style, as well as its dark lyrical themes revolving around death and chaos.” - Wikipedia

Having had a 5 year breather, Tom Waits returns with another rough and ready effort, this time even more percussion focused than his famous trilogy. Very cohesive, despite the splattered and varied instrumentation, and maintaining an acoustic and busky, basement feel, likely helped by the fact it was actually recorded in a basement. Waits continues to sound unlike anything else out there, and particularly unlike anything else coming out in the 90s. It maybe lacks the drop dead brilliant tracks of some of the aforementioned trilogy, but it's still consistently superb.

Song Picks: Whistle Down the Wind,

9/10

“The Chronic was Dr. Dre's first solo album after he departed the West Coast hip hop group N.W.A and its label Ruthless Records over a financial dispute. It includes insults towards Ruthless and its owner, former N.W.A member and assembler Eazy-E. It features many appearances by then-emerging American rapper Snoop Dogg, who used the album as a launch pad for his own solo career. Dr. Dre's production popularized the G-funk subgenre within gangsta rap. The Chronic has been widely regarded as one of the most important and influential albums of the 1990s and one of the best-produced hip hop albums.” - Wikipedia

Undoubtedly lyrically problematic and offensive - there was no way to diss your mates in the 90s but to insult an entire (already downtrodden) group of people while doing it was there? Misogynistic, homophobic, it’s all there. Look past the dated nature of the lyrics however, and you’ve got an undoubted masterpiece on your hands. Dre’s production here is easily among my very favourite in the hip-hop canon, with beats that have me looking like a seated bobblehead. I’d highly recommend Pitchfork’s excellent review of the album for more intelligent thoughts on it. But it’s safe to say it’s dope, man. No, really, the chronic is literally a type of dope.

Song Picks: Fuck Wit Dre Day, A N***a With a Gun, Nuthing But a “G” Thanng

9/10

R.E.M - Automatic for the People

“Automatic for the People is the eighth studio album by American alternative rock band R.E.M., released by Warner Bros. Records. R.E.M. began production on the album while their previous album, Out of Time (1991), was still ascending top albums charts and achieving global success. Aided by string arrangements from John Paul Jones, Automatic for the People features ruminations on mortality, loss, mourning, and nostalgia.” - Wikipedia

Automatic for the People is the perfect example of a band maturing in a way where they don’t become boring and uninspired, but instead create a masterpiece of self-awareness. It doesn’t hide from the fact the band are aging, and instead embraces it, it knows they aren’t the same R.E.M. as the one in the 80s, and it owns it. Gone are Stipe’s more poetic, abstract and difficult to decipher mumbles, replaced with vocals slightly easier to understand audibly and much easier to understand literally. There’s a simplicity to Automatic for the People, but it’s a simplicity that is also completely its own. Part of that is Stipe’s unique vocals, but it’s also in the melodic bass parts, the jangly and yet sad chords and the overriding sense of melancholy that everything has. Automatic for the People sounds sad, but it’s also beautifully reassuring.

Song Picks: Drive, Man on the Moon, Ignoreland

9.5/10

1. Rage Against the Machine

Rage Against the Machine

“Rage Against the Machine is the debut studio album by American rock band Rage Against the Machine, released by Epic Records. With politically themed, revolutionary lyrical content, the album artwork was notable for featuring a graphic photograph of Thích Quảng Đức performing self-immolation. Rage Against the Machine was a critical success upon release with several critics noting the album's politically motivated agenda and praising Zack de la Rocha's strong vocal delivery.” - Wikipedia

RATM is one of my favourite albums of all time. It soundtracked hundreds of my gym sessions while at university, and Tom Morello continues to be my favourite riff-wizard. His guitar lines on tracks like Wake Up (no, not the Kashmir bit), Killing in the Name of and Bombtrack are the epitome of how powerful a distorted guitar can be in the right hands. They make you want to bounce around with your fist in the air screaming ‘fuck the system!’ at the top of your voice, without a care in the world about how much of a cliché you’ve become. De la Rocha’s vocals are about as angry as it gets, and you can practically hear the spit exiting his mouth after every word. Brad Wilk’s drumming is unspectacular but solid and Tim Commerford’s bass much the same. Instrumentally the band complements each other so well you’d swear they’d been playing together since primary school, and I can’t think of a better vocalist to match their energy and power than Zach (something proven by the fact Audioslave were just not as good). The album does have a few tracks that don’t hit as hard as the rest, but that’s only because the rest hit like a rocket-boosted version of that boat that blocked up the Suez canal.

Lyrically, Zach isn’t saying anything that Public Enemy hadn’t already dissected, but he brought that brand of sharp, political lyricism to a whole new audience. RATM is both incredibly angry and incredibly catchy, and I’m not sure that’s ever been achieved in a similar way since.

Song Picks: Killing in the Name Of, Bombtrack, Wake Up

10/10

1991 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

May 02, 2023 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

Before we get into music, here’s some world events from 1991 to set some context: the South African government repealed apartheid laws, Boris Yeltsin became the first freely elected president of the Russian Republic, and a cease fire ended the Persian Gulf War.

As for music, here’s what rateyourmusic.com users rate as the year’s top 5 albums:

#1 My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
#2 Slint - Spiderland
#3 A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
#4 Talk Talk - Laughing Stock
#5 Nirvana - Nevermind

Here’s some I’m plucking from further down the list:

#6 Death - Human
#8 Swans - White Light from the Mouth of Infinity
#17 Slowdive - Just for a Day
#18 Pearl Jam - Ten

And I’m also adding Bonnie Raitt’s Luck of the Draw, which is the only album I can see from 1991 appearing on various ‘best albums of all time by women’ lists.

That’s 10 albums competing for a coveted best of the year title. Off we go.

“Human is the fourth studio album by American death metal band Death, released on October 22, 1991, by Relativity Records. The album marked the beginning of a major stylistic change for Death, being more technically complex and progressive than the band's previous efforts. Human was released to critical acclaim from music publications and is seen as a pivotal release in the development of the technical death metal subgenre and on extreme metal in general.” - Wikipedia

I have to say Human is a disappointing death-metal album name after Leprosy, the previous album of theirs to grace this challenge. Death remains a superb name for the band though. Chuck Schuldiner’s vocals are angry, the guitar riffs are rapid and technical, and the double-bass drum pedal consistently marches a thudding beat. There’s a refreshing human-ness to the album (no pun intended) as some of the imperfections are kept intact, unlike in a lot of modern metal recordings where everything is quantised and artificially perfected in the studio (I know I have made this point before, sorry). The instrumental skill here is remarkable, but it’s also just damn enjoyable, and has me bopping my head along to its syncopated riffs and beats in ways the doctor would not recommend.

Song Picks: Flattening of Emotions, Cosmic Sea, Suicide Machine

7.5/10

9. The Low End Theory

A Tribe Called Quest

“The Low End Theory is the second studio album by American hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest, released on September 24, 1991, by Jive Records. Recording sessions for the album were held mostly at Battery Studios in New York City, from 1990 to 1991. The album was primarily produced by group member Q-Tip, with a minimalist sound that combines bass, drum breaks, and jazz samples, in a departure from the group's debut album, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm (1990). The album is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time, appearing on many best album lists by music critics and writers. In 2020, it was ranked at number 43 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” - Wikipedia

The beats are toned back from the previous album, and I think it takes a nifty stereo or set of headphones to pick out the subtleties of the production here. The bass and drums are as laid back and groovy as you can get, but they’re also pretty similar from song to song so when they dominate the album can drag a little. Listen on a balanced system though and you’ll pick out the lovely repeated flourishes that dance on the bass and drums, such as the stuttering guitar riff on Everything Is Fair, the atmospheric synth touches on Jazz (We’ve Got), and the lovely little wah-wah riff on the closer Scenario.

The Low End Theory is a case in masterful grooves production, but it is a victim of its own easy-going nature at times, struggling to fully hold your attention for its 48 minute duration, even if it is probably one of the slickest chill-out room albums of all time.

Song Picks: Excursions, Check the Rhime

8/10

“Luck of the Draw is the eleventh studio album by Bonnie Raitt, released in 1991. The album surpassed Nick of Time's commercial success, having sold seven million copies in the United States alone by 2010, and was supported by a 180-date tour from 1991 to 1993. It remains Raitt's biggest-selling recording to date.” - Wikipedia

Another rock solid country album from Raitt. Great, catchy songwriting and production that makes a genre I often find too samey varied enough to make the 50 minutes fly by. Raitt’s lovely vocal timbre helps too.

Song Picks: One Part Be My Lover, Something to Talk About

8/10

7. White Light from the Mouth of Infinity

Swans

“White Light from the Mouth of Infinity is a studio album by the American experimental rock band Swans. It was released in 1991, through the record label Young God.” - Wikipedia

Gone are the roars and pulverising guitars, replaced by a more gothic sound featuring Gira’s baritone vocals. There’s still not much in terms of song-structure going on, with a free-flowing style that makes the album’s 70 minutes feel like some epic musical poem.

This is definitely less aggressive than Swans’ previous albums, but it is no less dark. An underrated gem in my opinion, with a rawness to it that you might expect from a band first stepping into a new sound, something which its 70 plus minute run-length roughens up even more.

Song Picks: Power and Sacrifice, Will We Survive, Love Will Save You, Blind

9/10

“Just for a Day is the debut studio album by English rock band Slowdive. The initial reception to Just for a Day from the British music press was lukewarm, in contrast to the enthusiasm with which Slowdive's earlier releases had been met.” - Wikipedia

There’s nothing lukewarm about this album to me. It’s a long, comforting bath in the clouds, a collection of songs that bloom and bloom until they sound like a planet sadly exploding across the night sky. I could swim in its textures for days.

Song Picks: Celia’s Dream, Ballad of Sister Sue, Waves

9/10

“Spiderland is the second and final studio album by the American rock band Slint. It contains six songs played over 40 minutes, and was released by Touch and Go Records on March 27, 1991. Slint broke up shortly before the album's release due to McMahan's depression. In the US, Spiderland initially attracted little critical attention and sold poorly. However, a warm reception from UK music papers and gradually increasing sales in subsequent years helped it develop a significant cult following. Spiderland is widely regarded as foundational to the 1990s post-rock and math rock movements, and is cited by critics as a milestone of indie and experimental rock, inspiring a myriad of subsequent artists.” - Wikipedia

In its dynamic troughs the album is dominated by haunting plucked electric guitars, while the loudest peaks consist of guitars crisply fuzzed to within an inch of their lives. You can hear the birth of modern math-rock and post-rock here as it breaks out of its alt-rock egg before your very ears. This album could have come out today, and it would likely still be considered pretty singular. McMahon’s whispers and occasional gentle melodies speak of a resigned inner turmoil, complemented perfectly by complex, beautiful arrangements that are both mathematical and emotional, while having a dynamism that keeps you hooked. Spiderland is fragile, forceful, and everything in between.

Song Picks: Breadcrumb Trail; Washer; Good Morning, Captain

9/10

“Ten is the debut studio album by American rock band Pearl Jam, released on August 27, 1991, through Epic Records. Following the dissolution of their previous band Mother Love Bone in 1990, bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Stone Gossard began rehearsing with new guitarist Mike McCready. Copies of the demo were eventually given to drummer Dave Krusen and vocalist Eddie Vedder, both of whom were invited to audition for the band in Seattle.” - Wikipedia

While the Dave Krusen and Jeff Ament rhythm section is a rock solid one, it’s the swirling guitar lines (in particular from Mike McGready) and Eddie Vedder’s unique vocal timbre, powerful melodies and passionate delivery that make Pearl Jam who they are. Though they are synonymous with the Seattle grunge movement of the early 90s, the more technical, clearly Hendrix inspired guitar work puts them in a different box to others of the time. Packed with choruses that pretty much force you to stick your hands in the air and scream to the sky (see Alive), Ten also contains what I’m pretty sure will be some of the decade’s best guitar-playing, and for someone as obsessed with guitar as I am, that was always bound to make me love it. Who said guitar solos weren’t cool anymore? McGready would like a word.

Song Picks: Alive, Even Flow, Jeremy

“Laughing Stock is the fifth and final studio album by English band Talk Talk, released in 1991. Following their previous release Spirit of Eden (1988), bassist Paul Webb left the group, which reduced Talk Talk to the duo of singer/multi-instrumentalist Mark Hollis and drummer Lee Harris. Like Spirit of Eden the album featured improvised instrumentation from a large ensemble of musicians. The demanding sessions were marked by Hollis' perfectionist tendencies and desire to create a suitable recording atmosphere. Engineer Phill Brown stated that the album, like its predecessor, was "recorded by chance, accident, and hours of trying every possible overdub idea." The band split up following its release, effectively making Laughing Stock their last official release.” - Wikipedia

Talk Talk’s albums always feel like experiences rather than sets of songs, and nowhere is that more true than in their final album. Laughing Stock is one of the most spacious albums I’ve ever heard, there’s so much quiet in between the notes, everything is laboured over, felt and given a universe in which to breathe. Even during the crashing crescendos of Ascension Day, where the soundscape is undoubtedly filled out, it feels as if every angular chord matters, before the track is ended callously without a fade, as if the band’s sensitive recording tape had just been overloaded.

Hollis has described the album as ‘arranged spontaneity’, and his vocal melodies seem to follow that pattern too. On Laughing Stock, Hollis got over 50 musicians to pour their musical hearts out, before puzzling it all together to create something more than the sum of its parts. Wonderful.

Song Picks: Ascension Day, After the Flood, Taphead

9.5/10

“Nevermind is the second studio album by the American rock band Nirvana, released on September 24, 1991, by DGC Records. It was Nirvana's first release on a major label and the first to feature drummer Dave Grohl. Produced by Butch Vig, Nevermind features a more polished, radio-friendly sound than the band's prior work. Nevermind and its singles' success propelled Nirvana to being widely regarded as the biggest band of its time, with Cobain being dubbed by critics as the ‘voice of his generation.’” - Wikipedia

Butch Vig may have recorded the album, and deserves credit for that, but it was Andy Wallace who was drafted in to make the album’s final mix, which is still one of the best sounding albums in the genre in my books. Cobain initially had no issue with the production (according to Wallace), but later complained about it being too radio-friendly and ‘lame’, prompting him to take another direction with In Utero. Personally, I like both, but the sparkling clean production is perfect for the songs here. Nevermind is an exercise in the power of simplicity. The riffs aren’t complicated, but they hit like a truck and Dave Grohl’s drumming pounds so hard that it sounds animalistic no matter how well it’s polished in the production. The laboured quarter-beat roll down the toms and famous flans on In Bloom are integral sections to what is surely one of the most effective drum parts in history. This is all very well I hear you say, but are the songs any good? Well, yes they are, scream along choruses abound, this is surely one of the most cathartic albums ever put to tape.

Song Picks: Smells Like Teen Spirit, In Bloom, Come as You Are

9.5

“Loveless is the second studio album by the Irish-English rock band My Bloody Valentine. It was released on 4 November 1991 in the United Kingdom by Creation Records and in the United States by Sire Records. Since its release, Loveless has been widely cited by critics as one of the greatest albums of all time, a landmark work of the shoegaze subgenre, and as a significant influence on various subsequent artists.” - WIkipedia

Loveless is essentially a Kevin Shields solo project, with him playing all but a few of the instruments, including programming most of the album’s buried drums. Bilinda Butcher’s dreamy vocals are lost in the fuzzy haze of Shields’ guitar waving in and out of tune like the heartbeat of the Earth itself. There are gorgeous melodies, see only shallow and when you sleep, and even basic song structures, but they’re masked beneath a perfect wall of noise. Loveless makes it deliberately impossible to impart any ‘meaning’ from its music, and thus forces you to sit back and feel it instead. In the words of fellow Stick Around podcaster Michael Johnson, it’s a ‘swirling tornado of noise’, one that you keep wanting to turn up and up, willing to be sucked into the cover’s pink, dreamy hues and into the album’s perfect, amorphous world.

“How do you spell love” - Piglet

“You don’t spell it, you feel it” - Winnie-the-Pooh

Song Picks: only shallow, when you sleep, i only said, son

1990 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

April 01, 2023 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music, Clive

And so here we enter the second half of this fun, but rather time consuming, challenge nearly 3 years after I first started it. So what happened in 1990? Well, Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 and a half years, Margaret Thatcher resigned as Prime Minister, East and West Germany were re-united and The Simpsons debuted on Fox.

On the musical front, here’s what rateyourmusic.com’s loveley members rate as their top 5 albums of the year:

#1 Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas
#2 Depeche Mode - Violator
#3 Megadeth - Rust in Peace
#4 Judas Priest - Painkiller
#5 Fugazi- Repeater

I’m also grabbing this lot from further down the rankings:

#6 Slayer- Seasons in the Abyss
#8 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Good Son
#11 Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet
#12 Sonic Youth - Goo
#15 A Tribe Called Quest - People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm

And, the below from a couple of all-time lists by female artists:

Mitsuko Uchida - 12 Études
Sinead O’Conor - I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got

“Painkiller is the twelfth studio album by English heavy metal band Judas Priest, released in September 1990. It was the last Judas Priest album to feature long-time lead singer Rob Halford until his return for the 2005 album Angel of Retribution and the first to feature drummer Scott Travis.” - Wikipedia

This album is as mad as its cover - I mean just look at the thing. If you can embrace that madness, and get beyond those stereotypical wailing hard-rock vocals and the lyrics about metal meltdowns and leather rebels, then you’ll have a good time. It’s K.K Downing and Glenn Tipton’s technical guitar work and dual soloing that makes the album what it is for me, which is a frenetic and unbridled roar through a burning post-apocalyptic cityscape on the back of a Harley Davidson with saw blades for wheels… you get the picture.

Song Picks: Pain Killer, Night Crawler

7/10

“Violator is the seventh studio album by English electronic music band Depeche Mode. Preceded by the singles "Personal Jesus" and "Enjoy the Silence" (a top-10 entry in both the United Kingdom and the United States), the album propelled the band into international stardom.” - Wikipedia

Violator sounds sumptuous, I mean just listen to those lovely midi drums. Dave Gahan’s baritone vocals create a generally sombre atmosphere, but unlike many baritone vocals they can still carry a lovely tune (see Sweetest Perfection). You can hear a whole heap of today’s artists in their music, particularly today’s darker pop.

It’s rare that an album that is so heavily electronic from over 30 years ago sounds like it could have come out today, but Violator truly does. There’s a slight glumness to the record which hasn’t made it one that I’ve been dying to come back to regularly, but there’s no doubt about it’s influence and artistry. Oh, and did I mention it sounds bloody perfect.

Song Picks: World in My Eyes, Personal Jesus, Enjoy the Silence

8/10

10. Fear of a Black Planet

Public Enemy

“Fear of a Black Planet is the third studio album by American hip hop group Public Enemy. It was released on April 10, 1990, by Def Jam Recordings and Columbia Records, and produced by the group's production team The Bomb Squad, who expanded on the sample-layered sound of Public Enemy's 1988 album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back.” - Wikipedia

Public Enemy are back with another all-anger, all-dancing hip-hop classic. This one doesn’t quite have the consistent energy or the great samples that made their previous album so fantastic, but that’s asking it to jump over an unfairly high-bar, and this still packs its hour run-time with cracking hip-hop beats and political anger.

Song Picks: Brothers Gonna Work it Out, Welcome to the Terrordome, Burn Hollywood Burn, Who Stole the Soul

8/10

“Dame Mitsuko Uchida, born 20 December 1948) is a Japanese-British classical pianist and conductor, born in Japan and naturalised in Britain, particularly noted for her interpretations of Mozart and Schubert. Claude Debussy's Études (L 136) are a set of 12 piano études composed in 1915. Debussy described them as ‘a warning to pianists not to take up the musical profession unless they have remarkable hands’. They are broadly considered his late masterpieces.” - Wikipedia

I can’t find all that much information about this recording in particular, but Uchida’s performance of Debussy’s 12 Etudes is bewitching. I guess the thing that came through most for me was that although there is considerable skill and precision on display here, the pieces never stray into feeling at all machine-like, the pieces are filled with the complexity of humanity. 12 Etudes is yet another testament to the power of the piano as an instrument with such range that it can convey the power of a whole orchestra, or the delicate quietness of a single plucked string.

8.5/10

8. I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got

Sinead O’Connor

“I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got is the second album by Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor, released in March 1990 on Ensign/Chrysalis Records. It contains O'Connor's version of the Prince song Nothing Compares 2 U, which was released as a single and reached number one in multiple countries. The album was nominated for four Grammy Awards in 1991, including Record of the Year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and Best Music Video, Short Form for Nothing Compares 2 U, winning the award for Best Alternative Music Performance. However, O'Connor refused to accept the nominations and award.” - Wikipedia

Nothing Compares 2 U was one of the best selling singles of the decade, and a rare occasion where a cover is so massively more well known than the original. Of course nothing I say about O’Connor’s stupendous vocal performance on that song will be new, so I won’t say anything other than it is surely one of the most emotionally charged vocal performances of all time. It’s a break-up song, but apparently O’Connor was more channeling the death of her dad 5 years earlier. The most remarkable thing though is that the rest of the album, though never quite eclipsing the uneclipsable, does more than hold a candle to it, and feels less like a necessary home for it and more like a record where a lot of the other tracks deserve more attention than they got. Sinead goes political, personal, experimental and even uses sample drum beats. She does it all with the confidence of someone who would go on reject all the nominations and Grammy awards the album was nominated and awarded for, and proves once again that she is the voice of heartbreak.

Song Picks: Nothing Compares 2 U, Black Boys on Mopeds, I am Stretched on Your Grave

8.5/10

“Rust in Peace is the fourth studio album by American thrash metal band Megadeth, released on September 24, 1990, by Capitol Records. It was the first Megadeth album to feature lead guitarist Marty Friedman and drummer Nick Menza. Since its release, Rust in Peace has often been named as one of the best thrash metal records of all time, by publications such as Decibel and Kerrang!, and listed in the reference book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.” - Wikipedia

I’ve very much enjoyed the plethora of thrash-metal albums coming through in the last few years of this challenge, and this is one of my favourites. The album is very much carried by Dave Mustaine’s guitar riffs, and the late Nick Menza’s (he tragically collapsed and died while drumming at a concert in 2016) great punctuation of them on drums. It’s an album that’s technical prowess keeps your brain firing, and keeps things engaging from start to finish. The songs are generally about politics, religion, warfare (the title refers to leaving nuclear weapons to ‘rust in peace’) or Mustaine’s personal battles and have a straightforward punk style to them, which suit Mustaine’s vocals well.

Song Picks: Holy Wars… The Punishment Due, Tornado of Souls, Five Magiks, Dawn Patrol

8.5

“Seasons in the Abyss is the fifth studio album by American thrash metal band Slayer, released on October 9, 1990, through Def American Records. Recording sessions began in March 1990 at Hit City West and Hollywood Sound, and ended in June 1990 at The Record Plant in Los Angeles, California. It was the band's last album to feature their full original lineup with drummer Dave Lombardo until his return on the band's 2006 album Christ Illusion.” - Wikipedia

Nothing hugely new when compared to their previous albums South of Heaven and Reign in Blood, but I loved both of those and I love this too. The riffs cascade at breakneck speed, the drums persistently rumble, and Araya’s vocals growl. No one thrashes quite like Slayer.

Song Picks: Blood Red, Skeletons of Odyssey

8.5/10

“Goo is the sixth full-length studio album by American alternative rock band Sonic Youth, released on June 26, 1990 by DGC Records. For this album, the band sought to expand upon its trademark alternating guitar arrangements and the layered sound of their previous album Daydream Nation (1988) with songwriting on that was more topical than past works, exploring themes of female empowerment and pop culture.” - Wikipedia

Sonic Youth’s first album on a major label proves you can ‘sell out’ and still be cool. They’re sound is perhaps a little more accessible here, but it’s still dissonant, punk and intensely alternative. The early 90s was very much when ‘alternative’ (I won’t go into the oddness of that genre name) became sellable, and that was in no small part thanks to Sonic Youth and their success with Goo. Musically, it’s the same guitar barrage you’d expect, but with a little more of Kim Gordon’s influence with two of the album’s best songs written by her, Kool Thing and Tunic (Song for Karen). The latter is about the death of Karen Carpenter of the Carpenters, who died of anorexia. It’s one of Sonic Youth’s most touching songs, packed with lyrics that cut to the core like the verse line.

I feel like I'm disappearing, getting smaller every day
But when I open my mouth to sing, I'm bigger in every way

It brings about sadness not via the usual minor chords and melody, but via Sonic Youth’s typical dissonant guitar chugs, and Kim Gordon’s hollow vocal, which sounds like it could be coming from the afterlife itself.

Goo is another triumphantly punk album, both in sensibility and sound, and that cover is surely one of the hippest of all time.

Song Picks: Tunic (Song for Karen), Kool Thing

9/10

“Repeater is the full-length debut studio album by the American post-hardcore band Fugazi. It was released on April 19, 1990. Repeater is often regarded as a definitive album for the band and a landmark of rock music.” - Wikipedia

Ian McKaye (previously of Minor Threat) didn’t fit in with a lot of the punk scene with his straight-edgedness, and Repeater distances himself from that scene yet further. The anger is still there, but it’s packaged in a band keen to be cerebral as well as visceral. Riffs turning on each other, riffs morphing into other riffs, riffs so huge that they carried the whole of 90s grunge into the mainstream in their wake. Albums like Repeater and Goo didn’t make waves in the mainstream due to them being more accessible, but by making music so creative and sonically powerful that one couldn’t ignore them.

Song Picks: Repeater, Song #1, Two Beats Off

9/10

3. The Good Son

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

“After two dark and harrowing albums with Your Funeral... My Trial (1986) and Tender Prey (1988), The Good Son was a substantial departure with a lighter and generally more uplifting sound.” - Wikipedia

The more uplifting sound is attributed to Cave falling in love with a Brazilian journalist, and indeed the Brazilian influence seeps into the opener Foi Na Cruz in obvious ways. The Good Son is a big sounding album, tracks like the Witness Song feature climaxes with backing vocals and a whole host of instruments in what can only be described as a triumphant cacophony, while others like Foi Na Cruz sound more hopeful than triumphant, but sound equally atmospheric. Cave is one of those singers who owns his lyrics in a way that means you have to pay attention to them, a skill not all that present in the musical world, and that works well here where a less interesting vocalist would get lost in the in the gorgeous melodies. The Good Son is a chamber-pop album that leaves an imprint, beautifully textured with harmonies driven by the ethereal melodies throughout, as timeless as Cave’s vocals.

Song Picks: Foi Na Cruz, The Witness Song, Sorrow’s Child

9/10

**2. People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm**

A Tribe Called Quest

“People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm is the debut studio album by American hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest, released on April 10, 1990 on Jive Records. People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm was met with acclaim from professional music critics and the hip hop community on release, and was eventually certified gold in the United States on January 19, 1996. Its recognition has extended over the years as it is widely regarded as a central album in alternative hip hop with its unconventional production and lyricism.” - Wikipedia

Push it Along and Luck of Lucien open things with what will surely be two of the best grooves of the decade, and we’re only in 1990. There’s a laid back and open jazzy feeling to the beats, which Q-Tip’s equally chilled rapping gives plenty of room to breathe. His lyrics are refreshingly simple and yet jump from topic to topic from couplet to couplet in a way that makes any overall meaning quite opaque. People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm is so relaxed it’s a miracle it exists at all. Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad’s beats, production, and vocals create that most marvellous thing; something so perfect in how loose it is that it would have taken two industrious and meticulous individuals to create it.

Song Picks: Push it Along, Luck of Lucien, After Hours, Can I Kick It?, Description of a Fool

9.5

“Heaven or Las Vegas is the sixth studio album by Scottish alternative rock band Cocteau Twins, released on 17 September 1990 by 4AD. Heaven or Las Vegas peaked at number seven on the UK Albums Chart and number 99 on the US Billboard 200, becoming the band's most commercially successful release.” - Wikipedia

I have no qualms in calling Heaven or Las Vegas our first masterpiece of the 90s. Its guitars are bathed in ethereal levels of reverb and Fraser’s lyrics are only occasionally understandable, but always emotionally relatable. I think the power of what is an otherworldly vocal performance is best described by bassist Simon Raymonde, as mentioned on the album’s Wikipedia page:

Raymonde recounted that he would record Fraser's vocals alone for days at a time, during which he first "fully appreciated how amazing she was": "She'd come into the control room and say, 'What was that like?' and I'd scrape the tears away and say, 'That was alright, Liz'. She didn't get off on praise. If I said. 'That was fucking amazing', she'd say 'I thought it was shit.' I learnt not to be too effusive, which was difficult because I was so blown away with what I was hearing.

Luckily, I can be as effusive as I damn well please, and Heaven or Las Vegas is one of the most beautiful albums out there. Recorded while Raymonde dealt with his father’s death and Fraser and Guthrie (the latter programmed all the album’s drums) contemplated their new lives as parents, it was clearly a time with a lot of emotions flying round for the band. On the record those emotions seem to rotate like a slow tornado going languidly in and out of focus, given some direction by Fraser’s extraordinary vocals as they make you feel everything there is to feel.

Songpicks: Fotzepolitic, Wolf in the Breast, Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsommer Fires

2022 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

March 02, 2023 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

As I continue with my challenge of finding my favourite album from every year since 1960 I also need to keep up with the present, so here we are, a couple of months late as always with 2022’s roundup. I’ll not go into my usual ‘making end of year lists at the start of December is daft’ rant, see previous posts for that, but let’s just say I wanted to give the year a chance to sink in before making this list. In terms of the year’s events it was another year of ineptness by the Tories, and Putin started a war because he’s toxic masculinity at its absolute worst. In personal news I became a father, which continues to be the most glorious thing, and I feel incredibly lucky.

This is my favourite albums of the year, so naturally it only contains ones I liked, and had something remarkable about them. Numerically, I think that’s about a 6.5/10 as the lower threshold for me. Of course these rankings are completely objective and definitive, I’ll never change my mind, and if you disagree with any of them you’re wrong.

As usual, I tried to listen to rateyourmusic.com’s, the Needle Drop’s, and Pitchfork’s top 10, as well as albumoftheyear.com’s lovely aggregation of every top 10 list, and I’m happy to say I’ve succeeded again on that front this year so you’ll see plenty of albums from those lists here. As always, there’s plenty of albums I wanted to get to but didn’t, but such is the glory of music, there’s just so much good stuff out there. That’ll do for a pre-amble, here’s the list:

This feels like the kind of album I’d get a lot more out of if I understood the words. It’s super inventive instrumentally, and spins from one style to another on a sixpence, but I find the vocal timbre is a little down the middle and unexciting, an issue that would probably be alleviated if I knew what he was saying. That’s obviously on me.

Song Picks: (track 2)

6.5/10

47. Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers

Kendrick Lamar

Kendrick's rap skills are as evident as ever, but I struggled to grab onto anything here. Sometimes that's not a problem, and there's plenty of blurry, amorphous albums I've loved, but I think this feels more like a bunch of more concrete things that are just too slippery to stick, rather than something deliberately obscure. I think one day I'll have the time to get into it fully enough to do its clear scope justice, but until then I admire its ambition and craft more than I love it as an album of music.

7/10

Swift’s tenth album sounded exactly how I expected it to. And when expectations are for a really listenable pop album with relaxed bangers and top notch atmospheric production that’s no bad thing. Just don’t expect anything new here.

Song Picks: Lavender Haze, Anti-Hero

7/10

Tosin Abasi continues to be one fo the most technically brilliant guitarists working today, weaving impossible lines over intricate, clockwork riffs. You could argue the sound is overly clean, but I think it works here due to the sheer instrumental skill on display from every member of the band. It means you can focus in effortlessly on whatever wizardry you fancy. This is just really solid instrumental prog-metal.

Song Picks: Conflict Cartography, The Problem of Other Minds

7/10

New Orlean’s punk band Special Interest’s third album is an electric punk factory. It sounds like someone angry in the toilet while the bass from the house music next door rumbles through the walls. It took me a while to get into on each listen, but by the final 20 minutes I was in the groove, consumed by its industrial anger.

Song Picks: Cherry Blue Intention, Concerning Peace, Kurdish Radio

7/10

Though Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny’s fourth album has a little too much of that Post Malone auto-tune thing going on for my personal tastes, it’s still a colourful, vivacious and thoroughly enjoyable journey through the sounds of the modern Caribbean. Bad Bunny’s style is clearly heavily lyric’s focused, and I’m certain some of the emotional melodies here would hit harder if I knew what was being said.

Song Picks: Tarot, El Apacón, Un Verano Sin Ti

7/10

42. God Don’t Make Mistakes

Conway the Machine

Conway the Machine’s second album features some lovely production and refreshingly personal lyrics, it also features probably more basketball references than any album since the sport was invented. I like it.

Song Picks: Lock Load, Piano Love

7.5/10

If you want to listen to some superb sax playing from 2022, then look no further than Wilkins’ poetic playing here.

Song Picks: Fugitive Ritual, Selah

7.5/10

Placebo? A good album? In 2022? Yes.

Distinctive vocals as always, and with strong melodies. But it’s the great wall of sound production using an inventive array of instruments to build barnstorming riffs that is most impressive.

Song Picks: Forever Chemicals, The Prodigal

7.5/10

Viagra Boys’ third album is a satirical piece on the far-right that’s about as subtle as a brick falling on your head from a great height, but a lot more fun. It has probably the most catchy riff per minute ratio of any album this year.

Song Picks: Troglodyte, Punk Rock Loser, Punk Rock Loser, Ain’t No Thief, Return to Monke

7.5/10

Aethiopes is so lyrically dense I frankly don’t have the time to delve into as much as it deserves, but as an album I’ve now given 4 or 5 listens I can say Woods weaves a whole host of lyrical webs over the sparse but atmospheric production in a way that is mysterious, intriguing, and so thick with meaning that it can be intimidating.

Song Picks: NYNEX, Asylum, No Hard Feelings

7.5/10

37. Ghost Song

**Cécile McLorin Salvant**

Her sixth album is my first and it's great not only due to her superb vocals but also the songcraft on display. Though certainly playing it more safely than the artist of the opening cover, Kate Bush, Cécile has a similar ability to bewitch.

Song Picks: Optimistic Voices/No Love Dying, Ghost Song, Thunderclouds

7.5

If you’re after humongous riffs and catchy hardcore vocals, then I don’t think you can do any better than Drug Church’s Hygiene in 2022. Its 26 minutes are packed with songs hell-bent on obliterating your speakers with pent-up anxiety and cascading guitars.

Song Picks: Fun’s Over, Super Saturated, Detective Lieutenant

7.5

Alasdair Dunn contributes both of the things that make Aschenspire stand out in the metal scene: vulnurable and angry vocals unafraid to get highly political, and frantic, at times off kilter, drumming that aims not to provide a backbeat to the din created by the band’s many members, but more adds to the chaos. The title refers to architecture that stops homeless people sleeping on it and with Alasdair’s anger at society’s ills comes a whole lot of heart and empathy, which unique touches like the saxophone on Plattenbau Persephone Praxis, as well as the album’s folkier moments, help to highlight.

Song Picks: Plattenbau Persephone Praxis

7.5/10

Spoon’s 10th album sees them take their tight, minimalist style to a slightly heavier plane. It’s a prime example of how good songwriting and production doesn’t have to be particularly fancy - most songs here barely seem to use reverb, never mind any fancy effects. It’s punchy, simple, and yet very effective. There’s no need for filters when the subject is so engaging and accomplished. The best straight rock album I’ve heard for a while.

Song Picks: Held, Wild

8/10

The two-time recipient of Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year Award is back with his third album, following up the critically acclaimed Cairn (which I’ll have to listen to on the back of this). The trio is filled out with bassist David Bowden and drummer Stephen Henderson who accompany McCreadie’s endless flurries with impeccable timing. McCreadie’s style could definitely be called busy, but it's busy with a purpose. His metronomically skittering notes create carpets of activity, a forest floor of leaves and insects swarming. With no space between notes for the mind to think, you’re led through his inventive, playfuly perfect world as he runs ahead of you, dragging you by the hand. Forest Floor’s most jaw-dropping moments are when these flurries are interchanged with the breather of a lovely folky melody as on the gorgeous Unforrowed Field.

Song Picks: The Unfurrowed Field, Forest Floor

8/10

Brooklyn R&B artist Yaya Bey’s second album is expertly self-produced, with beats and instrumentation as smooth as butter accompanying her airy vocal and soul-searching lyrics. It also features a whole host of satisfying mid-song switches, such as on alright, where the track seems to lead you from the ambient noise of a sunny day to a cosy underground den full of warmth and cushions. If this album were a yoghurt, it’d be thick, smooth, and taste like honey.

Song Picks: nobody knows, alright, reprise

8/10

31. And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow

Weyes Blood

Natalie Mering, more commonly known as Weyes Blood’s fifth album is the second in a trilogy which began with its predecessor, Titanic Rising. Textured is the word you’ll come across the most when reading others’ reviews of this album, and it’s easy to see why. The productions here are so layered it feels like one of those albums that really needs a good sounsystem or headphones to appreciate properly. Often these layers can be used to hide mediocre songwriting, but that’s certainly not the case here. Mering’s vocals are never overwrought, always majestic, and she has a touch of Joni Mitchell about her in the way she seemingly freewheels melodies from nowhere, never to return to them again. The most impressive thing to me about And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow though, is just how timeless it all sounds. Minus the modern, crystal clear production, songs like Children of the Empire feel like they could have been floating around forever. Many others have used the word, and I’ve already used it once in this review, but I think majestic is the best way to describe this record.

Song Picks: God Turn Me Into a Flower, It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody, Children of the Empire, A Given Thing

8/10

Off the back of their wildly succesful single Chaise Lounge, Wet Leg became the first band from the Isle of Wight to have a No 1 UK album. An impressive feat considering it’s their debut.

Wet Leg is a damn solid indie-rock album. Catchy melodies, honest lyrics, and simple production leads to a really accesible album that holds enough interest for many repeat listens. Some of the post-rock elements such as on the closer Too Late Now add a sense of scale not often heard in indie-rock bands. It’s one of those albums that is not particularly doing anything new (besides perhaps the more modern social commentary), but just does what it does really well. Rachel Aroesti of The Guardian sums it up better than I can, calling it a "collection of 90s and 00s-era indie that is by turns dreamy, lush, hooky and thunderous, and layered with lyrics saturated with millennial disaffection, anxiety and overwhelm."

Song Picks: Chaise Lounge, Too late Now, Wet Dream

8/10

Probably the hip-hop album that gave me the most straight-up enjoyment this year. Some of the beats feel like they could be from Illmatic, and I could give them no higher compliment. Nas’ flow isn’t quite as smooth as it was in those days, but it still surfs over the beats with aplomb.

Song Picks: Legit, First Time

8/10

Grace Ives - Janky Star

Grace Ives’ second album packs bangers into its short 27 minute running length like the government packs dodgy people into its cabinet. It feels like an uplifting sugar hit, but one that’s wholesome and quietly sophisticated. A tiramisu perhaps?

Song Picks: Loose, On the Ground, Angel of Business

8/10

Arctic Monkey’s seventh album builds on the lounge, art-pop, baroque sound from their previous album Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino. Lead singer Alex Turner had apparently wanted to return to writing ‘riffs’ but found that the music ‘didn’t want to go there’. The band’s turn in this direction has been one that has been generally well received by critics, but less so by fans of the band. I’m with the critics, I think this direction does something that isn’t really being done elsewhere. James Ford’s production of the band’s lounge sound is as smooth as yoghurt, and Alex Turner’s lyrics have plenty of soul and melody. I’d go as far as saying his vocal performance is one of the most interesting male ones of the year, putting the lyrics front and centre, while still remaining tuneful.

Song Picks: There’s Better Be a Mirrorball, I Ain't Quite Where I Think I Am

8/10

JID’s first album in four years gets personal with the precise, clear drum samples over the top of rumbling bass lines. The production is never cluttered, and yet always intriguing. Subtle creative touches, like the fact the Can’t Punk Me bass line sounds almost like someone humming, are littered throughout. Mainly though, the thing just grooves, and JID’s cadence sails smoothly over the top. It’s an album that’s a ball to listen to on a surface level, but that truly opens up when fully absorbed.

Song Picks: Crack Sandwich, Can’t Punk Me

8.2/10

25. Cheat Codes

Danger Mouse & Black Thought

Danger Mouse and Black Thought go together so well you’d be forgiven for listening to Cheat Codes and thinking they’d spent a lifetime releasing albums together. Danger Mouse’s production is drenched with so much warm, analogue distortion that it sounds like you’ve been absorbed by a J37 tape at Abbey Road. Black Thought’s meticulous delivery blends into the sumptuous surroundings, never rudely demanding your attention, but rewarding you with bright rhymes whenever you give it.

Song Picks: Aquamarine, Strangers

8/10

24. Melt My Eyez See Your Future

Denzel Curry

In Curry’s words: “this album is about me, Denzel Curry. No alter egos, no nothing. Just Denzel Curry.” His fifth album is introspective, vulnurable, even apologetic:

Recognize hidden patterns of my own demise
Why I feel like hiding a truth is finding a lie?
Dealt with thoughts of suicide, women I've objectified
Couldn't see it through my eyes so for that, I apologize

The production is softer, not quite ethereal - but not far off either. The anger from Curry’s last couple of albums has gone. His poetic growl appears plenty of times, but there’s a held back feel to it. Curry’s cadence rides the waves rather than propelling them, Melt My Eyez See Your Future is Curry lying back on the sofa, and it’s hard not to want to lay back on that chair in the corner next to him.

Song Picks: Melt Session #1, Walkin’, Mental

8.5/10

The drummer, producer, and bandleader continues to blend modern production techniques with more traditional, instrumental jazz. I’d say the tilt is towards tha latter generally, though tracks like The Fours do sound like they could be a beat for a recent hip-hop production. Generally though, he uses more modern techniques to complement the older ones, rather than vice versa. What results is an album that feels thoroughly human, with McCraven’s drumming background evident in the busy, skittering drum parts that adorn what are often calm soundscapes like crickets on a warm summer’s eve. In These Times uses a lot of complex times signatures, which is perhaps what its title alludes to, along with the human/machine theme evident from the album’s opening quote. These signatures make the alubm a satisfyingly cerebral listen, while never coming across as showy or dry. The emphasis is always on aural pleasantness and intrigue, and though the album plays it safe tonally, it does so beautifully.

Song Picks: Dream Another, In These Times, This is That Place, The Knew Untitled

8.5/10

22. Topical Dancer

Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul

Infectious, spacious, groovy and so completely itself that it’s automatically one of the year’s more memorable albums.

Song Picks: Esperanto, Blenda, Ich Mwen

8.5/10

21. Ants from Up There

Black Country, New Road

Black Country, New Road’s second album is perhaps less expansive, but no less varied than their debut. In bassist and vocalist Tyler Hyde’s words: “we have figured out what we're trying to say, so it makes a bit more sense. Some of the songs are shorter. We attempted to write songs that were three and a half minutes”. This leads a cohesive and tight album, despite it’s near hour-long running length. Isaac Wood’s vocals have a vulnurability that ensures the band takes the emo turn-off, while the band’s instrumentation quietly fights that label with interesting arrangements that make great use of saxophone and violin, keeping things firmly at the very edge of the road.

Song Picks: Concorde, Snow Globes, Mark’s Theme

8.5/10

2022 felt like Jockstrap’s year. The English duo of Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye’s unique blend of scatty electronic production and minimalist string arrangements made for an album that was as accesible and visceral as pop, but hard to put in any particular genre box. It floats like a giant, amorphous pop cloud ocassionally teasing production qualities or arrangements that make you want to put it in this genre or that, before taking them away again, leaving you with a vague feeling of pop, one that disspiates with too much thought.

I Love You Jennifer B is as exhilirating as it is untouchable.

Song Picks: Neon, Greatest Hits, 50/50

8.5/10

If you need an album to soothe the mind, then this soft jazz gem is it. Charles’ playing has plenty of restraint, and more soul than Pantalaimon (sorry, His Dark Materials reference…) as he effortlessly switches between flute and saxophone. Sometimes you find a musician that just resonates with you, and Charles is certainly that, expertly accompanied here by Bill Frisell and Thomas Morgan. Morgan’s deft basswork is another of the album’s many quiet highlights. I love an album that immediately creates an atmosphere, and Trios: Chapel does that with Lloyd’s first few sax notes, which seem to represent my worries tiredly buzzing away.

Song Picks: Blood Count, Ay Amor

8.5/10

Angrily obliterating fragile male egos everywhere. On the nose, bursting with truth and energy. Superb.

Song Picks: Fight for Our Lives, Violent by Design, Feed My Fire

8.5/10

Spanish singer Rosalía’s third album blends the vintage and the modern into a seamless, tight and energetic package. Her flamenco roots mix with a variety of succesful forays into reggaeton, and the vigour of the latter mixes seamlessly with the slower ballads on offer. This is one of those albums that is both very varied and yet truly cohesive. It also contains vocals engaging enough to carry the fact I don’t understand the lyrics, more so than Bad Bunny in my opinion. On G3 N15, for example, one doesn’t need to understand what Rosalía is saying for the heartbreak to hit you right in the guts.

Song Picks: Delirio de Grandeza, Hentai, G3 N15

8.5/10

The Weeknd’s fifth album’s concept is that of a radio show in purgatory. I imagine it as playing while you’re sat in a car in a traffic jam in a tunnel, at which the other end is the afterlife.

The production is heavenly, pardon the pun, with melodic, pretty atmospheres sprawling across the whole album’s 50 minute running length. The spoken word sections help add to the neon tinged philosophy of the album, with Jim Carrey’s performance of the poem in Phantom Regret by Jim being a particular highlight. It weaves between profound and comedic, ending the album with the lines:

You gotta be Heaven to see Heaven
May peace be with you

Dawn FM’s concept is executed with plenty of humour, which prevents it sinking in its own pomposity, and instead means it floats among endless pretty melodies, sugar candy production, soulful vocals, and a ridiculously consistent tracklist of pop-gems.

Song Picks: Phantom Regret by Jim, Gasoline, How Do I Make You Love Me, Sacrifice

8.5/10

Soul Glo’s fourth album is an angry barrage of brutal riffs featuring some of my favourite hardcore vocals for some time. Pierce Jordan’s shouts are self aware, political, and seemingly come from the very core of his being. The words come at a relentless pace, as if the album’s 40 minute running length is not enough for him to get across everything he’s furious about, and he delivers everything with a hyperactive cadence reminiscnent of one of those 80s electronic machine gun snares. Every word is blared as if it’s his last. Diaspora Problems is one of the year’s essential albums, not only because it’s a Black punk band finally getting the limelight, but becuase it’s as visceral as anything you’ll hear this year.

Song Picks: Gold Chain Punk (whogonbeatmyass?), Driponomics, Five Years and My Family

8.5/10

Kenny Beats has been on the scene for a while, but usually as a producer for acts such as Vince Staples and IDLES. LOUIE is his debut solo album, inspired by his dad’s pancreatic cancer diagnosis in 2021. The album was recorded shortly after Beats found out about the diagnosis, and is what he calls "something dark turned into something beautiful."

I’ve always been a believer in the fact that stories around an album can impact how much you take from them, and seeing this as a love letter to his dad definitely gives the whole thing an added glow. Full of the kind of irresistible, bass heavy beats that you’d expect from Kenny, LOUIE feels like a comforting hug. It’d have been easy for Beats to make something pretty bleak, but instead we get something colourful, infectious, and above all, warm. It also has my favourite album cover of the year, one that very much encapsulates its feel. Go give LOUIE a spin, after the shitshow that was 2022, everyone could use the musical hug it provides.

As you already know, 2022 was the year I became a dad, and dancing around the living-room to this with my son in my arms was such a glorious experience that the album had to make it towards the top end of my list. I hope that, in years to come, he’ll think as highly of me as Kenny Beats clearly does of Louie.

Song Picks: Parenthesis, Hooper, Last Words, Drop 10, Really Really, Moire

8.5/10

Fontaines D.C. continue their run of excellent albums with Skiny Fia, their third. Grian Chatten’s vocals and lyrics still create that atmosphere of gloom that is uniquely Fontaines D.C., while coming up with catchy hooks seemingly everywhere. They’ve always been slower and more melodic than the other punk bands they were lumped in with back when their debut came out, and they’ve doubled down on that in their last two albums. This is every bit as atmospheric and expansive as the excellent A Hero’s Death, but everything has just got that little bit better. Chatten’s vocals are more varied and emotive, while never losing their over-riding pessimism, and the band is better able to take advantage of the instrumental breaks to take the listener on their own journeys in between Chatten’s murky verses. The way the band explodes on Big Shot is a prime example; with a cataclysmic marching riff that backs the chorus as stadium ready as anything they’ve written. Jackie Down the Line is a future classic, perfectly demonstrating the band’s knack for an undestated hook.

Song Picks: Jackie Down the Line, Big Shot

8.5/10

Silvana Estrada’s debut album was written in the wake of the breakup of her first relationship. Performed mainly on the cuatro, a historic instrument with 4 strings like a ukulele but with a deeper sound, she effortlessly combines the vintage with the modern. Gustavo Guerrero’s production has depth and warmth, while never competing with Estrada’s gorgeous vocals and simple cuatro playing. You can imagine her leaning on the window frame Audrey Heburn style singing out quietly to the sky above and alleys below, Guerrero painting the night with stars that furnish every note with a quiet grandeur. While Marchita plays, everything feels manageable, everything feels ok.

Song Picks: Mass o Menos Antes, Te Guardo,

8.5/10

Alex G’s ninth album shows is a clear demonstration of why he’s such a good songwriter. There’s no particularly experimental song-structures or chord progressions here, or even anything all that progressive about the production, but the whole thing just sings with a compassionate beauty. Every melody is a hug, every guitar strum a supportive tap on the shoulder. Alex G apparently worked with 12 or so engineers to make these songs sound as good as possible, and that was a success. The production is impeccable, the soft snares, the clear guitars, the ting-ting of the hi-hats, everything is perfectly balanced, much like the songwriting and melodies that make the album’s crackling core.

Song Picks: After All, Runner, Ain’t It Easy, Immunity

8.5/10

Beach House’s eighth album is an 80 minute double album, divided into four chapters, and is the first produced entirely by the band.

This album initially sounded to me like bathing in the glow of some golden nebula - gorgeous but undefined. The more I listened to it though, the more it revealed to me a subtle journey, and it became less like floating, and more like effortlessly swimming from one place to another - from wherever you were when you put the thing on, to a place where everything seems to shimmer once the album’s finished.

Song Picks: Over and Over, ESP, Many Nights

9/10

Alvvays’ third studio album is a powerpop gem. Every melody sounds essential, every track an anthem, every guitar solo a new freedom, every washed out note a dream. Was there anything more triumphantly sad in 2022 than the ending to Velveteen?

Song Picks: Pharmacist, Easy on Your Own?, After the Earthquake, Velveteen

9/10

Colombian experimental artist Lucrecia Dalt’s sixth album sounds like it’s been produced by Rain Dogs era Tom Waits. There’s a sparse barroom feel to the instrumentation, with percussion playing a particularly important role, the hollow, woody rhythms adding a sense of timelessness to the atmospheric synths laying the atmospheric foundations to the tracks. Dalt’s vocals are far more tuneful than Waits’ though, and what results is an album that embraces Dalt’s Latin American roots wholeheartedly, but pushes them into the future and mixes them with other influences to create something truly unique and cosy. Pitchfork’s review makes the point that traditional and folkloric traditions from Latin America are often seen as ‘creatively stale’, and so don’t get touched due to a fear of artists being seen as too traditional. Lucrecia Dalt’s embracing and pioneering of these styles is thus not only thoroughly enjoyable and singular, but also an admirable cultural statement.

¡Ay! completely absorbs you into its world, and that is something I always love in an album.

Song Picks: Gena, El Galatzó, La desmesura

9/10

In Beyoncé’s own words: “Creating this album allowed me a place to dream and to find escape during a scary time for the world. It allowed me to feel free and adventurous in a time when little else was moving. My intention was to create a safe place, a place without judgment. A place to be free of perfectionism and overthinking. A place to scream, release, feel freedom.”

Indeed Beyonce’s seventh album creates just that. Everything’s cohesive, deep, pulsating, fun and accesible. It’s an irresistible, well constructed and grooving DJ set. I didn’t listen to this during any kind of lockdown, but it didn’t matter; its joy is universal and evergreen. This is a pop-star, with considerable skill and talent flexing her creative muscles free of expectation. I’ve no qualms in calling it my favourite pop record of recent times.

Song Picks: VIRGO’S GROOVE, COZY, CUFF IT, CHURCH GIRL,

9/10

6. Natural Brown Prom Queen

Sudan Archives

Sudan Archives’ (singer-songwriter and violinist Brittney Parks) second album is an ode to embracing yourself. Parks herself has talked about how she wanted to make the album her ‘homecoming’; where she could be her natural self and return to the high-school prom she never went to. The album’s wavy synths, subtle, and yet honeyed vocals, brutally honest lyrics and creamy productions all bring about this sense of self realisation, the subtle emergence from self-doubt and anxiety in a dense and slow-motion firework of pride.

Song Picks: NBPQ (Topless), Freakalizer, Homesick (Gorgeous & Arrogant), Selfish Soul, Loyal (EDD)

9/10

**5. Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam**

The Comet is Coming

The Comet is Coming people and it’s armed with a saxohpone and the world’s largest rave soundsystem. Get your neon stuff and glow sticks out the drawer, and get your arse down to the landing site, because shit is going down.

A glorious atmospheric and edgy party of a record. Sons of Kemet’s Shabaka Hutchings’ saxohpone playing might just be my favourite instrumental performance of the year, that thing sounds like it’s screaming out to any alien race who might listen as the Earth goes down.

Song Picks: Angel of Darkness

9/10

**4. Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You**

Big Thief

Big Thief’s fifth album was deliberately recorded across 4 different locations, each with their own planned sonic goal, a concept conjured up by the band’s drummer - and the album’s producer - James Krivchenia.

Pulling off a 80 minute double album is no mean feat, but Big Thief manage it here. Guided by Adrianne Lenker’s accomplished songwriting and vocal performances, the band push themselves to create something expansive, affecting, an completely consuming. Little Things fuzz-laden atmosphere is a great testament to the way the rest of the band contribute to the album’s atmosphere, in its case creating a euphoric, unruly firework of a song. Other songs like Time Escaping teeter into being dissonant, but not in a way that makes the album in any way difficult or challenging to listen to, only serving to perk your ears out of the beautiful slumber the album’ sorcery has submitted them to.

Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You feels like a perfect representation of everything Big Thief do best. It flutters beautifully like a firefly, playing with the crest of flame.

Song Picks: Change, Certainty, Heavy Bend, Flower of Blood, Wake Me up to Drive

9/10

3. De Todas las Flores

**Natalia Lafourcade**

De Todas Las Flores is Mexican singer-songwriter Lafourcade’s first album of completely original material in seven years, ot at least so Wikipedia tells me. I’ve been a fan of her Un Canto por Mexico volumes over the last couple of years, but this one takes things to a new level.

Sumptuous production softly lowers you into a new place, a place of timeless melodies from a voice with the honesty of someone singing to themselves, a place where arrangements complement them with an understated and twinkled beauty. Of course I’m approaching this as someone who doesn’t understand many of the Spanish lyrics, but to me every moment of this album is just bloody perfect. While her Un Canto por Mexico volumes succesfully transported me to a specific place, De Todas Las Flores transports me off the map completely, and draws its own amongst the stars.

Song Picks: Vine Solita, Caminar Bonito, Canta la arena, Pajarito colibrí

9/10

Painless was the last album I listened to before drawing a line under 2022 (for now), and I’m very glad I managed to squeeze it in. Yanya’s second album is packed with stellar songwriting, and production that is intimate while not sounding minimalistic. Most songs are accompanied by repeated drum machine beats that not only provide a nice momentum to the album but also give the tracks a cosy familiarity. Yanya’s dusky, airy vocals are always understated but carry the plethora of catchy melodies with beautiful subtlety. There’s not just more ‘bangers’ here than on any of the other pop records I listened to this year, but Painless stands out because here they’re wrapped in a way less concerned with trends of the time, or indeed what would make them sell, and more just what Yanya wants them to sound like. There’s a confidence to her refusal to ram these choruses down your throat with over-production, and her willingness to sit back, quietly hoping you’ll pay enough attention to realise this really is a glorious record.

Song Picks: the dealer, L/R, shameless, midnight sun, anotherlife

Black Midi’s third album was recorded entirely over a thirteen day period and throws new influences such as cabaret and flamenco into what was already a very dense, multi-genre sound. What you get is an album that refuses to sit still, an album that is the enemy of repetition, an album that makes for one of the best active listens of the year. You never quite know what’s coming next, something the track Welcome to Hell is testament to. The short but epic orchestral sections are unexpected enough but I was completely blindsided by a couple of bars of thrash metal followed by bouncy indie as the track closes. This all sounds like it could be a bit ‘oooo look how many genres we can fit into a song’, but it doesn’t feel showy like that at all. It merely feels like an album that constantly wants to move forward, onto something new, with minimal repeating of even the album’s recent past. It’s an album of unique moments, where the constant switching makes for an irritating background listen, where a lapse of attention leads to something extraordinary being missed, where sitting down and submitting to it fully yields the year’s most exciting record. Hellfire is the perfect advert for active listening.

Song Picks: Welcome to Hell, The Race is About to Begin, The Defence

9/10

The lists I made sure to listen to (with albums that made it into my own top 10 bolded)

Pitchfork had the most make it into my own top 10, with 6.

rateyourmusic.com’s top 10 - this was taken in January, and as it is made up of average user ratings may change over time.

Black Country, New Road - Ants from Up There
Black Midi - Hellfire
Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You
Danger Mouse & Black Thought - Cheat Codes
Natalia Lafourcade - De todas las flores
billy woods - Aethiopes
J.I.D - The Forever Story
Blue Rev - Alvvays
betcover!! 卵 (Tamago)
Denzel Curry - Melt My Eyez See Your Future

The Needle Drop’s top 10

Natalia Lafourcade - De Todas Las FloresJID - The Forever Story
Viagra Boys - Cave World
Soul Glo - Diaspora Problems
black midi - Hellfire
Conway the Machine - God Don't Make Mistakes
Black Country, New Road - Ants From Up There
Ashenspire - Hostile Architecture
Petrol Girls - Baby
Sudan Archives - Natural Brown Prom Queen
Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You
Silvana Estrada - Marchita

albumoftheyear.com aggregated top 10

Beyoncé - Renaissance
ROSALÍA - MOTOMAMI
Wet Leg - Wet Leg
Kendrick Lamar - Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers
Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You
Alvvays - Blue Rev
Fontaines D.C. - Skinty Fia
Weyes Blood - And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow
Jockstrap - I Love You Jennifer B
Taylor Swift - Midnights

Pitchfork top 10

Beyoncé: Renaissance
Sudan Archives: Natural Brown Prom Queen
Alvvays: Blue Rev
Special Interest: Endure
Bad Bunny: Un Verano Sin Ti
Rosalía: Motomami
Big Thief: Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You
Lucrecia Dalt: ¡Ay!
Yaya Bey: Remember Your North Star
Alex G: God Save the Animals

1989 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

December 12, 2022 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music, Clive

Over what will likely be the next few years I’m going to be ranking and reviewing the top 5 albums - plus a fair few extras - according to users on rateyourmusic.com (think IMDB for music) from every year from 1960 to the present. If you want to know more, I wrote an introduction to the ‘challenge’ here. You can also read all the other entries I’ve written so far by heading to the lovely index page here.

We’ve made it to the final year of the 80s, but what happened outside of music before the turn of the decade? Well, thousands were killed in Tiananmen Square as Chinese leaders took a hard line towards demonstrators, Mikhail S. Gorbachev was named Soviet President , the Berlin Wall fell after 28 years and the Game Boy was released.

Here’s what our trusty rateyourmusic.com users rank as the top 5 albums of 1989:

#1 The Cure - Disintegration
#2 Pixies - Doolittle
#3 The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
#4 Beastie Boys - Paul’s Boutique
#5 NoMeansNo - Wrong

And here’s some others I’m grabbing from further down the list:

#6 Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness
#7 Julee Cruise - Floating into the Night
#14 De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising (also Pitchfork)
#20 Hats - The Blue Nile

Pitchfork’s top albums of the 80s includes some of the above, but also Minor Threat - Complete Discography at number 30, so we’ll add that in.

Finally, as usual, to add more female artists to the equation, I’ll be grabbing anything from 1989 from NPR’s list of the best albums of all time by female artists, as well as the same list as voted on by their readers. This year we’ve got a whole host of albums to throw into the mix:

Janet Jackson - Rhymth Nation 1814 (Also on Pitchfork’s best of the decade)
Queen Latifah - All Hail the Queen
Indigo Girls - Indigo Girls
Bonnie Raitt - Nick of Time)
Kate Bush - Sensual World
Madonna - Like a Prayer

Well, that’s 16 albums to cover, which I believe is a new record. No pun intended.

“Nick of Time is the tenth studio album by the American singer Bonnie Raitt, released on March 21, 1989. It was Raitt's first album to be released by Capitol Records. A commercial breakthrough after years of personal and professional struggles, Nick of Time topped the Billboard 200 chart, selling five million copies, and won three Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, which was presented to Raitt and producer Don Was. In 2003, the album was ranked number 229 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, then was re-ranked at number 230 on the 2012 list.”" - Wikipedia

I’m not the biggest straight country guy, and Nick of Time isn’t about to change my mind. I can appreciate Raitt’s songwriting and vocal skills, and she certainly has a knack for melodies, but it’s still not doing a lot for me.

6.5/10

“Like a Prayer is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Madonna, released on March 21, 1989, by Sire Records. Madonna worked with Stephen Bray, Patrick Leonard, and Prince on the album, with her co-writing and co-producing all the songs. Her most introspective release at the time, Like a Prayer is a confessional record. Madonna described the album as a collection of songs about her mother, father, and bonds with her family. It was dedicated to Madonna's mother, who died when she was young.” - Wikipedia

The production has taken a step-up up since her debut, which we covered in 1983, sounding a bit less like a karaoke backing track, though it still sounds a bit Casio keyboard at points. Like a Prayer sets the tone with some funky flittering guitar work, and while the bass is still a little synthetic, the instrumental sections and overall sound really give the track a sense of scale and emphatically announce the arrival of a really solid pop album. Brass stabs and funky guitar riffs are tastefully lathered throughout, with tracks like Love Song (which features Prince) giving a slightlier edgier resbite to the general pop-fare. It’s not one with much depth to it, mainly because a lot of the music still sounds a bit soul-less, but Madonna’s melodies, and more interesting lyrics make it rise above her debut.

Song Picks: Like a Prayer, Love Song

“Altars of Madness is the debut studio album of Florida-based death metal band Morbid Angel. It was released on May 12, 1989 through Combat Records/Earache Records. The album was recorded in December 1988 at Morrisound Recording in Tampa, Florida. The album is one of the earliest examples of death metal and is considered to have helped pioneer the sound along with Possessed's Seven Churches in 1985 and Death's Scream Bloody Gore in 1987, and set a new precedent for heaviness and extremity, both musically and lyrically. It is one of the most celebrated albums in death metal history, and one of the most influential heavy metal albums of all time.” - Wikipedia

This influental business is all very good, but is Altars of Madness still any good? Yes. Though the mix is a bit thin, there’s a pleasing raw garage sound to the thing. Even David Vincent’s vocal sounds like it’s reverberating inside a box of breezeblocks. Peter Sandoval’s drumming is frenetic, and refreshingly off kilter compared to the artificial sound of many of the drums on today’s metal albums, where the perfect snare hit gets pasted across the whole track and other such trickery. This is punk death metal, maaaaan.

Song Picks: Lord of Fevers and Plagues, Suffocation

8/10

“Indigo Girls is the second studio album and first major label release by American folk rock duo the Indigo Girls. It was originally released in 1989 by Epic Records, and reissued and remastered in 2000 with two bonus tracks. Upon its release, the album received mostly positive reviews from critics, went gold after six months and eventually went platinum. The duo was nominated for a Best New Artist Grammy (losing to Milli Vanilli, who later vacated the award), and won one for Best Contemporary Folk Recording.” - Wikipedia

It feels like an age since we had some folk-rock so this is a more than welcome addition to the list. Amy Ray and Emily Saliers’ vocals harmonise beautifully (Michael Stipe’s backing vocals on track 3 are great too), injecting the album’s melodic choruses straight through into your veins (see opener Closer to Fine for what I mean). The acoustic guitar is so crystal clear it feels like it’s caressing your ears, with just the right amount of energy to accompany the prominent vocals, while never overpowering them.

This is just really great, melodic, accessible and heartfelt music.

Song Picks: Closer to Fine, Kid Fears

8/10

“Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Janet Jackson, released on September 19, 1989, by A&M Records. Although label executives wanted material similar to her previous album, Control (1986), Jackson insisted on creating a concept album addressing social issues. Collaborating with songwriters and record producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, she drew inspiration from various tragedies reported through news media, exploring racism, poverty, and substance abuse, in addition to themes of romance. Although its primary concept of a sociopolitical utopia was met with mixed reactions, its composition received critical acclaim. Jackson came to be considered a role model for youth because of her socially conscious lyrics.” - Wikipedia

Growing up, I was a fan of the Michael & Janet Jackson duet ‘Scream’ on Michael Jackson’s History compilation. It had a kind of industrial and grimey riff to it. Rhythm Nation 1814’s heavier tracks are dominated by a similar sound, and they’re my favourites. The blunt social commentary works well with this angrier presentation, but falls flatter for me on some of the slower songs in the album’s second half, where it comes across as a bit cheesy. Thankfully this is only a couple of tracks among the album’s 20. The slower more personal songs such as Lonely and Come Back to Me are effective 80s ballads.

Black Cat wins the award for the most 80s sounding track on the album with a bass drum and snare drum like a battering ram, and a guitar riff that should come free with a really long wig, glorious.

Song Picks: Alright, Rhythm Nation, Black Cat,

8/10

“All Hail the Queen is the debut album by hip-hop artist Queen Latifah. The album was released on November 28, 1989, through Tommy Boy Records. The feminist anthem, "Ladies First" featuring Monie Love remains one of Latifah's signature songs.” - Wikipedia

All Hail the Queen is old-school hip-hop at its best. Infectious beats, notable in particular for their unassuming but bloody fantastic basslines (see opener Dance for Me for a great example). This is the kind of thing you could put on at a house party and have the whole place grooving for its duration. As for Queen Latifah’s rapping, it has a great flow, and I like the rhymes. All Hail the Queen might not be as revolutionary in terms of its lyrical content as some of the decade’s more political hip-hop output, but the whole thing slaps from start to finish, and its a bona fide mood-lifter. When you combine this with the fact female rappers weren’t exactly a dime a dozen in 1989, and she was only 19 at the time of this album’s release, you get a pretty all round impressive piece of hip-hop history.

Also Ladies First is a superb feminist anthem.

Song Picks: Dance for Me, Latifah’s Law, Wrath of My Madness, Ladies First, Queen of Royal Badness, Evil that Men Do

9/10

“Complete Discography is a 1989 compilation album released by the American hardcore punk band Minor Threat on the band's own Dischord Records. As the name implies, it contains the band's entire discography at the time, including their three EPs, the Out of Step album and Flex Your Head compilation tracks.” - Wikipedia

Ok, it’s not technically an album, more a collection of EPs, but Pitchfork included it on their best albums of the 80s and they know more than me, so I’m counting it too. This punk-rock gem seems to have influenced all the music on Tony Hawk Skater 2’s soundtrack along with much of the 90s alternative scene too. A collection of punchy tracks with bouncy guitar riffs and vocals that seem to be rasped through a megaphone over the relentless din of amp stacks. The whole thing sounds like it might just crash and burn any moment, but they somehow manage to keep the train of carnage reasonably on course, as it obnoxiously smashes everything in its path. Never has an entire band’s back catalogue fit into one hard-hitting sitting in quite this fashion.

Song Picks: Filler, I Don’t Wanna Hear It, In My Eyes,

“The Sensual World is the sixth studio album by the English art rock singer Kate Bush, released on 16 October 1989 by EMI Records. It reached No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart. It has been certified Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry for shipments in excess of 300,000 in the United Kingdom, and Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America in the United States.” - Wikipedia

Is the Sensual World the album that best describes its sound with its title? Probably. Bush creates yet another singular sensory experience with unique soundscapes and a voice about as expressive as any we’ve ever had. The Sensual World feels like Bush working well within her capabilities, but in a good way; a way that makes it feel a little more intimate than her other records, something the more personal lyrics help with too. The Sensual World may be more open and honest than anything she had made up to this point, but it still has that trademark fairy-tale dreamlike quality to it, a quality making it disperse on impact like a cloud of stardust.

Song Picks: Love and Anger, The Fog, Deeper Understanding, The Woman’s Work

9/10

“Wrong is the fourth full-length album by Canadian punk rock band Nomeansno. It was released in 1989 through Alternative Tentacles record label.” - Wikipedia

Wrong came out of nowhere and smashed me round the head like a sledgehammer, with every hit’s timing less predictable than the last. Wrong is a punk masterpiece, and a clear influence on the mathier rock bands to come in the 90s and 2000s. Rob Wright’s screams appeal to me more than those in your average death metal band, as I generally prefer screaming to roaring, and the guitar and drum work is superbly intricate and yet still makes you want to jump around. Wrong is one of those albums where instrumental skill is used in tandem with just making damn good music, and not against it. It’s completely ‘wrong’ that most people haven’t heard this… I’ll get my coat.

Song Picks: It’s Catching Up, Rags and Bones

9/10

“The Stone Roses is the debut studio album by English rock band the Stone Roses. It was recorded mostly at Battery Studios in London with producer John Leckie from June 1988 to February 1989. Despite not being an immediate success, the album grew popular alongside the band's high-profile concert performances, which also helped establish them as fixtures of the Madchester and baggy cultural scenes. The record's critical standing also improved significantly in later years, with The Stone Roses now considered to be one of the greatest albums of all time.” - Wikipedia

This album is now so synonymous with the ‘Madchester’ movement, I feel entirely unoriginal even mentioning the fact, and indeed I find it more interesting to talk about the influence this has had on music since its release. Tame Impala, Oasis (and pretty much any britpop band), the Manic Street Preachers (I could go on…) all clearly descend from the Ian Brown led Manchester quartet. I think it’s true that perhaps the album’s most famous track Fool’s Gold, is not a particularly great indication of the rest of the album, and it’s the only one that extensively employs electronic dance beats and synths. The rest of the album features more of a standard rock band formation than many would have you believe. What’s different about The Stone Roses is the dreamy reverb on Brown’s vocals, and the way the guitars drench everything with an emotional fizz. Many have pointed out the similarities the band has to 60s jangle-pop, and I think that’s very true in terms of the melodies and guitar progressions, but the presentation is completely different. The Stone Roses feels like what would happen if you injected the Byrds with a penchant for rave, long meditative instrumental passages, and a need to sound massive. It sounds like the perfect modernising of a classic sound, and it’s one which hasn’t really been modernised much since, quite the achievement for an album over 30 years old.

Song Picks: I am the Resurrection, I Wanna Be Adored, Fool’s Gold

9/10

“Hats is the second studio album by Scottish band The Blue Nile, originally released on 16 October 1989 on Linn Records and A&M Records. After a prolonged delay in which an entire album's worth of work was scrapped, The Blue Nile released Hats to rave reviews, including a rare five-star rating from Q magazine. It also became the band's most successful album, reaching number 12 on the UK album charts and spawning three singles: "The Downtown Lights", "Headlights on the Parade", and "Saturday Night".” - Wikipedia

Hats is the album version of driving through a neon sprinkled city at night-time as a light drizzle patters on the windscreen. It feels meditative, contemplative and full of opportunity. The puddles glow and blur, the wipers go back and forth in time with the distant murmur, and the mind smiles.

We’ve talked a lot about albums being places recently, and if that’s the case, then Hats is where I want to live.

Song Picks: Over the Hillside, Downtown Lights, Headlights on the Parade

9/10

“Disintegration is the eighth studio album by English rock band the Cure, released on 2 May 1989 by Fiction Records. The record marks a return to the introspective gothic rock style the band had established in the early 1980s. As he neared the age of 30, vocalist and guitarist Robert Smith had felt an increased pressure to follow up on the band's pop successes with a more enduring work. This, coupled with a distaste for the group's newfound popularity, caused Smith to lapse back into the use of hallucinogenic drugs, the effects of which had a strong influence on the production of the album.”

I love it when an album ends up being the culmination of everything a band has done before, particularly when what has come before has been a mix of the experimental and the more mainstream. Disintegration is such an album. It’s the Cure’s Abbey Road, its synths are heaven and its melodies as affecting as they’ve ever been. Disintegration’s songs float seamlessly on a plane very much their own.

Song Picks: Lovesong, Closedown

9.5/10

4. Floating Into the Night

Julee Cruise

“Floating into the Night is the debut studio album by American singer Julee Cruise. It was released on September 12, 1989, by Warner Bros. Records, and features compositions and production by Angelo Badalamenti and film director David Lynch. Songs from the album were featured in Lynch's projects Blue Velvet (1986), Industrial Symphony No. 1 (1990), and Twin Peaks (1990–1991).” - Wikipedia

I’ve not seen any of the above Lynch productions (though I am a fan of Mulholland Drive), so this music is all new to me. I feel quite lucky about that, as I’m not sure this album would have hit me the same had I recognised any of it.

Floating Into the Night feels like being completely immersed in a solemn, soft world: Julee Cruise’s vocals are the perfect balance between warm, mysterious, and slightly haunting, while the often simple instrumental backdrop strikes much the same balance. The padded synth taps, the gently plucked guitars, everything seems to disappear into space. It’s an album about atmosphere for sure, but it’s also more than that: with a real melodic beauty to it. Floating into the Night is perfectly titled, as there’s no better way to describe what this beautiful record feels like.

Song Picks: Floating, Falling, Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart, Into the Night,

9.5/10

“3 Feet High and Rising is the debut studio album by American hip hop group De La Soul, released on March 3, 1989 by Tommy Boy Records. It is the first of three collaborations with producer Prince Paul, which would become the critical and commercial peak of both parties. The album title comes from the Johnny Cash song "Five Feet High and Rising". The album contains the singles "Me Myself and I", "The Magic Number", "Buddy", and "Eye Know". Critically, as well as commercially, the album was a success. It is consistently placed on lists of the greatest albums of all time by noted critics and publications, with Robert Christgau calling it "unlike any rap album you or anybody else has ever heard".” - Wikipedia

While Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back was angry rap perfection, De la Soul’s Three Feet High and Rising achieves similar levels of perfection in a much more chill fashion. We’ve got beats as laid back as a mojito on a lilo, and vocals riding waves like Eddie Aikau. While Nations is a marching for equality with its fists in the air, 3 Feet High and Rising is chilling on an urban beach with a ghettoblaster and a can of Pepsi. Both are just as enchanting to listen to.

Song Picks: Magic Number; Eye Know; Me, Myself and I

9.5/10

“Doolittle is the second studio album by the American alternative rock band Pixies, released in April 1989 on 4AD. Doolittle was the Pixies' first international release, with Elektra Records as the album's distributor in the United States and PolyGram in Canada. Although it is considered the most accessible Pixies album, Doolittle is often regarded as the band's strongest and greatest work, and has continued to sell consistently well in the years since its release, being certified Gold in 1995 and Platinum in 2018 by the Recording Industry Association of America.” - Wikipedia

More polished and less raw than Surfer Rosa, which is an aspect I didn’t think would necessarily suit the Pixies, but it does. Doolittle is a masterpiece in accessible edginess. The songwriting is constantly engaging, and tracks vary enough to keep you enthralled while sticking within the band’s spontaneous and energetic sounding template. This Monkey’s Gone to Heaven, the timelessly simple Here Comes Your Man, and Debaser are probably the album’s best known tracks. They’re superb, but so is everything else on this album, which is where it just pips Surfer Rosa to the post for me, which had a few songs in the second half that dropped slightly below that album’s otherwise high bar.

Doolittle is an album that’s influence echoes through time so much that everything sounds familiar, but in a way that if listening in a vacuum, you’d never guess this was recorded in 1989. It’s a celebration of expression and of creative freedom. As Pitchfork put it in their original best albums of the 1980s list (where this came fourth): “Doolittle is almost senselessly varied—mood-altering hooks, poetically insane lyrics, larynx-demolishing screams and surreal croons, surf, thrash, pop, slow burns and races to the finish line... Let me put it this way: if not for Doolittle, there would be no Pitchfork. In other words, the influence of this record is so vast that, 15 years on, it has altered the course of your life at this very moment.”

Song Picks: Crackity Jones, This Monkey’s Gone to Heaven, Debasser, Hey, I Bleed

“Paul's Boutique is the second studio album by American hip hop group Beastie Boys, released on July 25, 1989, by Capitol Records. Produced by the Dust Brothers, the album is composed almost entirely from samples, and was recorded over two years at Matt Dike's apartment and the Record Plant in Los Angeles. Paul's Boutique did not match the sales of the group's 1986 debut Licensed to Ill, and was promoted minimally by Capitol. However, it became recognized as the group's breakthrough achievement, with its innovative lyrical and sonic style earning them a position as critical favorites within the hip-hop community.” - Wikipedia

The Dust Brothers’ sampling work on Paul’s Boutique is fun, effortlessly smooth and flawless. Every beat and groove emits a kind of wholesome joy. It’s like eating 15 spoonfuls of brown sugar with each tasting as fresh as the first. Couple this with Beastie Boys’ unbounded vocal energy, the fact they have more chemistry than a secondary school chemistry lesson, and their enthusiastic and yet often pointed lyricism and you get one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time.

Any album that rhymes ‘selfish’ with ‘shellfish’ deserves a 10 in my book. Paul’s Boutique oozes slick, it’s the College Dropout of the 80s.

Song Picks: Shake Your Rump, Johnny Ryall, High Plains Drifter, 3-minute rule, Hey Ladies, B-Boy Bouillabaisse, Looking Down the Barrell of a Gun

1988 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

November 02, 2022 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

I had this post pretty much finished, and then my son was born 4 weeks ago and rather took over the schedule, which has been delightful. Anyway, I’ve managed to finish the last couple of reviews now as we plough through the 80s. In terms of world events in 1988: NASA scientist James Hansen warned congress of the dangers of the global warming and the greenhouse effect (that’s going well…), the US and Canada reached a free trade agreement, and Margaret Thatcher became the longes serving Prime Minister of the century in the UK.

Here’s what rateyourmusic.com’s users rate as the year’s top 5 albums:

#1 Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
#2 Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden
#3 Pixies - Surfer Rosa
#4 Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
#5 Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back

I’ll grab this lot from further down the list too:

#6 Metallica - ….And Justice for All
#7 Death - Leprosy
#8 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Tender Prey
#10 Slayer - South of Heaven
#15 The Pogues - If I Should Fall from Grace With God

As usual, to add more female artists to the equation, I’ll be grabbing anything from 1986 from NPR’s list of the best albums of all time by female artists, as well as the same list as voted on by their readers. This year we’ve just got the one album to add:

Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman

Finally, I’ll also include these two from Pitchfork’s top albums of the 1980s,

Sade - Stronger than Pride
NWA - Straight Outta Compton

Ok, that’s plenty to be getting on with, let battle commence. As a bit of a spoiler, I think this might be the most albums with 9.5 and over we’ve had…

“Straight Outta Compton is the debut studio album by rap group N.W.A, which, led by Eazy-E, formed in Los Angeles County's City of Compton in early 1987.[3][4] Released by his label, Ruthless Records, on August 8, 1988, the album was produced by N.W.A members Dr. Dre, DJ Yella, and Arabian Prince, with lyrics written by N.W.A members Ice Cube and MC Ren along with Ruthless rapper The D.O.C. Not merely depicting Compton's street violence, the lyrics repeatedly threaten to lead it by attacking peers and even police. The track "Fuck tha Police" drew an FBI agent's warning letter, which aided N.W.A's notoriety, with N.W.A calling itself "the world's most dangerous group." - Wikipedia

Probably the most influential rap album of all time, and certainly that for gangsta-rap, Straight Outta Compton is one of those albums that hasn’t aged as gracefully (if graceful is a word that can go anywhere near this album) as some of its contemporaries. The opening three tracks are undeniable bangers, with the laid back funky production contrasting to the group’s lyrics, which seem intent on offending everyone in an undirected flurry of anger. Some of the misogony here is a little uncomfortable in 2022, but you can totally see why this album exploded onto the scene in 1988. Straight Outta Compton is brimming with attitude, and I’d say its the attitude that is more consistent than the musical intrigue as the album goes on. I probably sound down on it, but I’m not, it’s just that having listened to It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back by Public Enemy, this doesn’t reach the same heights.

It’s still an essential listen from a historical perspective, with some of hip-hop’s most important tracks. Just prepare yourself for some filler, and more attitude than rapping skill.

Song Picks: Straight Outta Comtpon, Fuck the Police, Gansgsta, Express Yourself

7.5/10

12. Tender Prey

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

“Tender Prey is the fifth studio album by Australian rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, released on 19 September 1988 on Mute Records. Produced by Flood, the album was recorded during several sessions over the course of four months in West Berlin—where the band were based at the time of its release—and London and dedicated to Fernando Ramos da Silva.” - Wikipedia

Nick Cave himself said of Tender Prey: "It was a nightmare, that record. It is reflective of a group - particularly myself - who was just writing songs and there was no larger idea behind it. Sometimes some of the group was there, sometimes they weren't. I hear bad production and I hear bad performances as well." Cave later admitted that the album, "was made at a difficult time in my life when things were spiralling out of control in a lot of areas."

I think that statement gives you a good idea of what the album is. It’s a bunch of songs with Cave’s signature strong lyrics and gruff vocal performances, but without a particularly cohesive narrative or feel to them. I agree with Cave on the bad production at points, it sounds quite rough and thin on many of the tracks, but I don’t feel any of the instrumental performances are taking away from the songs at all. Yes, the performances are often simple and to the point, but this suits Cave’s songwriting in my opinion, never distracting from the core of his songs, which are always his lyrics and vocals.

Tender Prey feels earthy, rough, and like it was written in dusty old study at the back of a delapidated house. In short, it doesn’t sound like something from the 80s.

Song Picks: New Morning, Mercy Seat

8/10

11. If I Should Fall from Grace With God

The Pogues

“If I Should Fall from Grace with God is the third studio album by Irish folk-punk band the Pogues, released on 18 January 1988. Released in the wake of their biggest hit single, “Fairytale of New York", If I Should Fall from Grace with God also became the band's best-selling album, peaking at number three on the UK Albums Chart and reaching the top ten in several other countries.” - Wikipedia

If I Should Fall from Grace With God features my very favourite Christmas song (Fairytale of New York). Enough said. I kid of course, it takes more than that to make a good album, and thankfully there is a lot more here. Shane MacGowan’s vocals have gained some additional character and variety since the last album by the Pogues we had on this challenge, and it’s this, as well as the larger variety in the songs themselves, that makes this the better album for me. Though we’re still very much in the Irish-folk template here - which is no bad thing - there’s a great diversity in the instrumentation from track to track, with the band’s abundant energy evident from start to finish. Essentially, we’ve got all the positives of Rum, Sodomy and the Lash, but with it getting less tired by the end.

If We Should Fall from Grace With God is the pleasant screech of a car taking a corner too fast, full of the careless joy of youth.

Song Picks: Fairytale of New York, If I Should Fall from Grace with God, Thousands are Sailing

8.5/10

10. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son

Iron Maiden

“Seventh Son of a Seventh Son is the seventh studio album by English heavy metal band Iron Maiden. It was released on 11 April 1988 in the United Kingdom by EMI Records and in the United States by Capitol Records. Like The Number of the Beast (1982) and later Fear of the Dark (1992), The Final Frontier (2010), and The Book of Souls (2015), the album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart. The lead single "Can I Play with Madness" was also a commercial success, peaking at No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart.” - Wikipedia

Iron Maiden goes prog rock??? Count me in. More complex song structures, and a genre that provides a fitting home for Bruce Dickinson’s dramatic vocals makes this my favourite Iron Maiden record we’ve had so far. The production is crystal clear and somewhat ahead of its time, and the guitar riffs are consistently pulversising. It’s just really damn solid and enjoyable.

Song Picks: Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, Can I Play With Madness, Moonchild

8.5/10

“Leprosy is the second studio album by American death metal band Death, released on August 12, 1988, by Combat Records. The album is notable in its different tone and quality from the band's 1987 debut, it is the first example of Scott Burns' work heard on many of the death metal and grindcore albums of that era. The cover is featured in Metal: A Headbanger's Journey. It is the first album to feature drummer Bill Andrews and the only one to feature guitarist Rick Rozz.” - Wikipedia

Death is probably the most death metal name of all time, and the album name Leprosy isn’t far behind either. Appropriately, I’d say this is the first time we’ve had some straight death metal on the challenge, and it’s glorious. Not a genre I’m overly familiar with, which will change by the end of this challenge I’m sure, but this thing is everything I’d want from a death metal album; obliterating riffs, ape like drumming, and pretty much every song being about death and disease. Chuck Schuldinger’s roars are monotone and almost incomprehensible, and more of a percussive instrument than a melodic one, but they add a great sense of anger and urgency to the cacophony around them.

Leprosy hits hard.

Song Picks: Forgotten Past, Choke On It, Leprosy

8.5/10

“South of Heaven is the fourth studio album by American thrash metal band Slayer, released on July 5, 1988 by Def Jam Recordings. The album was the band's second collaboration with producer Rick Rubin, whose production skills on their previous album Reign in Blood (1986) had helped their sound evolve. Given the frenetic pace of Reign in Blood, Slayer made no attempt to top it on South of Heaven; rather, the band offset and complemented Reign in Blood by deliberately slowing the tempo down on South of Heaven, as well as by utilizing undistorted guitars and toned-down vocals.” - Wikipedia

I’ve been a vocal Rick Rubin critic in the past, but his production was spot on for Slayer’s Reign of Blood, which I loved, and it’s perfect once again here. There’s a level of punchiness to the sound that I’ve not heard in heavy music up to this point. The drums are so compressed they almost sound electronic, but it works. On the songwriting front, I don’t feel the album has slowed down that much from Reign in Blood, though there is the odd slower section thrown in. We’ve still got the typical strong, speedy guitar riffs, though they seem a little fuzzier this time, and Dave Lombardo’s drums are once again like a really powerful Swiss watch.

South of Heaven is another cracking album from what is becoming one of my favourite heavy bands of the decade.

Song Picks: South of Heaven, Spill the Blood, Silent Scream, Ghosts of War

8.5/10

“Daydream Nation is the fifth full-length studio album and first double album by American alternative rock band Sonic Youth, released on October 18, 1988. After Daydream Nation was released, it received widespread acclaim from critics and earned Sonic Youth a major label deal. The album was ranked high in critics' year-end lists of 1988's best records, being voted second in The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop poll. Daydream Nation has since been widely considered to be Sonic Youth's greatest work, as well as one of the greatest albums of all time, specifically having a profound influence on the alternative and indie rock genres.” - Wikipedia

Leaving Sister’s penchance for more conventional song structures behind, Daydream Nation sees Sonic Youth embracing the more jam orientated element of their sound, which had always been evident in their live performances. What results is something more sprawling than their previous album, while still being more accessible than their earliest work. We’ve got detuned guitars, a complete disregard for any musical scales and often monotone vocals resulting in a dissonant cacophony driven along by Steve Shelley’s clockwork drums. Noonday Dream is a wall of sound that I found myself crashing into on my first few listens, but the more I listen, the more it softens, and I’m optimistic that one day it’ll absorb me and spit me out the other side filled with all those who cite this as one of the best albums of all time. It’s only a matter of listens.

Song Picks: Teenage Riot, Silver Rocket, The Sprawl

8.5/10

“Stronger Than Pride is the third studio album by English band Sade, released by Epic Records in the United States on 5 April 1988 and in the United Kingdom on 3 May 1988. In September 2018, Pitchfork placed the album at number 37 on its list of "The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s" - Wikipedia

I really liked 1984’s Diamond Life, but this is even better. Stronger Than Pride slows everything down to a gentle stroll. There’s not necessarily more space, as a lot of the productions here are still quite dense, but there’s more time. The bass ambles beautifully throughout the album and the guitar flirts celestially with the sax on Haunt Me, and tentatively strums and plucks to the groove on Turn My Back On You like the shy dancer in the corner hesitantly approaching the danceflloor. Throughout the record, lead singer Sade Abdu’s vocals sound like she’s singing from her bed.

Stronger than Pride is a sumptuous mix of lovely production, tasteful instrumentation, soothing melodies, meditative repetition and bass like the world’s most comfortable sofa. I’m in love with it.

Song Picks: Love Is Stronger Than Pride, Haunt Me, Nothing Can Come Between us

9.5/10

“Tracy Chapman is the debut album by American singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman, released on April 5, 1988, by Elektra Records. The album was recorded at the Powertrax studio in Hollywood, California. In 1987, Chapman was discovered by fellow Tufts University student Brian Koppelman. He offered to show her work to his father, who owned a successful publishing company; however, she did not consider the offer to be serious. After multiple performances, however, Koppelman found a demo tape of her singing her single "Talkin' 'bout a Revolution", which he promoted to radio stations, and she was eventually signed to Elektra Records. The album received commercial success in most of the countries it was released, making it to the top of the charts in many countries, including Austria, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, Denmark, and the United Kingdom. It peaked at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 and was certified six-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), with sales exceeding over six million copies in the United States alone. ” - Wikipedia

How, in an era of the industry where women - particularly women with acoustic guitars - were treated with a sexist ambivelance did Tracy Chapman, a Black woman with an acoustic guitar, manage to make it? Not only that, but how did she manage to make one of the best selling albums of all time?

As outlined in the excellent Pitchfork review of the album, Chapman’s success is often attributed to her performance at Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday benefit concert, where the fact Stevie Wonder couldn’t perform due to a technical issue meant she got a second set. There’s no more appropriate place for someone as socially conscious as Tracy Chapman to have ‘made it’, but you get the feeling she’d have made it anyway, it was written in the stars, and in her quiet confidence.

Coming out of nowhere, she recorded the most accomplished, mature, well written, and beautifully performed acoustic guitar focused album of the decade. An unparalleled knack for finding emotive melodies, combined with effortless lyrics of social and political injustice and a voice as distinctive as it is brilliant create something truly magical. We’ve got songs about domestic abuse, oppression, and racism and yet there’s always more than a candle of hope in them, thanks to Chapman’s boundless optimism. She gets the fast car, others will get their comeuppance, things are bad - but they’ll be alright.

“Poor people gonna rise up/And get their share” she sings on the rousing album opener Talkin’ Bout a Revolution. I’m not convinced they ever will before this world turns into a post-apocalyptic hellhole, but it stills warms my heart to hear it sung with such convincing prescience.

Song Picks: Talkin’ About a Revolution, Fast Car, Baby Can I Hold You

9.5/10

“Surfer Rosa is the debut studio album by the American alternative rock band Pixies, released in March 1988 on the British label 4AD. It was produced by Steve Albini. Surfer Rosa contains many of the elements of Pixies' earlier output, including Spanish lyrics and references to Puerto Rico. It includes references to mutilation and voyeurism alongside experimental recording techniques and a distinctive drum sound.” - Wikipedia

Apparently, I reviewed this album back in 2015 on rateyourmusic.com and said “I love the raw energy and craziness of these songs. The band were clearly having a lot of fun and there's some real gems on here. I can't say I love the album as much as a lot of people do, but I'm certainly a fan.”, giving it 3 and a half star rating.

Clearly I was a musical buffoon in 2015, as Surfer Rosa is a magical combination of complete chaos and catchy melodies. Black Francis’ vocals are unhinged, and yet infintely listenable. The drums have more reverb than any of the other instruments it seems, with Joey Santiago’s guitar having so little on it at times that it sounds as if his buzzing riffs are happening in your head. Those riffs by the way are completely simple and yet also some of the best rock riffs ever written. Find me a better riff than the iconic one on Where Is My Mind?, one of the greatest songs of all time not just the 80s, and I’ll eat my hat (which is filthy by the way).

Steve Albini has long been one of my favourite producers, and we’ll get to Nirvana’s In Utero, perhaps his most famous production, in 1993. He has an ability to capture the live energy of a band better than any producer out there, and that is largely what leads to the success of Surfer Rosa. Other producers would probably have tried to tame the rough edges of the performances here, but Steve Albini doesn’t. He accentuates the drums to sound like they’re playing in a basement with no acoustic treatment, and manges to make every instrument clear and yet perfectly blended at the same time.

Surfer Rosa is the capturing of a band seemingly wrestling with the infinite chaos of the big bang, and trying to tame it into something resembling catchy pop and rock numbers. What results is musical perfection with relentless energy, just enough rule following to make it familiar, and an unpredictability and sense of fun that make it unlike anything else.

Song Picks: Bone Machine, Break My Body, Where Is My Mind, Gigantic

9.5/10

“...And Justice for All is the fourth studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica, released on September 7, 1988 by Elektra Records. It was the first Metallica album to feature bassist Jason Newsted, following the death of their previous bassist Cliff Burton in 1986, although his songwriting contribution still featured posthumously in one song.” - Wikipedia

Rather rudely and famously, you can barely hear the new bassist on this album. Though if you really want to hear the excellently titled ….And Justice for Jason, a version with Jason’s bass turned up, you can find that here. The version we’re talking about though is abrasive and thin, it obliterates the most sensitive frequencies of your hearing, with no bassy warmth or high end sparkle to counteract it. As it turns out though, this suits the album’s sound perfectly, and makes it stick out from the era’s other metal offerings. Hetfield’s vocals have worn into a pleasing growl, and the guitar riffs are as good as they’ve ever been. The album consists of 9 lengthy songs that switch between time signatures on a dime, addressing political and legal injustice, something that Ulrich terms as the band’s ‘CNN years’ as they got many of the record’s lyrical themes from the channel.

The song topics are more punk than metal, and the song structures are bordering on prog. ….And Justice for All is a blistering, ear shattering attack full of exciting riffs, anger at the world, and unpredictable intrigue. It’s hard to keep a listener interested in an album for over an hour, but this record has the skittish impatience to keep you on your toes throughout. It’s my favourite Metallica album, and a contender for my favourite metal album of all time.

Song Picks: And Justice for All, Harvest of Sorrow, Eye of the Beholder, One

10/10

2. It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back

Public Enemy

“It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back is the second studio album by American hip hop group Public Enemy, released on June 28, 1988, by Def Jam Recordings and Columbia Records. It was recorded from 1987 to 1988 in sessions at Chung King Studios, Greene St. Recording, and Sabella Studios in New York. - Wikipedia

Nations, as I’m going to call it for ease, is a powerful, political statement brewing with anger. It features a larger vocabulary than any of the hip-hop we’ve had so far, and it also features intricate cadence and some of rap’s most powerful voices, none more so than Chuck D. Sometimes you read a review of something and it puts your own feelings better than you could (in my case this happens a fair amount) and so here’s a short paragraph from Pitchfork’s entry for this album into the top 200 albums of the 1980s (in which it came 6th):

“In 58 minutes, Public Enemy tackle everything from the crack epidemic (“Night of the Living Baseheads”) to state surveillance (“Louder Than a Bomb”); they take aim at the media’s whitesplaining of rap (“Don’t Believe the Hype”) and challenge the fallacy that what you hear and see on TV is gospel truth (“She Watch Channel Zero?!”). What they addressed was timely, but how they addressed it was revolutionary.”

The production is still somewhat ‘old school’, that is to say more unrefined than today’s hip-hop, but it’s already getting more complex than last year’s offerings, and you only have to look at the list of samples for each song to know that this is busy. More than just busy though, Nations is a masterclass in hooky samples. On She Watch Channel Zero?! they pretty much invent rap metal by sampling a superb Slayer riff from Angel of Death and dynamically and angrily rhyming over the top, on Rebel Without a Pause there’s a now iconic, long rotating squeak and on Louder Than a Bomb and Cold Lampin’ With Flavor we have some of the grooviest samples in history. Nations knows that great hip-hop is as much in the beats as it is in the lyrics and vocal rhythms, and it’s an absolute masterclass in both. Hip-hop hasn’t just arrived, it has spun into the station like the Tasmanian Devil.

Song Picks: Don’t Believe the Hype, Cold Lampin’ With Flavor, Rebel Without a Pause, She Watch Channel Zero?!, Louder than Bomb

10/10

“Spirit of Eden is the fourth studio album by English band Talk Talk, released in 1988 on Parlophone Records. The songs were written by vocalist Mark Hollis and producer Tim Friese-Greene and the album was compiled from a lengthy recording process at London's Wessex Studios between 1987 and 1988. Often working in darkness, the band recorded many hours of improvised performances that drew on elements of jazz, ambient, blues, classical music, and dub. These long-form recordings were then heavily edited and re-arranged into an album in mostly digital format.” - Wikipedia

Mark Hollis, Talk Talk’s ‘frontman’ is often referred to as a shining example of art over commercialism, and - based on his decision to retire from music in 1998 to spend time with family, which he stated he’d find impossible while touring, you could argue he’s a shining example of a family man too. Maybe he’s just a shining example, period? I don’t know the guy, but it’s hard to believe that anyone that could make something as quiet, as contemplative, as majestic, as empathetic, hell as god damn beautiful as Spirit of Eden could be anything but a great human. The entirety of the album was recorded in darkness, largely composed of long jams recorded together, it’s never in a rush, and you can almost hear the lightbulbs sizzling on in the musicians’ heads as they come up with a new riff, a rhythm, a tone to repeat meditatively. When the music explodes from its slumber, as on Desire’s crescendo, it does so in a way that drowns out Hollis’ vocals, as his thoughts struggle through the anxious din. It’s also a clear pre-cursor to that genre of crescendos - post-rock - which was to appear soon.

Spirit of Eden has the transportative quality of Eno’s best ambient work, but with more emotional heft. Someone on Radio 6 the other day said that albums were like a place, and I like that idea. Spirit of Eden is like a cosy bedroom with one of those ceiling lights with millions of stars, only it’s 3D and the room is floating through them. It’s a place of reflection, of warmth, of empathy. I find it pretty difficult to call it anything but a masterpiece.

Song Picks: Desire, The Rainbow, I Believe in You

10/10

1987 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

September 15, 2022 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

And so, 27 years down the line from 1960, the first year we covered, we’re up to my birth year, 1987, which seems quite poignant with the birth of my own son due for the end of the month. Other than the momentous fact that I was born, without which this whole daft challenge wouldn’t exist, there were some other events in 1987. Namely: Margaret Thatcher won a rare third term as Prime Minister in the UK, the term ‘world music’ was apparently coined, the US Supreme Court ruled that Rotary Club rules must admit women, and Óscar Arias Sánchez won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the Central American crisis.

On the album side of things, here’s what rateyourmusic.com’s users rate as their top 5 albums of the year:

#1 Prince - Sign o’ the Times
#2 Sonic Youth - Sister
#3 Dinosaur Jr - You’re Living All Over Me
#4 Requiem - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart / Franz Xaver Süssmayr
#5 Dead Can Dance - Within the Realm of a Dying Sun

I’ll also grab this lot from further down the list:

#9 Swans - Children of God
#10 Depeche Mode - Music for the Masses
#12 Tom Waits - Frank’s Wild Years
#18 The Smiths - Strangeways Here We Come
#20 U2 - The Joshua Tree

and these from Pitchfork’s top 20 of the 1980s list that aren’t on rateyourmusic.com’s list:

Eric B & Rakim - Paid in Full
Boogie Down Productions - Criminal Minded

and finally, these from NPR readers’ list of the best albums by female artists:

Whitney Houston - Whitney
Sinead O’Connor - Lion and the Cobra

That’s 14 albums to check out, let’s go.

“Whitney is the second studio album by American singer Whitney Houston, released on June 2, 1987, by Arista Records as the follow-up to her best-selling debut album, Whitney Houston. The album features five top 10 hits on the US Billboard Hot 100, which also became international hits. The album's first four singles—I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me), Didn't We Almost Have It All, So Emotional and Where Do Broken Hearts Go—all peaked at number one on the US Hot 100, making her the first female act to achieve four number one hits from one album.” - Wikipedia

When an album opens with one of the finest pop songs ever written, I Wanna Dance With Somebody, with its impossibly uplifting chorus, perfect brass stabs and what is surely one of the finest vocal performances on a pop song ever, it’s going to be difficult for the rest of the album to keep up. Whitney has a good go though. As many critics expressed at the time, it sticks pretty rigidly to the formula of the first album and as such there’s nothing particularly new here, but the production is silky smooth, Whitney’s vocals and melodies are as powerful as ever, and the tracks are of good quality from start to finish. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable dip into 80s pop.

Song Picks: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me), Where Do Broken Hearts Go

8/10

“Music for the Masses is the sixth studio album by English electronic music band Depeche Mode, released on 28 September 1987 by Mute Records. The album was supported by the Music for the Masses Tour, which launched their fame in the US when they performed at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. The tour led to the creation and filming of the documentary/live album titled 101. This saw the band using heavy amounts of sampling, much like they did in their previous album Black Celebration.” - Wikipedia

Depeche Mode sound like a kind of mix of Kraftwerk and Tears for Fears to me, with the slightly robotic detachment of the former, and the more atmospheric electronic soundscapes of the latter. They sure know how to make a tuneful synth line, as shown on The Things You Said and Strangelove, among others. David Gahan’s vocals are either multi-tracked, or have some sort of chorus effect on them, giving them a slightly washed-out quality that works well with the often bleak minor key melodies he sings.

Music for the Masses isn’t trying to be feel-good or fun, but it is remarkably tuneful for an album as bleak as concrete in a J.G Ballard novel.

Song Picks: The Things You Said, Strangelove, Nothing, To Have and to Hold

8/10

12. Requiem

**Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Xaver Süssmayr**

It’s hard to find much online about this particular recording, but the following paragraph from Wikipedia gives some context to the piece’s composition:

“The Requiem in D minor, K. 626, is a requiem mass by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). Mozart composed part of the Requiem in Vienna in late 1791, but it was unfinished at his death on 5 December the same year. A completed version dated 1792 by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who commissioned the piece for a requiem service on 14 February 1792 to commemorate the first anniversary of the death of his wife Anna at the age of 20 on 14 February 1791.” - Wikipedia

This 1987 recording is performed by the Vienna Philharmonic and conducted by Herbert von Karajan, and it’s as dramatic as you’d expect. It’s one of the first classical pieces we’ve had on this challenge where I‘ve not recognised any of it, and one of the most affecting. The choir adds a full and rich sound that helps to round out some of the sharper edges coming from the string and brass sections. Appropriate to its title, the recording definitely has a funeral feel to it. It’s beautifully performed throughout, but there’s a few moments that really stand out, such as particular sections of III: c Rex Tremendae where the choir and orchestra combine so perfectly I thought it was me who’d made it to heaven. I’m not particularly knowledgeable about classical music as you’ll have gathered by now, but I do appreciate it, and this is another recording I’m really glad to have been enlightened to.

8.5/10

**11. Within the Realm of a Dying Sun**

Dead Can Dance

“Within the Realm of a Dying Sun is the third studio album by Australian band Dead Can Dance. By this time, Dead Can Dance were predominantly a duo of Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry, along with Peter Ulrich, after the departure of Scott Rodger and James Pinker in 1987.” - Wikipedia

Lisa Gerrard famously sings that song in Gladiator where she uses glossolalia (sounds made to sound like words and speech while not being in any language) to great effect. On this album, it takes a while for her vocal to start gaining prominence, but when it does, as on the penultimate track Summoning of the Muse, it’s all-encompassingly vast, the church bells behind her ringing as she seemingly echoes out from the top of the tower for all the world to hear. Brendan Perry’s vocal, which features more on the opening tracks of the album, is a little less remarkable, but it blends well with the gothic, heavily reverbed instrumentation behind him.

Within the Realm of a Dying Sun is incredibly atmospheric, and it’s easy to get lost in its wells of slow melodies and cathedral reverbs. The drama has been turned up to 11, which at times can be a bit too much, but if you catch this album at the right time it’s spectacular experience.

Song Picks: Summoning of the Muse, Persephone (The Gathering of Flowers)

8.5/10

I love it when a new genre appears on this challenge, it’s exciting. This particular genre will be making an appearance in pretty much every year from now on I imagine, It’s a grand welcome to……. hip-hop.

“Paid in Full is the debut album of American hip hop duo Eric B. & Rakim, released on July 7, 1987, by Island-subsidiary label 4th & B'way Records. The duo recorded the album at hip hop producer Marley Marl's home studio and Power Play Studios in New York City, following Rakim's response to Eric B.'s search for a rapper to complement his disc jockey work in 1985. The album peaked at number fifty-eight on the Billboard 200 chart, number eight on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and produced five singles: Eric B. Is President, I Ain't No Joke, I Know You Got Soul, Move the Crowd, and Paid in Full. Paid in Full is credited as a benchmark album of golden age hip hop. Rakim's rapping, which pioneered the use of internal rhymes in hip hop, set a higher standard of lyricism in the genre and served as a template for future rappers.” - Wikipedia

I think that Wikipedia blurb pretty much sums it up. Paid in Full is hugely influential. I mean without Rakim pioneering of internal rhymes we’d never have had the following Flight of the Conchords lyric:

And he said, "Can somebody
Get the knife and fork out of my leg, please"
"Can somebody please remove
These cutleries from my knees"

Obviously, that would have been a travesty. That aside, the beats, DJ scratching and Rakim’s flow all just oozes old-school cool, and what more could one want from early hip-hop?

Song Picks: I Ain’t No Joke, I Know You Got Soul, Paid in Full

8.5/10

“Franks Wild Years is the tenth studio album by Tom Waits, released 1987 on Island Records. Subtitled Un Operachi Romantico in Two Acts, the album contains songs written by Waits and collaborators (mainly his wife, Kathleen Brennan) for a play of the same name. The shared title of the album and the play is an iteration of Frank's Wild Years, a song from Waits' 1983 album Swordfishtrombones.” - Wikipedia

Generally considered the final album of a trilogy that includes Swordfishtrombones and Rain Dogs, Franks Wild Years continues in a similar vein, with the familiar and unique barroom instrumentation of the previous two albums. It also continues the trend of having a mix of songs containing more substantial melodic instrumental parts and those with more space, where Waits’ vocals carry the vast amount of the melody.

By virtue of this being the third album in this style, the sound loses some of its freshness, but there was still no one out there making music like Tom Waits at the time. We’ve still got atmospheric production and raw-sounding varied instrumentation, and Waits’ vocals continue to have that worn growl. Lyrically the album again tackles the lives of the downtrodden, and his lyrics are as vivid as ever. I think you could certainly argue that Franks Wild Years is the most varied album of the three, and that is quite the achievement, which is largely led by Tom’s more open and free vocal style on the record. Frank’s Wild Years is consistently very good, but doesn’t quite achieve the highs of Rain Dogs, though the beautiful Innocent When You Dream and comes mighty close. Nevertheless, this is another brilliant record, in what is surely one of the 80s strongest album runs.

Song Picks: Temptation, Innocent When You Dream (both versions), Way Down in the Hole, Cold Cold Ground, I’ll Take New York

8.5/10

“Children of God is the fifth studio album by American experimental rock band Swans. It was released on October 19, 1987 through record label Caroline. The album was recorded over the course of six weeks in February–March 1987 at Sawmills Studios in Cornwall, England. It represented a dramatic, experimental change in sound from earlier Swans releases.” - Wikipedia

In the words of vocalist Michael Gira: “By 1986/7 Swans had run its course with the physical assault of sound that we had employed previously for the most part. I wanted to move on to other things and didn’t want to get stuck in some style, which in our case had the potential of becoming cartoonish if we’d continued in that direction. So, I pushed the music into unfamiliar territory.”

Children of God is slightly less of a bludgeon to the head than the previous Swans album we’ve had on these lists, Filth. There’s even some acoustic tracks here, which would have been unthinkable back then. In the words of Super Hans from Peep Show ‘the longer the note, the more dread’, and Children of God revels in a sense of dread, though it does this more with the heavy reverb and space in between notes than their length specifically. Whether distorted guitars or gently plucked acoustic guitar notes, each of these songs is a slow dirge, a fight through treacle in the belly of a whale that has just eaten you, a speedy punk rock album slowed down until it starts falling apart. I think it’d be fair to say that at over 70 minutes long it overstays its welcome a little, but then Children of God never expected to be welcomed, it just slowly smashed your door down and made a racket. If you submit yourself to the racket for its duration, I can guarantee you’ll come out the other side having experienced something akin to the end of the world, with you passing over to the afterlife during the beautiful closing title track. And who wouldn’t want to experience that?

Children of God is slow, magnificent carnage.

Song Picks: New Mind, Beautiful Child, Children of God

8.5/10

7. Criminal Minded

Boogie Down Productions

“Criminal Minded is the debut studio album by hip hop music group Boogie Down Productions, released on March 3, 1987 by B-Boy Records. It is considered a highly influential hip hop album and one of the first in the gangsta rap genre. Since its release, the album has been sampled, interpolated and paraphrased. Its samples and direct influences were unusual at the time, ranging from liberal use of dancehall reggae (as well as the more commonly used James Brown) to rock music artists such as AC/DC, The Beatles and Billy Joel.” - Wikipedia

Sure, you could argue it sounds primitive when compared to today’s hip-hop productions. The rapping doesn’t have the multitude of cadences and complexity of someone like Kendrick Lamar, and the production is rarely more advanced than a simple drum beat, a repeated bass hook and the odd more trebly instrument, but darn this is enjoyable. It’s old school maaaaan. KRS-One’s vocal has a great timbre for rap, and his lyrics and delivery have an infectious sense of fun to them, even when rapping about more serious topics. Criminal Minded is regarded as one of the first gangsta-rap albums, with tracks like 9mm Goes Bang pioneering ‘first person crime storytelling in rap’ (Pitchfork).

I’m a big fan of Criminal Minded, its simplicity leads to a lot of space, something not all that prominent on more modern hip-hop recordings which follow a much more maximalist vein, and it all just leads to a record that exudes a ‘chill’ atmosphere.

Song Picks: 9mm Goes Bang, South Bronx,

9/10

6. Strangeways, Here We Come

The Smiths

“Strangeways, Here We Come is the fourth and final studio album by English rock band the Smiths. It was released on 28 September 1987 by Rough Trade Records, several months after the group had disbanded. All of the songs were composed by Johnny Marr, with lyrics written and sung by Morrissey.” - WIkipedia

The most noticeable change from the Smiths’ other albums is Johnny Marr’s less speedy guitar riffing, with a style that is a little more restrained and much less jangly, something Marr did very intentionally as he wanted to move the band to a new sound. He even whips out the odd guitar solo. Morrissey’s vocals are also more restrained, featuring less of the faux-operatic and dramatic quality that they’re famous for.

You’d be forgiven for thinking these changes would take away some of the band’s character but, remarkably, I don’t think they do. Morrissey’s vocals may have been reined in, but his lyrics are still punchy, and he’s added a few more techniques to his vocal locker - most notably the odd growl. To me, the new style adds a nice layer of intrigue.

Strangeways Here We Come doesn’t have the song-power that The Queen is Dead has (only Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before is a household song thanks to the recent Mark Ronson version) but it is another cohesive statement by the band that has more great songs on than I’d been lead to believe, and that is probably their most atmospheric album. It feels like the transitional album before another masterpiece. Sadly, it was their last.

Song Picks: Stop Me If You Think That You’ve Heard This One Before, I Started Something I Couldn’t Finish, Death of a Disco Dancer, Paint a Vulgar Picture

9/10

“The Joshua Tree is the fifth studio album by Irish rock band U2. It was produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, and was released on 9 March 1987 on Island Records. In contrast to the ambient experimentation of their 1984 release, The Unforgettable Fire, the band aimed for a harder-hitting sound within the limitation of conventional song structures on The Joshua Tree. The album is influenced by American and Irish roots music, and through sociopolitically conscious lyrics embellished with spiritual imagery, it contrasts the group's antipathy for the ‘real America’ with their fascination with the ‘mythical America’.” - Wikipedia

The Joshua Tree opens up with 3 iconic tracks in a row: Where the Streets Have No Name, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For and With or Without You, all timeless classics that are as great examples of songwriting as they are of atmospheric production. The album’s brilliance doesn’t stop there though, Bullet the Blue Sky features bass that’ll rattle your skull, In God’s Country is an example of The Edge’s brilliant guitar work, showing both his well-known mastering of delay and his lesser-known ability to craft a jangly riff. Eno and Lanois’ production is superb throughout and is a big part of why the album is often called timeless. It doesn’t sound like an 80s album. It really could have come out this year, the 90s, or the 2000s. Every song sounds full and stadium ready. The influence of The Joshua Tree echoes like the delay on one of The Edge’s guitar parts throughout the following decades.

Song Picks: Where the Streets Have No Name, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For and With or Without You, Bullet the Blue Sky, In God’s Country. One Tree Hill

9/10

“Sister is the fourth studio album by American alternative rock band Sonic Youth. It was released in June 1987 by SST Records. The album furthered the band's move away from the no wave genre towards more traditional song structures, while maintaining an aggressively experimental approach. Like Sonic Youth's previous records, Sister was not successful at the time of its release. In the years following, however, it received much critical praise, with several publications naming it as one of the best albums of the 1980s.” - Wikipedia

A loose concept album about the life and works of Philip K Dick, the album is reportedly named after his twin sister, who died shortly after her birth. Sister sees Sonic Youth sand down some of the abrasiveness of EVOL, but more in terms of song structures than sound. There’s more traditional choruses and verses here, but the instrumentation still howls and screams like a dying factory at points. To me, Sister is the brilliant distillation of what their previous experimentation and envelope-pushing has taught them into a package that is a little easier to digest, and I’d say even more brilliant. I’m told their most famous album Daydream Nation (which we’ll get to next year) continues this trend, which has me rather excited.

Sister is a paranoid, dystopian cry fed to us in more bitesisize and digestible chunks, which makes it all the more effective.

Song Picks: Schizophrenia, Catholic Block, White Cross, Stereo Sanctity

9/10

3. You’re Living All Over Me

Dinosaur Jr

“You're Living All Over Me is the second studio album by American alternative rock band Dinosaur Jr. It was released on December 14, 1987, through SST Records. A refinement of the formula introduced on the band's debut album Dinosaur, You're Living All Over Me features drawling vocals paired with loud guitars and driving rhythms. The album was well-reviewed upon release, and is now regarded as a high point of American rock in the 1980s. The album was originally issued when the band was still known as Dinosaur, before a lawsuit forced the name change to Dinosaur Jr.” - Wikipedia

I’m listening to the Merge remaster, which I’m told cleans up the sound of the album somewhat. And indeed it does sound like something that was roughly recorded but well mastered. I can see why this was such a huge influence on many grunge artists later on, and J. Mascis’ vocals have more than a hint of Kurt Cobain about them at points, though he is much less shouty. To me, this sounds like a mix of midwest emo and the upcoming grunge, which qualifies it as a pioneering album in my books. As well as being pioneering though, the album is also hugely enjoyable. J Mascis is clearly the leading creative force here, and it’s his powering guitar-riffs, eclectic solos and melodic and evocative vocal lines that make the album what it is, with Murph’s drums and Lou Barlow’s bass making a very solid, if unremarkable rhythm section.

You’re Living All Over Me is one of those albums that would sound like a greatest hits album if it wasn’t so roughly recorded, it’s just full of great songs from start to finish, largely thanks to J Masics’ superb ability to write effective choruses, though I love his unbarred guitar solos too (Raisans being a great example). I have a J Mascis signature Squier guitar, which I bought before I’d listened to the band because I loved the look of it, so I’m extra pleased the guy is behind one of the 80s’ best albums.

Song Picks: Little Fury Things, Sludgefeast, Tarpit

9.5/10

“Sign o' the Times is the ninth studio album by American singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Prince. It was first released on March 31, 1987 as a double album by Paisley Park Records and Warner Bros. Records. The album is the follow-up to Parade and is Prince's first album following his disbanding of the Revolution. The album's songs were largely recorded during 1986 to 1987 in sessions for releases Prince ultimately aborted: Dream Factory, the pseudonymous Camille, and finally the triple album Crystal Ball. Prince eventually compromised with label executives and shortened the length of the release to a double album.” - Wikipedia

From the opening of the title track, it’s clear Prince is turning up the funk on this album. Who knew tracks featuring programmed drums could be this funky? It turns out that with the help of catchy bass lines and a measured sprinkling of superb guitar licks they can. All this is repeated again in Housequake, one of the album’s most infectiously fun tracks.

The album is essentially just a great showcase of Prince's musical prowess. Prince is credited as playing ‘various instruments’, which seems to equate to pretty much all of them, as well as programming the drums (which are really well done considering the age of this album). He shows a Stevie Wonder level of multi-instrumental musical genius that you can’t help but respect. That’s before we even talk about his consistently alluring and singular vocal performances. There's a wide variety to the songs too with that punchy programmed drum sound, and consistently great melodies still giving the album a thread of cohesion.

As a side note, the digital version of the original album seems to have numerous volume imbalance issues with some tracks much louder than others. Though I’m not always a fan of remasters, if listening on streaming services I’d recommend listening to the 2020 remaster in this case, where the volume levels are a little more consistent.

Sign o’ the Times is less of a coherent statement than the masterpiece that is Purple Rain and instead it feels like an album showing us the breadth of what Prince can do. “What can he do?” I hear you ask. Well, he can make music that’s as fun as anything ever recorded, that’s what.

On that note, I literally can’t listen to I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man and not be in a good mood. That thing is an 80s guitar-solo-infused ecstasy pill.

Song Picks: Sign O’ the Times, Housequake, I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man, It, U Got the Look

9.5/10

1. The Lion and the Cobra

Sinéad O'Connor

“The Lion and the Cobra is the debut album by Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor, released on 4 November 1987 by Ensign and Chrysalis Records. O'Connor recorded the album while in the later stages of pregnancy with her first child. The title of the album is from Psalm 91:13 ‘you will tread upon the lion and cobra"‘, and the track Never Get Old opens with an Irish language recital of Psalm 91 by singer Enya.” - Wikipedia

It turns out there’s more to Sinead O’Connor than her famous cover of Prince’s Nothing Compares 2 U. The Lion and the Cobra is an ambitious album that demands your attention. O’Connor’s angry, at times tormented vocals aren’t conducive to great background listening, but that’s not what she wants to be. The Lion and the Cobra is full of attitude, and occasionally restrained anger at the world. She herself said “I couldn’t admit it was her I was angry at, so I took it out on the world” referring to her anger at her abusive mother, who died in a car crash when O’Connor was 19.

Songs like Mandinka and Jerusalem are some of the decade’s most powerful songs, and the album jumps from huge productions like those to sections of songs like Never Get Old that are almost acapella, save for some muted drums somewhere in the background. Her vocals though, consistently roar with the energy of a high-speed train. There are famously two covers to the album: the one where she looks as if she’s shouting but was apparently singing above, and the North American version where they decided she needed a ‘softer’ image. Screw that, the above cover is perfect. It looks like someone who has repressed their anger so much that when they try to look angry, they look close to maniacal laughter. On the Lion and the Cobra that mania is there for all to hear, the catharsis palpable, and the creativity undeniable. I think it’s one of the decade’s most underrated albums.

Song Picks: Troy, Mandinka, Jerusalem

9.5/10

1986 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

August 15, 2022 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

The top 1986 headlines aren’t particularly positive I’m afraid: the Soviet nuclear reactor at Chernobyl exploded spreading radioactive material across much of Europe and the Space Shuttle Challenger also exploded 73 seconds after launching, killing all seven astronauts on board.

But onto more positive things, here’s rateyourmusic.com users’ top 5 albums of 1986:

#1 The Smiths - The Queen is Dead
#2 Metallica - Master of Puppets
#3 Slayer - Reign in Blood
#4 Astor Piazzolla and The New Tango Quintet: Tango: Zero Hour / Nuevo Tango: Hora Zero
#5 Iron Maiden - Somewhere in Time

As is customary, I’ll also grab some from further down the list

#6 Candlemass - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus
#7 XTC - Skylarking
#8 Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring
#9 Sonic Youth - EVOL

#12 Peter Gabriel - So
#14 Paul Simon - Graceland
#28 Siouxsie & the Banshees - Tinderbox

Finally, to add more female artists to the equation, I’ll be grabbing anything from 1986 from NPR’s list of the best albums of all time by female artists, as well as the same list as voted on by their readers. This year we’ve just got the one album to add:

Janet Jackson - Control

13 reviews to do then, off we go.

Somewhere in Time is the sixth studio album by English heavy metal band Iron Maiden. It was released on 29 September 1986 in the United Kingdom by EMI Records and in the United States by Capitol Records. It was the band's first album to feature guitar synthesisers. Since its release, Somewhere in Time has been certified platinum by the RIAA, having sold over one million copies in the US. - Wikipedia

Ah, another Iron Maiden release. Unfortunately, they remain that one band regularly appearing in these top 5s that I just can’t get into. Entertaining enough, and I can appreciate why others would like it, but I’m just not feeling it y’know. This one feels a little, dare I say it, poppier. I preferred some of their earlier releases, but this still has plenty of rock-solid riffs, guitar solos, and howling vocals.

Song Picks: Deja Vu

6.5/10

12. Epicus Doomicus Metallicus

Candlemass

Epicus Doomicus Metallicus is the debut album of the Swedish doom metal band Candlemass. It was released June 10, 1986 on Black Dragon Records. On its release, the album had a significantly different sound than other European heavy metal bands of the time, because of their use of operatic vocals mixed over slow and heavy guitar riffs. The album did not sell well on its initial release, which led to the group being dropped from the label during the same year. Since then, the album has been re-issued in several different formats. - Wikipedia

I’m getting a definite Black Sabbath vibe from Mats Björkman’s riffs on Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, they’re slow, methodical and powerful. Indeed they’re easily some of the most crushing I’ve ever heard. Messiah Marcolin’s vocals are operatic, and he’s less prone to high pitched wails than many of his contemporaries. The whole thing is a change of pace from the thrash-metal of Slayer and Metallica.

I’m generally a little biased against music that is too operatic, finding it rather hard to get into. The fact I very much enjoyed this is testament to how good it is, and though it was never going to become a favourite, I can absolutely appreciate why they’re as highly thought of as they are.

Song Picks: Demons Gate, Crystal Ball

8/10

Control is the third studio album by American singer Janet Jackson, released on February 4, 1986, by A&M Records. Her collaborations with the songwriters and record producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis resulted in an unconventional sound: a fusion of rhythm and blues, rap vocals, funk, disco, and synthesized percussion that established Jackson, Jam and Lewis as the leading innovators of contemporary R&B. The album became Jackson's commercial breakthrough and enabled her to transition into the popular music market, with Control becoming one of the foremost albums of the 1980s and contemporary music. - Wikipedia

Control contrasts nicely to many other pop albums by female artists in the 80s, such as those by Whitney Houston or Cyndi Lauper, in that it often has more of a focus on percussive power and energy than balladry. Tracks aren’t saturated with instruments blasting evocative chord structures, but instead have a sense of space, one which allows the cataclysmic drums to take centre stage. The album is more about funk and groove than it is about melody, and it sets Jackson apart from her contemporaries in way that is refreshing. While others blasted us with powerful vocals, Jackson blasts us with programmed, gated drums and funky bass grooves. It also features some superb guitar solos, which is a good way to my heart.

Song Picks: Control, You Can Be Mine, Principle of Pleasure

8.5/10

Skylarking is the ninth studio album by the English rock band XTC, released 27 October 1986 on Virgin Records. Produced by American musician Todd Rundgren, it is a loose concept album about a nonspecific cycle, such as a day, a year, the seasons, or a life. The title refers to a type of bird (skylark), as well as the Royal Navy term "skylarking", which means "fooling around". It became one of XTC's best-known albums and is generally regarded as their finest work. - Wikipedia

Andy Partridge’s ability to write a tune is evident from the opening Summer Cauldron (a song about a baby in the womb about to enter the world) and Grass (a song about ‘fumbling’ about on some grass). Recording was plagued with tension between Partridge and producer Todd Rundgren, the former apparently saying he wanted to embed an axe in the latter’s head at one point. The tension is somewhat audible, with the band and Partridge’s vocal sounding quite distant from each other. It’s that detached sound that gives the album a very unique feel though. A lot of these tracks would be a little kitschy (I’m looking at you That’s Really Super, Supergirl) if it weren’t for Rundgren’s grey production adding some darkness to Partridge’s ice-lolly coloured melodies, though the curveball lyrics help too. If you want a nerdier take on 80s pop, then you can’t go wrong with Skylarking.

Song Picks: Summer’s Cauldron, Season Cycle, That’s Really Super, Supergirl

8.5/10

9. Tinderbox

**Siouxsie & the Banshees**

Tinderbox is the seventh studio album by English rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees. It was released on 21 April 1986 by Wonderland and Polydor Records in the United Kingdom and by Geffen Records in the United States. It was the band's first full-length effort recorded with then-new guitarist John Valentine Carruthers; Carruthers had previously only added a few parts on the 1984 EP The Thorn. The first recording sessions for the album took place at Hansa by the Wall in Berlin in May 1985. - Wikipedia

As with 1981’s Juju, which I loved, Siouxsie Sioux’s vocals are in a class of their own, while the fact the guitars have stepped back a little bit gives the whole thing a slightly more ethereal feel. Tinderbox is one of those albums that is hard to get a grapple of, with the single Cities in Dust (about Pompeii) providing one of the album’s firmer emotional handholds with its great chorus. Tinderbox is the perfect mix of intrigue and accessibility.

Song Picks: Cities in Dust

9/10

Master of Puppets is the third studio album by the American heavy metal band Metallica, released on March 3, 1986, by Elektra Records. Recorded in Denmark at Sweet Silence Studios with producer Flemming Rasmussen, it was the band's last album to feature bassist Cliff Burton, who died in a bus accident in Sweden during the album's promotional tour. - Wikipedia

Widely regarded as one of the most influential thrash metal albums of all time, it incrementally improves on Ride the Lightning in pretty much every way, and that was already a very good album. The riffs are punchier, the whole thing feels more cohesive, and while Ride the Lightning felt more cerebral than visceral, Master of Puppets, although still leaning towards the former, hits a lot harder in terms of its production and riffs than its predecessor. Anyway, enough comparing, Master of Puppets is a truly great album in a genre that I have to confess to knowing little about. Hetfield’s vocals don’t have much range, but they do manage to add weight to the already heavy riffs here, and when he does crack out a more melodic part - such as on the excellent title track - it hits.

I’ve been a critic of Lars Ulrich over the years, largely because when I saw the band at Rock Im Park in Germany many years ago he was consistently well ahead of the beat, and even on these cleaner recordings he seems in a bigger rush than the rest of the band to me, denying the tracks some of the percussive power a more ‘relaxed’ drummer might have given them, which is a shame.

Nevertheless, Master of Puppets is marvellous. I find people are often too quick to call something heavy, but this absolutely qualifies. It sounds like a massive meteorite hurtling through Earth’s atmosphere.

Song Picks: Master of Puppets, The Thing That Should Not Be, Damage Inc

9/10

Reign in Blood is the third studio album by American thrash metal band Slayer, released on October 7, 1986, by Def Jam Recordings. The album was the band's first collaboration with producer Rick Rubin, whose input helped the band's sound evolve. The release date of the album was delayed because of concerns regarding the lyrical subject matter of the opening track "Angel of Death", which refers to Josef Mengele and describes acts such as human experimentation that he committed at the Auschwitz concentration camp. The band's members stated that they did not condone Nazism and were merely interested in the subject. - Wikipedia

Rick Rubin is now synonymous with the loudness wars, but his production here is perfect. Reign In Blood hits harder than Metallica’s Master of Puppets, and that’s going somewhere. This is real thrash metal, no-nonsense melodic acoustic breakdowns here, just pedal-to-the-metal blistering riffs, powerhouse drumming and Araya’s vocals roaring like an angry lion. I kid of course, melodic breakdowns are fine. Reign In Blood though wants nothing to do with them and thinks they’re a bootless errand. Reign In Blood is clearly keen not to waste your time, hence why it is only 28 minutes long, and not a second is wasted.

Song Picks: Altar of Sacrifice, Jesus Saves, Postmortem

9/10

The Colour of Spring is the third studio album by English band Talk Talk, released in February 1986. Musically, The Colour of Spring was a major step away from the synthesised pop of early Talk Talk, with a greater focus on guitars, pianos, and organs on such songs as "Life's What You Make It", "Living in Another World" and "Give It Up". It had a sound described by the band as much more organic than their earlier records, with the improvisation that was to dominate on their later works already apparent in the recording process. - Wikipedia

Is there a more sumptuous piece of 80s production than the opening Happiness is Easy? I think not. Webb’s bass groove, the variaphone and Hollis’ vocals all blend together to create something that is like audible honey. Hell, this whole thing is some gorgeous, sophisticated desert, like a fine tiramisu. Everything is tastefully done, and has had a lot of thought, but it at no point feels sterile. The Colour of Spring is one of those albums I’d not heard of at all that I’m really happy this challenge has introduced me to.

Song Picks: Happiness is Easy, I Don’t Believe in You, Life is What You Make It, Time it’s Time

9/10

Tango: Zero Hour (Nuevo Tango: Hora Zero in Spanish) is an album by Ástor Piazzolla and his Quinteto Nuevo Tango (in English: New Tango Quintet, often loosely referred to as his second quintet). It was released in September 1986 on American Clavé, and re-released on Pangaea Records in 1988. - Wikipedia

Piazzolla considered this his greatest album, and it appropriately marks zero hour for my adventure into any sort of tango music. Zero Hour is glorious, it rings with an energy and intricacy that never loses its feeling of rawness. I’d like to say it sounds like a dusty Spanish town on a hot day, where people have their windows open talking to each other across the street, but that would be incorrect. Zero Hour sounds like a couple dancing as that street interchangeably loudly and quietly collapses around them, until there’s nothing left but them in a desert of dust and rubble. If that sounds dramatic, just wait until you’ve heard this hauntingly beautiful record.

Song Pick: Concierto Para Quinteto

9/10

So is the fifth studio album by English singer-songwriter Peter Gabriel, released on 19 May 1986 by Charisma Records. After working on the soundtrack to the film Birdy (1984), producer Daniel Lanois was invited to remain at Gabriel's Somerset home during 1985 to work on his next solo project. Initial sessions for So consisted of Gabriel, Lanois and guitarist David Rhodes, although these grew to include a number of percussionists. Often considered his best and most accessible album, So was an immediate commercial success and transformed Gabriel from a cult artist into a mainstream star, becoming his best-selling solo release. - Wikipedia

So opens with Red Rain, a typically epic and 80s sounding Gabriel track, and one of my favourites. Though I think the live version from Secret World Live is superior to the version here, largely because I prefer Manu Katche’s drumming on the live track to the drumming here, it’s still a really powerful way to open the album. The album continues in a pretty forceful vein: gated drums, synths, and an exaggerated sense of drama helping bring a really 80s feel to the record. Sledgehammer is one of Gabriel’s most famous songs, and it brilliantly demonstrates his nous for huge sounding production (with backing choirs and a synthesised shakuhachi flute in this case) and playful melodies. Kate Bush features on the angelic Don’t Give Up, and excels in production perhaps a little less experimental than that on her own songs. In Your Eyes, ‘inspired by an African tradition of ambiguity in song between romantic love and love of God’ according to Gabriel, received a new lease of life when it played a prominent role in a scene in Say Anything…, starring John Cusack, is another one of the album’s famous tracks. A perfect love song that escapes its rather cheesy lyrical theme through yet more monumental production (this time including a clear African influence, including a great part in Wolof by Youssou N'Dour) and melodies to die for.

So is another 80s classic, from the man who had a knack for distilling the musical ideas of the decade (at least in pop) into songs that were catchy, huge, and interesting. Some say the album leans too much into the time, and feels dated now. I disagree, it’s a product of the 80s, and it wears that on its sleeve like a badge of honour.

Song Picks: In Your Eyes, Red Rain, Sledgehammer, Don’t Give Up, That Voice Again

9/10

EVOL is the third full-length studio album by the American alternative rock band Sonic Youth. Released in May 1986, EVOL was Sonic Youth’s first album on SST Records, and also the first album to feature then-new drummer Steve Shelley who had just replaced Bob Bert. In retrospective reviews, critics cite EVOL as marking Sonic Youth’s transition from their no wave roots toward a greater pop sensibility, while bassist Kim Gordon has referred to it as the band’s “goth record.” - Wikipedia

The first in what will be plenty of Sonic Youth albums appearing on these lists in the upcoming years is a paranoid and dark album of guitar chord drones and vocals that sound resigned to the ether. On Shadow of a Doubt Gordon whispers hauntingly over the plucked guitar part, before the other vocalists back her ever more paranoid screams during the chorus (if you can call it that). The fact the band has three distinct vocalists (bassist Kim Gordon and guitarists Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore) adds to the album’s anarchy. EVOL can be a challenging listen, particularly for those prone to anxiety among us. There’s a deep unease to a lot of the guitar work, Starpower features a superb riff that is both unsettling and enjoyable, while In the Kingdom #19 switches between a head-bopping riff and what sounds like an air raid (reminiscent of Hendrix’s version of the Star Spangled Banner) in a way that only Sonic Youth could make work. On Death to our Friends the guitar sounds so dissonant it’s as if it’s been found in an attic and never tuned.

EVOL is a dark chaos which has begun transforming itself into something resembling songs. It’s a masterful subversion of established genres to create something that sounds so punk, that you can’t call it punk at all.

Song Picks: Starpower; Shadow of a Doubt; Secret Girl; Madonna, Sean and Me

9/10

The Queen Is Dead is the third studio album by English rock band the Smiths. Released on 16 June 1986 in the United Kingdom by Rough Trade Records, and on 23 June 1986 in the US by Sire Records, it spent 22 weeks on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at number two. It also peaked at number 70 on the US Billboard 200, and was certified Gold by the RIAA in late 1990.

In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked The Queen Is Dead 113th on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In its 2013 list, the NME named The Queen Is Dead the greatest album of all time. - Wikipedia

I had a feeling as I listened to other albums by the Smiths that this one would end up being my favourite, and it is. The Queen is Dead does away with some of the consistency issues of previous albums (though I very much like them all) and is packed front to back with everything that makes the Smiths great. Johnny Marr’s riffs power things along at pace, and occasionally even add a dramatic sense of urgency to things, such as on the opening title track’s second half. Morrissey is at his melodic best, I’ve talked about his style being almost operatic, and here its singularity is coupled with memorable melody after memorable melody. The album also contains some of his best lyrics, ‘I’ve got the 21st century breathing down my neck’ being just one example of the many great lines on this record. Love him or hate him, these are some of the most memorable vocal performances of the 80s.

The drums and bass are on point too, aided by the album’s sleek production, no doubt as much the work of Stephen Street (who produced Meat is Murder) at the mixing desk, as it was that of Marr and Morrissey who are credited as producers here.

The Queen is Dead is one of the 80s’ best bands at their absolute peak, and its effect on all ‘indie’ music since can’t be understated, something made evident by the fact that the NME - who typically loves that genre - named it the best album of all time in 2013.

Song Picks: The Queen is Dead, There is a Light That Never Goes Out, Bigmouth Strikes Again

9.5/10

Graceland is the seventh solo studio album by the American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. It was produced by Simon, engineered by Roy Halee and released on August 25, 1986, by Warner Bros. Records. In the early 1980s, Simon's relationship with his former musical partner Art Garfunkel had deteriorated, his marriage to actress Carrie Fisher had collapsed, and his previous record, Hearts and Bones (1983), had been a commercial failure. In 1984, after a period of depression, Simon became fascinated by a bootleg cassette of mbaqanga, South African street music. He and Halee visited Johannesburg, where they spent two weeks recording with South African musicians. Further recordings were held in the United States, with guest musicians including Linda Ronstadt, the Everly Brothers, Louisiana band Good Rockin' Dopsie and the Twisters, and Los Angeles band Los Lobos. - Wikipedia

Objective reviews don’t exist - particularly not when I’m writing them - but this is an album that it’s particularly hard for me to look at with any distance. If I had to name one album that was the biggest part of my childhood, it’d be Graceland. My Mum had the tape, and I remember listening to it repeatedly on our drive to and from school every day in our old Volvo. It’s an album I know every word to, every nuance, and where the end of one song immediately means the intro to the next starts playing in my head. It’s been a factor of so much of my life that it doesn’t take me back to any specific part of it, but instead feels like the musical equivalent of the teddy bear I was given at birth. That guy still sits on my sofa by the way.

The idea of blending western music with South-African music sounds like some sort of gimmick, but Simon and his multiple collaborators here absolutely pull it off. This is a glorious blending of musical styles, one that soaks up another culture, rather than tokenises it, a beautiful testament to the artistry in diversity. It’s the musical equivalent of living in another country and adopting its culture rather than taking a tour bus, looking at the highlights, and returning with a head full of stereotypes. Throw into the mix fact that this is some of Simon’s best lyrical and melodic work since Simon & Garfunkel, delivered with a cadence like honey, and you get an album that is just a pure, effervescent joy. I don’t think an album has to be perfect to get a 10, but Graceland is.

P.S I think the title track is one of the most finely crafted songs of all time.

And she said, "losing love
Is like a window in your heart
Everybody sees you're blown apart
Everybody sees the wind blow"

Song Picks: Graceland, I Know What I Know, Gumboots, Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes, You Can Call Me Al,

10/10

1984 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

May 09, 2022 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

So, we’re into 1984, the year forever immortalised by the name of George Orwell’s novel (published in 1949). Also the year that Joe W. Kittinger made the first solo transatlantic balloon flight, Apple released their Macintosh personal computer and Bishop Desomnd Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Musically, here’s the top 5 albums of the year as rated by rateyourmusic.com’s users

#1 Metallica - Ride the Lightning
#2 Prince - Purple Rain
#3 The Smiths - Hatful of Hollow
#4 Iron Maiden - Powerslave
#5 Cocteau Twins - Treasure

I’ll be grabbing a few more from further down the list, namely:

#6 Staatsorchester Stuttgart - Tabula Rasa
#8 Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime
#9 The Replacements - Let It Be
#10 Husker Du - Zen Arcade
#13 The Smiths - The Smiths
#20 R.E.M - Reckoning

Finally, as usual, to add more female artists to the equation, I’ll be taking the below from NPR’s list of the best albums of all time by female artists, as well as the same list as voted on by their readers.

Tina Tuner - Private Dancer
Sade - Diamond Life
The Pretenders - Learning to Crawl

Having said I’d try to have a few less per year so that I can actually finish this challenge at some point in my life, I’ve gone and picked 14 albums to review - which I think is tied with the most I’ve ever looked at for any particular year - because I’m an idiot. Anyway, let’s see which of these 14 emerges victorious.

Iron Maiden’s 5th album was their first album to be recorded with the same line-up as the previous. That’s your stat for the week. It was ranked 34th in Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 best metal albums of all time.

I feel like Iron Maiden are the one band that keep appearing in these top 5s that I’ve still not massively got into. Has Powerslave changed that? Not exactly. Again, I can very much appreciate the great riffs and rapid solos all on display in the album’s opener Aces High and beyond, but I still can’t get into that 70s high pitch hard-rock vocal sound from Bruce Dickinson. I don’t love their Dungeons and Dragons lyrics either, but if I just chill out and try to listen without these prejudices, you know what? I end up having a good time. It’s hard not to be swept away by the barnstorming instrumental section (even if the mix is a little thin) and some internal headbanging definitely occurred. it does have to be said that Powerslave is infectiously riff-tacular, I was literally saying ‘oooo that’s a great riff’ at the start of every track.

Song Picks: 2 Minutes to Midnight, Losfer Words

7/10

The second studio album by the American punk rock band was originally released as a double album on two vinyl LPs. It tells the story of a young boy who runs away from an unfulfilling home life, only to find the world outside is worse. It’s widely regarded as one of the most influential albums in alternative rock, as the band moved away from their more hardcore roots to create some slower, and even acoustic songs.

I have to confess to not following the album’s narrative in particular, which the somewhat muffled vocal mix doesn’t help with, and I do think the album - at 70 minutes - is a bit long for my tastes in this genre, but I have to say it’s a really inventive album. It stretches what can be a slightly repetitive genre (whoa calm down there, I love punk as much as the next guy) in enough directions to make 70 minutes just about work, and that’s impressive in itself.

Song Picks: Never Talking to You Again, Reoccuring Dreams,

7.5/10

The English rock band’s debut was re-recorded between tour dates by John Porter, after Troy Tate’s initial production was deemed inadequate. The album peaked at number 2 in the UK, where it helped the band become a key member of the decade’s music scene, but it also had significant international success.

Morrissey, despite the insufferable man he’s become recently, is undoubtedly one of the most unique vocalists of not only the 80s, but ever. His faux-operatic whines slide from note to note like the vocal version of a lap steel guitar, a perfect sound of dejection. But he was far from the only great thing about the Smiths, as this collection of songs demonstrates. Johnny Marr’s guitar playing is jangly, pacey and percussive, while the rhythm section helps to provide the instrumental momentum that makes tracks like This Charming Man as effective as they are.

There were better, more consistent albums to come from the Smiths (one of which is on this list), and a few of the songs are a bit meandering and lacking in the engaging melodies that we know Morrissey is capable of. Their debut did make it very clear just how unique they were though, and that’s enough to make it very much worth a listen. Also it has This Charming Man on it, quite probably one of the best jangly pop songs ever written.

Song Picks: This Charming Man, What Difference Does It Make, Still Ill

7.5/10

Sade Adu began back-up singing for Pride following her work in modelling. She later formed Sade with 3 other members of Pride. Diamond Life was the best selling debut album by a female British vocalist for the next 24 years.

Diamond Life doesn’t just start with Smooth Operator, it is a smooth operator. With a chilled funky backing featuring prominent bass lines, simple and relaxed drums and frequent brass flourishes, the album sounds like some slightly jazzy silk. Sade’s vocals are full, soulful, and yet rather cold and detached, helping add to the synthetic 80s atmosphere, and giving proceedings a very sophisticated feel. It’s easy listening, but also interesting and progressive; that guy in a tuxedo on the dancefloor at the wedding with understated moves that he’s clearly put a lot of thought into.

Song Picks: Smooth Operator, Frankie’s First Affair

8/10

Metallica’s second album sees them tackling more complex arrangements and instrumental parts than their bullish debut Kill ‘Em All. This was largely influenced by bassist Bill Clifton teaching the band music theory, something that led to a more deliberate style of songwriting.

Ride the Lightning almost sounds like prog-rock at points, with major key acoustic guitar parts thrown in, you half expect them to start singing about to start singing about elves and trolls. Fade to Black is a good example of this but, of course, there’s no sign of elves and instead Hetfield sings about suicide. I generally prefer Hetfield’s almost hollow vocal to that of other metal bands of the time (e.g. Iron Maiden). He’s dramatic in a more believable way somehow, and his growls on For Whom the Bell Tolls give the track the gravity its topic - corporal punishment - merits.

Ride the Lightning’s riffs dodge and weave, they’re unpredictable and yet brutal. The album is as sophisticated as it is angry and heavy. This makes it a bit less visceral, but more cerebral, and that was to have a huge influence on the metal to come.

Song Picks: For Whom the Bell Tolls, Fight Fire With Fire

8.5/10

The Scottish band’s third album cemented both their line-up and sound going forward, their ‘signature ethereality’ as Pitchfork puts it. Interestingly, producer and bassist Simon Raymonde hated the album, claiming it to be their “worst album by a mile”.

Treasure is soaked in reverb, so much so that the fact that Elizabeth Fraser is singing an entirely made up language isn’t immediately obvious, and doesn’t seem remotely out of place. It feels like the kind of album the elves in Lord of the Rings would make if they happened upon an electric guitar, twin reverb amp and a drum machine in the forest. With Treasure, only Fraser will know if there’s any meaning behind her glossolalia, and it matters not whether there is. In some ways that lack of any literal meaning takes the pressure off and lets you sink comfortably into Treasure’s lush, washed out soundscapes, with Fraser’s melodies lulling you along.

Song Picks: Lorelei, Cicely, Donimo

9/10

R.E.M’s second album was recorded over 16 days, with producers Mitch Easter and Don Dixon intending to capture the band’s live sound, binaural recordings were used to help achieve this.

Many of Stipe’s takes were too quiet and needed re-doing as he was so worn out from the 1983 tour. The end result is perhaps even mumblier than his work on the band’s debut, but the cleaner production means that overall, they’re a little more discernible. The lyrics are no easier to understand though and the album is another great example of why Stipe is one of my favourite lyricists. He has an ability to be completely evocative while remaining mysterious which, along with his singular vocal style, make him such a noteworthy songwriter.

Melodically, the vocals are as mesmerising as always. The coupling of the band’s bass-led and often up-tempo sound combined with Stipe’s long, thick and wavering notes continues to create one of the most unique combinations in music.

Song Picks: Harborcoat, 7 Chinese Bros, So, Central Rain, (Don’t Go Back to) Rockville

9/10

7. Tabula Rasa (Arvo Pärt)

Gidon Kramer, Keith Jarrett Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra

Tabula Rasa is a musical composition written in 1977 by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. The piece contains two movements, "Ludus" and "Silentium," and is a double concerto for two solo violins, piano, and chamber orchestra. A recording of the composition was first released in 1984 by ECM records and features violinist Gidon Kremer, pianist Keith Jarrett and the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra among others.

Tabula Rasa is often sparse, with the focus regularly being on one melody at a time, whether it be the crying violin in Fratres - a piece of beautiful melancholic, wistful warmth - or the choral Celli in For 12 Celli. The first three pieces are fairly tranquil, if at times quite haunting, but things get much more frantic and intense in the penultimate piece, I. Ludus, before II. SIlencio, calmly takes us home on the musical version of a floating candle through the remnants of a battlefield.

Tabula Rasa is another classical classic, if you pardon my expression.

9/10

The Pretenders’ second album was recorded with a new guitarist and bassist after original members James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon both died of drug overdoses.

Learning to Crawl is a pretty straight rock ‘n’ roll album. New guitarist Robbie McIntosh is less edgy than his predecessor, and his soloing very much recalls early rock ‘n’ rollers such as Chuck Berry in a way that would be cheesy if it weren’t so fun. I wasn’t expecting to love this album as much as I do, but it is a completely unpretentious, delightfully fun 40 minutes. Alongside McIntosh’s playful solos we have a rock solid rhythm section so comfortingly on it that at times it feels like you’re being physically hugged by the 4/4 time signature. Chrissie Hynde’s songwriting ability is on display from start to finish, and her vocals have a lovely warmth to them that fits perfectly with the band’s palette. Nowhere is this more perfectly on display than on the album’s iconic closing track, 2000 Miles, a song written for Honeyman-Scott after his death, and one that has now become on of the country’s most beloved Christmas songs. I think it’s one of the best songs ever recorded.

Song Picks: Watching the Clothes, Back on the Chain Gang, 2000 Miles

9/10

This compilation released by Rough Trade Records features various John Peel Session recordings for BBC Radio 1 and two singles and their respective B-sides. It came 44th on Q’s list of the 100 best British albums, and was successful in the UK album charts much like their debut.

There’s some crossover here from their debut album The Smiths, and Hatful of Hollow doesn’t always include the best version. The version of This Charming Man here for example isn’t quite as energetic as the studio recorded version, and I also prefer the studio version of Still Ill, though this one is still very good. Where Hatful of Hollow shines is in the sheer number of great songs it crams on, and it’s overall more cohesive feel despite it being a compilation album. The Peel sessions have a surprisingly upbeat feel, I think because of the generally less effects-driven sound produced at the Radio 1 studio combined with slightly less focus on the vocals, and perhaps just the live feel in general.

Marr’s guitar work is fantastic throughout, generally providing a lively backing to Morrissey’s howls, which have better melodies here than on the band’s debut. On Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now, a song that despite it’s lyrical content ends up feeling defiantly bright and hopeful, the guitar skitters away like a jolly grasshopper. On the masterful Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want it strums wistfully as if it’s holding your hand - Marr’s rare solo being one of the finest ways any album has ever ended. On Back to the Old House it gets fingerpicked in a way that almost makes it feel Latin. On every song it’s perfect and backed by such solid drums and bass that it’s easy to forget you’re listening to mainly live performances. Morrissey’s vocals are as distinctive as always, and it’s here where he really starts to show his melodic prowess, particularly on the album’s penultimate track Reel Around the Fountain.

Hatful of Hollow is a wonderful document of a singular band. It has a raw quality to it that makes it a great addition to their studio albums. It feels like someone spotted the band on tour and asked them to record a few songs at a studio on their way to their next venue, a moment in time forever captured in a bottle.

Song Picks: Accept Yourself; Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want; What Difference Does It Make?; Reel Around The Bus

9/10

Turner’s fifth album is the one that put her on the map as a solo artist, and is still her best selling record to this day.

Private Dancer plays like a defiant roar as she emerges from the ashes of her abusive relationship with Ike Turner, which ended in 1978. The opener I Might Have Been Queen is a perfect showcase of the way she belt out notes with tremendous power, the chorus playing like a glorious self-affirmation.

Private Dancer also features Tina Turner classics What’s Love Got to Do With It and Let’s Stay Together, showcasing Turner’s melodic aplomb at the softer end of the spectrum as well as when growling at the top of her voice. Production-wise the album is very 80s, with gated snares and synths aplenty, but it serves up some completely engrossing soundscapes. Can’t Stand the Rain is one of my favourite examples, creating a musical equivalent of a neon tinged city being drenched with rain, as Tina waltzes through it, screaming her heart out to the tune of everyone’s broken dreams.

Song Picks: I Might Have Been Queen, What’s Love Got to Do with It, I Can’t Stand the Rain, Let’s Stay Together, Better Be Good to Me

9/10

3. Double Nickels on the Dime

Minutemen

Minutemen’s third album contains 45 songs, most likely the highest song count for any album I’ve reviewed on this challenge. The vast majority of these songs are only between one and two minutes long though, but that still brings the total running length to an epic 81 minutes. The album, like Hüsker Dü’s Zen Arcade, was released on two vinyls and the three band members chose the songs for one side each, with the remaining songs going on the the album’s fourth side, self deprecatingly named ‘chaff’.

By far my favourite of the year’s two punk rock epics, Double Nickels on the Dime is never punk of the really heavy variety. Sure there’s distorted guitars and the odd shout, but generally things are more rock ‘n’ roll inspired than punk I’d say, with Mike Watt’s snakelike basslines weaving perfectly in and out of George Hurley’s drums (which have a punchy sound that is to die for). D. Boon’s vocals are sometimes spoken word, generally slightly off key, and in many ways unremarkable, but they just fit. His guitarwork is superbly diverse, from one song to the next he can completely change the atmosphere (My Heart and the Real World into History Lesson Part 2 being a prime example) and his riffs and noodling sound as loose and unshackled as his lyrics, which cover all sorts of ground.

To call this album punk is selling it short in some ways, there’s just as much jazz, funk, country and rock as there is punk. And yet there’s no better word for it, it typifies punk’s disregard for boundaries or rules - the idea it has a sound is kind of daft - and beams with the energy of a band who just played whatever they felt like in the moment.

Double Nickels on the Dime is like walking down into a basement bar and inadvertently going to what ends up being one of your favourite gigs, not necessarily for any profound reason, but simply because you found a bunch of blokes you could relate to, having the time of their lives.

9.5/10

Now and again in this challenge - as with all the Dylan albums in the 60s - we come to an album that was already very much established as a favourite before I started this whole thing. Let It Be is one of those. While studying music production and sound engineering at Islington Music Workshop in London I made friends with the Replacement’s biggest fan, Matt Rider, now lead singer of Paper Mill. I rather quickly fell in love with the band too, loving Westerberg’s grainy vocals, the band’s energy, and their raw and punchy DIY sound. Westerberg is still one of my favourite punk songwriters.

Let It Be is the band’s third album. It was the first album that didn’t see the band playing at hell-for-leather speeds constantly. Let It Be is generally ranked among the best albums of the 80s, and was ranked as number 241 in Rolling Stone’s all time top 500.

"Playing that kind of noisy, fake hardcore rock was getting us nowhere, and it wasn't a lot of fun. This was the first time I had songs that we arranged, rather than just banging out riffs and giving them titles." lead singer Westerberg says of the album, and indeed it shows; the song structures, instrumental arrangements, and lyrics are clearly more thought out here. Let It Be is probably the least predictable punk album I’ve ever heard, things change up regularly not only from song to song (Tommy Got His Tonsils Out to Androgynous), but within the songs themselves. We’re Coming Out comes out of the gates like the messy, fast-paced rumble the band had been known for but unexpectedly turns into a low-key, sparse jam before its frantic ending, Seen Your Video spends two and a half minutes as an instrumental before Westerberg comes in with his characteristic melodic shouts.

Let It Be is crammed with musical ideas, it’s a band at the peak of their playfulness, led by Westerberg’s songwriting, which more than once goes into masterpiece territory. Androgynous is one of the finest celebrations of gender non-conformity ever written, Westerberg’s melodies croaking perfectly over the top of his bouncy piano playing and Unsatisfied would easily make it onto a CD of my very favourite songs. It’s the perfect cry into the ether of ennui and despair. As Westerberg himself puts it:

“It was just the feeling that we’re never going anywhere and the music we’re playing is not the music I feel and I don’t know what to do and I don’t know how to express myself. I felt that one to the absolute bone when I did it.”

That opening guitar riff, Stinsons’ elaborate sparkles, the snare slam that announces the band’s arrival, the slightly off-kilter drums, the messy mix, and most of all Westerberg’s superlative vocal performance that resonates to his very bone (as he himself says above), Unsatisified is perfect, and Let It Be is one of punk’s greatest achievements.

Song Picks: Unsatisfied, Androgynous, Answering Machine, Favorite Thing, Sixteen Blue

9.5/10

Prince’s sixth album needs no introduction, but I’m going to introduce it anyway. Purple Rain is the soundtrack to a film of the same name (I did not know this), starring Prince in the lead role. It’s rarely absent from the upper echelons of any best albums of all time list, and very much cemented Prince’s status as a pop legend.

First and foremost, Purple Rain is an absolute joy to listen to. Upbeat energetic tracks like the bombastic Let’s Go Crazy and grooving Take Me With U are impossible to have on without bopping - at least for me. The Beautiful Ones nails an atmosphere and delicate vocal style (until the screeched ending) that have been copied many times since, and rarely anywhere close to as effectively. Prince’s superlative guitar skills are evident throughout, not only his unbelievably fast lines on Computer Blue and that solo on the title track, but also in his general ability to create riffs that could be described as anything from groovy (on Let’s Go Crazy) to cataclysmic (on Darling Nikki).

When Doves Cry is notable for its lack of the bass guitar, an inspired decision which makes those drums pound all the harder. Prince’s melodies are superb as always, and it’s just a perfectly constructed song. Everything has its place, from the piano part chorus to the synth that enters half way through the song, to Prince’s stuttering solo that fires the track into rock and roll fame. The whole album sounds very much like the picture adorning its cover, featuring an impressively overdressed Prince standing astride a vibrant purple motorbike in a world that has learnt to cover up its own griminess with neon lights.

Of course the album’s most famous song is the title track, an eight minute and 40 second masterpiece featuring one of the most famous choruses of all time, as Prince anthemically repeats the song’s title - blares of instruments entering on his second repetition - you feel like you’re listening to more than music, but Prince’s very soul. The guitar solo tugs at the heart-strings more than any other I can think of, while the high choral vocals that provide the foundation for the track’s bombastic finale sound like the heavens themselves have opened to bless you. Indeed they have, and they’ve given you Purple Rain.

Song Picks: Purple Rain, Let’s Go Crazy, Computer Blue

10/10

2021 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

January 30, 2022 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

As I march on with my challenge of deciding on my favourite albums from every year from 1960 to the present day, I also need to keep up with the present day. As such, here’s my favourite albums of the year just gone, 2021. I can’t be bothered to summarise the year because let’s be honest, it wasn’t all that great, and it feels like that massive boat getting stuck in the Suez Canal sums it up pretty well. The music, which is luckily what we’re here to talk about, was top notch however. If you’re more interested in lists for other years gone by, all the ones I’ve done so far are on the index page here.

I’ve made sure to include the 2021 top 10s from rateyourmusic.com ( a user music rating website), albumoftheyear.org (their aggregation of all critic top album lists), Pitchfork (my favourite online music magazine) and Anthony Fantano of the Needle Drop (one of my favourite music reviewers). As these lists only come out towards the end of 2021, I’ve taken January to get through them, making sure I’ve reviewed all the albums contained on them. Should you care to see what those top 10s were, I’ve listed them below this article.

Of course, I’ve also included anything else I’ve listened to this year that I’ve liked. So with a total of 37 to get through, let’s get cracking.

This is technically a 2020 release but presumably included on lots of 2021 lists because it came out on the 25th of December and therefore about 3 weeks after most publications do their ‘end of year’ lists. I’ll spare my rant on that for another time. Whole Lotta Red is Playboi Carti’s second album featuring guest appearances from Kid Cudi, Future and Kanye West - who was an executive producer on the album. 24 tracks and over an hour long, the album is a behemoth, and that to me is what holds it back.

Carti’s vocal style is more concerned with fitting into a tune than necessarily saying anything, but his style is rather singular. His croaks on Stop Breathing cut right through, and provide one of the year’s more interesting vocal performances as various timbres rattle left to right, over the kind of rumbling bass-heavy track that dominates much of the album. The tracks are immediate, effective, but rather repetitive both within themselves and from track to track. The beats are so similar at times that I’m not sure if it’s a new song at all, and by 60 minutes that gets rather old, and even boring. There’s some good stuff here, but not an hour’s worth of it.

Song Picks: Stop Breathing, M3tamorphosis

5.5/10

kick iii is Venezuelan singer and producer Arca’s sixth record and third entry in the Kick quintet. Arca herself describes the album as "a portal directly into the more manic, violently euphoric and aggressively psychedelic sound palettes in the series” which describes it as well as I ever could. There’s a sense of manic violence to it that makes the album quite an aggressive listen, and certainly not the most accessible. Like its enigmatic cover, taken by Frederik Heyman, it takes a while to absorb what the hell is going on, but once you do you’re rewarded with something singular and memorable.

kick iii is a demanding listen, and not something I’ll be putting on too regularly, I find it feels a bit too splattered for my tastes, without anything particularly to hang on to. That aside though, I can’t argue that its remarkably cohesive for how manic it is, and has a sound very much its own.

Song Picks: Intimate Flesh

6.5/10

Naked Flames’ second album is a whirlwind of reflective energy. 247 365 bounces in from the stratosphere, bleeping and sparkling away over the top of gently pounding drums and hyperactive bass grooves, and it never lets up. I’m not sure the lofi production adds all that much, and I think a cleaner sound would have helped, but this is still a favourite when I need to get something done.

Song Picks: 247 365

7/10

Dry Cleaning were one of the rare bands I saw live in 2021, where their post-punky, atmopsheric sound went across really well, though Florence Shaw’s spoken word vocal style got somewhat buried in the live mix.

The band’s debut album, New Long Leg, was one of the most talked about albums of the year over here in the UK, and certainly on my favourite radio station, BBC Radio 6. The band creates a very unique sound with Tom Dowse’s superb post-punk guitar work, where evocative riffs seem to fall to him from the sky; and Shaw’s spoken word, almost boredly mumbled vocals. It’s the vocals that will make or break the band for people I imagine, where you’ll either love the juxtoposition they create with the post-punk instrumental backing, or find them unengaging. I lie somewhere in the middle. I really like the whole ‘vibe’ the band gives off on this record, but I feel Shaw’s lyrics aren’t quite engaging enough to work with her deliberately deadpan delivery. When the lyrical content works with her delivery style, as on the detached Scratchcard Lanyard, I love it, but at other times I can feel the album drifting away from me as it fails to pull me in.

Song Picks: Scratchcard Lanyard, Leafy

7/10

Annie Clark’s sixth album as St. Vincent is inspired by her father’s release from prison in 2019. Daddy’s Home is St. Vincent leaning into 70s rock, but with a style very much her own. The elaborate productions here sound vintage and whisky drenched. Clark’s vocals teeter on the edge of hinged and unhinged, and the whole thing feels like a slightly seedy and lively basement bar.

There’s plenty to love here, such as that peppy Wurlitzer on Pay Your Way in Pain, a song that sinks into an almost groovy chorus for it’s final 30 seconds. The Wurlitzer makes plenty of other prominent appearances on the record, something I personally am a fan of, including its key place in the title track’s unique sonic bedding. I also like the classic feel to the album, something encapsulated in the guitar solo that closes the downtempo Live in the Dream.

Daddy’s Home is the type of album that it’s very hard to get bored of. There’s so much thought that’s gone into creating instrumental depth and atmosphere, that you notice new things on every listen. It completely nails a mood, which I always appreciate in an album, even if it hasn’t totally grabbed me.

Song Picks: Pay Your Way in Pain, Daddy’s Home, Live in the Dream, …At the Holiday Party

7/10

32. For the First Time

Black Country, New Road

For the First Time made quite a stir over here in the UK, with many of my friends becoming rather obsessed with the band’s unique blend of post-punk, math-rock and jazz elements. It was nominated for the Mercury Prize.

The London band’s debut is a remarkably mature, considered affair, with opening track Instrumental showing the band’s instrumental prowess and lack of care for scaring anyone off who might be averse to anything a bit too experimental. Isaac Wood’s vocals blend the tortured screams of La Dispute and the only slightly less tortured mumbles of mewithoutyou, showing as much dynamic range as the music itself. The songs are generally free from more common song-structures, and tend to take the form of longer form, building pieces that often don’t reach the crescendo they allude to earlier on. An exception to this is Science Fair, where the crescendo definitely does happen as Wood’s scream of “there’s black country out there” is followed by howls of saxophone and mashed guitars.

I like For the First Time a lot; it’s endlessly creative, clearly very carefully thought out, and also emotionally affecting at points. However, I can’t help feeling at times it’s trying to be a little too clever for its own good, and there’s a sense of pretentiousness to the whole thing that holds it back for me, and means it lacks soul somehow. I think that’s just a personal response, but hey, this is my personal list.

Song Picks: Science Fair, Sunglasses, Opus

7/10

31. Call Me If You Get Lost

Tyler, the Creator

Tyler, the Creator’s sixth album. The beats be chill, the rhymes be ill, and the sonic textures are lovely.

Song Picks: MASSA, Sweet / I Thought You Wanted to Dance, RUNITUP

7.5/10

30. A Beginner’s Mind

Sufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine

A Beginner’s Mind was recorded by Stevens and De Augustine in a cabin where they watched movies for inspiration. I’ve always thought about doing an album of songs inspired by individual movies, they’ve beaten me to it, bastards.

I have to confess here that I’ve not heard much of Sufjan’s stuff so I’m somewhat of a novice on that front - something I know will be rectified once my album of the year challenge gets far enough along (though I’m some way off, having got to 1984 at time of writing).

A Beginner’s Mind is lovely. Sufjan’s whispered melodies are as warm as ever, and they work well with De Augustine’s higher register to create somewhat of a king sized and comforting musical mattress. Musically the palate is fittingly smooth and wholesome, and keeps things just interesting enough without attempting anything particularly novel. It’s all very pretty, and holds up to both background and active listening sessions admirably.

Song Picks: A Beginner’s Mind, Murder and Crime

7.5/10

After multiple delays while Kanye lived at the Mercedez-Benz stadium in Atlanta, the album finally dropped in August, but of course, Kanye claimed that Universal had released it without his approval. As messy as its release, Donda goes on for an intimidating 108 minutes. It’s chaotic, somewhat diluted and disjointed, and yet there’s something magnificent about how impenetrable it can be. There’s plenty of evidence of Kanye is capable of, Off the Grid sounds like an earthquake, Hurricane is minimalist but hits like a storm and there’s a My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy level of magnitude to a lot of the tracks here which I really like. That said, the album is messy, some of the lyrics are lazy - that Messi line anyone? - and there’s nothing quite as mindblowing as we were used to from Kanye in the previous decade.

All four of the ‘part 2’s’, especially considering the controversial nature of their features, add nothing to the album, and only hold it back by making it too long. That - not inconsequential point - aside though, Donda feels like an unflinching look into Kanye’s mind, warts and all, and for that I think it deserves a little more praise than it’s got.

Song Picks: Off the Grid, Hurricane, Come to Life

7.5/10

Taja Cheek’s second album as L’Rain is one of those albums that is pretty difficult to define by genre, so people just call it avant-something, usually avant-pop.

Fatigue feels like a dream, turn the volume up, close your eyes, and you’ll be hovering somewhere between time and space itself, in a place full of lavish, atmospheric sounds, with beautiful melodies coming from all kinds of sources. It feels like swimming through a musical ocean, a description that is particularly apt for the beautiful Blame Me, which is coated in so much reverb it makes you question your own existence.

Fatigue is an oddball, it’s both completely gorgeous and a bit forgettable. I don’t think the short running length helps on the latter. It seems like the kind of album that’ll completely blow me away if I listen to it at the right moment, I just haven’t found that moment yet.

Song Picks: Blame Me, Take Two

7.5/10

The American synth-pop duo’s debut album features a whole variety of influences, and is perhaps best compared to a softer Grimes. Mica’s multi-tracked vocals are thick, warm, and melodic while never being particularly emotional. The production on the tracks is top-notch, with thick synths and bouncy drums creating a very inviting and enjoyable sonic palette.

Although the album doesn’t have any obvious themes to hold it together, it has a very coherent sound, with tracks flowing nicely from one to the other. Mercurial World is a great display of pop songwriting from front to back. If I had to criticise it I’d perhaps say that it lacks a certain unique character to make it particularly stand out, but there’s no doubt this is a well-executed and thoroughly enjoyable album.

Song Picks: Mercurial World, Dawning of the Season, Something for 2

8/10

I heard I Eat Boys played by Iggy Pop on Radio 6 and was pulled in by its great melody, dark lyrics, and just general feel. So I thought I’d best give her album a spin. Moriondo is an 18 year old Youtube star, with over 3 million subscribers, and this is her second album.

Blood Bunny has plenty of humour, including songs about getting high and discovering just how big Manta Rays are after an internet search, and the aforementioned I Eat Boys where she sings about luring boys into her basement and eating them. However, it’s also an album about being yourself: Opener Rly Don’t Care and the later Slacker being great examples of this. Moriondo has a Taylor Swift-esque knack for catchy melodies, and though the production is nothing particularly inventive or fresh, it is clean and atmospheric, giving songs like GIRL ON TV a real added weight, and turning the simple I Want to Be With You into a genuine stadium banger. This is pop with a dash of punk, and it’s one of the most enjoyable, sing-alongable albums of the year.

Song Picks: I Eat Boys, GIRL ON TV, I Want to Be With You

8/10

25. Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

Little Simz

The British rapper’s fourth comes in at a whopping 65 minutes, and it’s ambitious not just in length but in the sheer level of detail to each production, which is as smooth as silk, with gorgeous instrumental touches to accompany the plethora of chilled, funky beats and basslines.

Little Simz raps with an enviable confidence, one that cuts through even when her style barely rises above the volume of a conversation. She talks about personal issues, racism, fathers, and above all success through hard work. One listen to SIMBI (which is incidentally her first name), makes it clear that Little Simz was always going to make it one way or another. She raps about the level of dedication reserved to those who feel they have a right to be heard, and - in Little Simz’s case, she’s right, with a flow that is an absolute joy to listen to combined with astute lyricism.

On very few occasions over the album’s significant running length, Little Simz’s lyrics feel a little forced, and the interludes feel skippable after a listen or two. Those issues aside though Sometimes I Might be Introvert is one of the most straight-up enjoyable hip-hop albums I’ve heard for a while, with quality tracks from start to finish, production that sounds like a million dollars (in a good way), and the rewarding feeling that someone who truly deserved to break through with her last album, has flourished. It’s hard to imagine she doesn’t have a masterpiece up her sleeve soon, but this isn’t quite it.

Song Picks: Introvert, Woman, Point and Kill, Rollin Stone

8/10

Technically her first EP, but coming in at a very album length of 32 minutes it could easily be seen as her fourth album instead. Heaux Tales was named album of the year by Pitchfork.

An honest and personal hip-hop album, Heaux Tales is about women being proud of who they are, of their sexuality, and their femininity. Heaux Tales is a powerhouse of an album, and a bold statement of female empowerment. It makes a mark not only with its message, but also its slick production and great songwriting. Sullivan’s vocals are pitch-perfect, while still containing plenty of character, and her performances are powerful and yet vulnurable in a way that only someone with supreme confidence in her craft could muster. The album is a little too overtly sexual for my tastes, and that’ll impact how often I rerurn to it for sure, but I respect that is very much a personal thing, and that this album achieves what it sets out to do pretty spectacularly.

Oh and Lost One is gorgeous.

Song Picks: Put It Down, On it, Lost One, The Other Side

8/10

Lingua Inota’s fourth album is a vocal powerhouse, the imagery is less satanic than her previous album Caligula but no less religious in content and sound. The whole thing sounds like a visit to some culty church, where Kristin Hayter sings with an otherwordly power and accuracy over the top of the raucous pounding of instruments bouncing off the ornate walls.

Sinner Get Ready is very challenging, and I felt my body bracing to get through certain sections - the doom-laden organ sound on the opening trackTHE ORDER OF SPIRITUAL VIRGINS for example - but it’s ultimately worth it, even if I can’t see myself returning to it too often. Hayter’s vocal performance is astounding, full of drama, variety, and moments of pure brilliance, and the musical bedrock formed by Appalachian folk instruments accompanies the organ perfectly, creating a dark, doomed atmosphere. Sinner Get Ready absolutely isn’t for everyone, but Hayter’s ability to craft albums that sound so unique and important is remarkable, and I’d say this is essential listening for anyone interested in the pushing of musical envelopes.

Song Pick: THE ORDER OF SPIRITUAL VIRGINS, MANY HANDS, MAN IS LIKE A SPRING FLOWER

8/10

22. Collections from the Whiteout

Ben Howard

Howard’s fourth album sees him turning to a more electronic sound, something presumably somewhat forced by his lockdown isolation.

Collections from the Whiteout is meandering, but it’s not the kind of meandering where you’re lost and everything is so grey that no destination appeals more than another, it’s the kind of meandering where everything is so quietly bursting with beauty, that an aimless wander is the only way to soak it all in. It doesn’t hit me as hard as the excellent Noonday Dream, leaning a little too much into the steady and calmer parts of that record, but it’s still as gorgeous and earthy as that forest on the hill.

Song Picks: What a Day, Follies Fixture, Rookery

8/10

The Scottish band’s fourth album does nothing unexpected, but refines what the band do so well yet further.

Lauren Mayberry’s vocals soar even more than usual on this record, as she crafts dramatic melodies that punch through the dense productions with inspirational power. Mayberry’s lyrics are as personal as any from the band’s previous albums, with songs of broken relationships, deaths, and struggles with fame and society’s expectations. Iain Cook and Martin Doherty’s production is as maximalist as always, though with a taste for a few frequency filling instruments rather than many thinner ones to achieve a similar effect. The songs sound bigger than they ever have - no mean feat - and it’s hard not to be swept away by the album’s epic sound. Some of the melodies are starting to sound familiar here, and it wouldn’t hurt to have the odd song that doesn’t sound as if the planet depends on it, but this is another thoroughly enjoyable, danceable, singable and emotional cannonball of an album.

Song Picks: Violent Delights, How Not to Drown, Nightmares

8.5/10

Rodrigo’s debut album has been one of the year’s most commercially successful, and it’s easy to see why. Packed front to back with punchy bangers swarming in catchy melodies, it also features vocal performances from Rodrigo that aren’t afraid to include imperfections for the sake of emotional honesty.

There’s punk rockers like the opening brutal, slower ballads like traitor, and straight-up pop gems like good 4 u, one of the year’s most recognisable singles with its Paramore-esque chorus. There really isn’t a song here that couldn’t be a hit single, and that’s no mean feat.

SOUR isn’t afraid to sound like an album written by a 17-year-old and that’s what makes it so bloody good. It perfectly conveys the raw emotions one experiences at that age before getting numb to it all in later life, and it does it in a way we can all relate to. It’s pretty hard not to sing along to SOUR once its approachable lyrics bury themselves into your brain, and that’s because it encapsulates a part of all of us.

Song Picks: traitor, drivers license, good 4 u, favorite crime

8.5/10

Wye Oak co-founder Jenn Wasner released her debut studio album in 2016 under the moniker Flock of Dimes, this is her second solo album.

Dream pop can easily get lost in its own pretty atmospheres at times, and when that happens it can get quite dreary. Head of Roses is anything but. Jenn Wasner’s melodies and vocals are constantly captivating, rising above the beautiful musical backdrops to take you into the album's dreamy, melancholy world again and again. And when it all gets stripped back on the album’s more minimalist tracks, her vocals more than carry them.

It feels like a ride through some nebula on the back of a dragon, but one of those friendly cartoon dragons. If someone asked me what the prettiest album of 2021 was, this would undoubtedly be in contention.

Song Picks: 2 Heads, Awake for the Sunrise, Head of Roses

8.5/10

The Hold Steady’s eighth studio album was the first very much approached as an album rather than a collection of songs according to vocalist and lyricist Craig Finn, who has made more of a name for himself on his solo records recently. It’s no secret that The Hold Steady are one of my favourite bands, though I generally prefer the earlier records, and I feel their albums are more cohesive than this comment from Finn suggests.

Open Door Policy sees the band slow down, Finn is now nearly 50 after all, but still explosive when they need to be. It feels like a blend of the rambunctious the Hold Steady of old and Craig Finn’s great recent solo records, with the slower, more atmospheric soundscapes accompanying his Kerouac style lyrics on tracks like Lanyards, seamlessly linking with the song’s heavier chorus. It’s one of the album’s most poignant songs, telling the age-old story of someone going to California to follow their dreams of fame, only to come up empty:

I saw a few stars
But I never made it into a movie
Still trying to make moves
But I'm back in Independence, Missouri

The album’s crescendos are tastefully toned back to make sure you can still hear every one of Finn’s lyrics, which makes the louder parts of the record such as the triumphant, brass infused chorus of the lead single Family Farm punch less from an instrumental perspective, but Finn’s poetry and performance has always been what pulls The Hold Steady apart from other bands, and so keeping the focus on that is a wise decision in my books.

Open Door Policy flows as well as any album they’ve ever recorded, and it nails those highs that the band are so good at. It’s my favourite Hold Steady album since 2006’s Boys and Girls in America.

Song Picks: Lanyards, Family Farm

8.5/10

The English rock band’s second album was born of a more thought out and less improvisational style than their excellent 2019 debut, Schlagenheim.

While prog-rock has never quite reached the heady heights it reached in the 70s and 80s, there are still plenty of prog-rock bands around, though many seem to have got lost in the ‘look how well I can play my instrument’ craze. Black-Midi are very much bucking that trend. Don’t get me wrong, they’re stupidly proficient at their instruments, especially considering how young they are (they were just out of high school when gaining prominence in 2018), but that’s not the focus here. The focus here is to keep you on your toes. Cavalcade is constantly surprising, the fact that something as pulsating, grinding, and brilliantly abrasive as the opener John L is followed by something as calm and relaxed as Marlene Dietrich is a prime example of this. But it’s not just between songs, but in the songs themselves that this vivid unpredictability lives. Morgan Simpson’s superb, flurried drumming is the bedrock of an album that’s a perfect blend of calm and chaos. Intricate and barnstorming are words that can be used to describe different sections of many of the album’s songs, Chrondromalcia Patella being a great example, where the song’s finale threatens to explode into a chaotic mess, and yet is reigned in by Simpson’s seemingly superhero like ability to keep a beat no matter how intense and complicated everything gets around him.

My album of the year challenge has educated me plenty about prog-rock’s great records of the past, but Cavalcade is one of the best things I’ve heard released in the genre in recent years.

Song Picks: John L, Marlene Dietrich, Chrondromancia Patella

8.5/10

16. By the Time I Get to Phoenix

Injury Reserve

Injury Reserve member Stepa J Grogs died during the recording of this, their second album, and it is dedicated in his memory by surviving members Ritchie with a T and Parker Corey.

By the Time I Get to Phoenix very much defies genre descriptions, and is rather hard to put in a box. There are the rap elements you’d expect, but they’re by no means a centre point, and in fact the album manages to go along without having a clear centre point. It gracefully moves through its plethora of musical ideas, creating something that is rather hard to pin down, but in a way that adds intrigue rather than any feelings of frustration.

There’s no verses or choruses here, just sounds. It’s not ambient in any way - it hits too hard for that - but it shares a certain floaty, structure-free feel with the genre. However, while ambient music is often akin to something being delicately sprinkled near your ears, this is more like a frenetic scattering of thoughts, both musically and lyrically. Top Picks for You comes close to a structure, with the poetics perfectly accompanied by what sounds like a melodic siren. It’s a song that manages to sound massive with little, and one of my favourites of the year, a soulful, smooth, and ethereal record of loss. Wild Wild West disintegrates any calm that track may have built up, with what sounds like a frantic and futile scramble for cohesion.

By the Time I Get to Phoenix has been considered post-rap by some, and it defies genres so well that the only way to describe it would be to come up with a suitable new one, post-rap seems as good as any to me. I find the album’s reluctance to be grappled frustrating at times, but when I let go and stop trying to grapple it, it feels unlike anything I’ve heard for a long time - and it soars.

Song Picks: Top Picks for You, Knees, Bye Storm

8.5/10

JPEGMAFIA’s fourth album was released as both an ‘online’ (streaming services version) and offline (bandcamp, youtube and music sellers) version. In his ‘liner’ notes on bandcamp, JPEG claims the offline version is the ‘true LP!’, so that’s the one I’m going to review here. The record is perhaps less manic and envelope breaking than 2019’s All My Heroes are Cornballs, but it still skips and shouts with the punk mentality of a renegade.

LP! is an absolute bundle of energy, on DIRTY! it flits between staccato raps and percussion and dropping into one of my favourite bass parts of the year, an exhilarating nose dive down a tunnel slide. On END CREDITS (track 4, naturally), JPEGMAFIA demonstrates why he’s often considered the intersection between rap and punk, as he growls and screams over the top of an almost post-punk guitar riff. As with All My Heroes…, LP! is completely restless, jumping from one idea to the next like a 5-year-old child’s brain, only this time JPEG occasionally decides to turn an idea into a song, rather than having it appear once only for it to never appear again. This makes for a few more songs that work out of the context of the album, such as the aforementioned DIRTY!, as well as the superb REBOUND, where the squashed brass melody sounds massive. However, I’d still say this is best listened to as one crazy whole. THOT’S PRAYER is a great example of JPEGMAFIA’s originality here, and its fabulous repurposing of Britney Spears’ Hit Me Baby One More Time is probably my favourite ‘cover’ of the year

LP! is a condensed hit of unrefined sugar, one that only feels more conservative than his last release because that one broke so much ground it’s hard to find any new ground to break. As JPEG says on bandcamp, this is not for ‘doing the dishes to or whatever’, this is for those that like detail, and LP! sure is crammed with that.

Song Picks: DIRTY!, THOT’S PRAYER, END CREDITS, REBOUND

8.5/10

Bandleader Michelle Zauner said of their third release, "After spending the last five years writing about grief, I wanted our follow up to be about joy". The joy begins with the opening track Paprika, one of my favourite songs of the year featuring a triumphant melody accompanied by orchestral synths and marching toms which switch for a snare drum during the song’s brilliantly cheerful chorus. The joy continues with Be Sweet, an 80s pop-rocker with another immaculate set of melodies, which in a more perfect world would have spent weeks on end at number 1.

The album is full of great little touches around its songs’ central melodic anchors. Slide Tackle, a song about essentially wrestling your mind to be positive features fluttery guitar parts from Ryan Galloway for example, which really add a lot of depth to its sound. Posing in Bondage, a sultry song about controlled desire is elevated by synthy, pounding bass and what sounds like a sparkling xylophone during its climax. There’s a lot going on in each song here, with a sonic depth that is to be lauded. The instrumental ending to the closing track Posing for Cars is absolutely gorgeous too, taking me right back to my childhood with that 80s guitar solo.

Jubilee is a brilliantly executed pop album, that manages to convey a positive outlook, while never sounding too cheesy.

8.5/10

Turnstile’s third album is widely seen as their best yet, and it’s not difficult to see why. GLOW ON sees the band’s hardcore sound sprinkled with more than a dash of dream-pop, and it’s that inspired combination that gives the album a lot of its dynamics, which are what essentially make the album so great. The album makes every riff hit hard, which is no mean feat, and is as much about what precedes those riffs as the riffs themselves. Everything feels carefully sculpted for maximum impact. This almost scientific method of song construction can often make the resulting music sound stale and machine-like, but that’s not the case here. A lot of credit has to be given to Brendan Yates’ vocals, which sound as if he’s completely feeling everything he sings. There’s no feeling of over-rehearsed staleness here, and considering the amount of rehearsing that must have gone into some of these fairly complex arrangements, that’s rather impressive.

GLOW ON is the hardest hitting album of the year by a country mile, and it achieves this not by subjecting us to a constant barrage of distorted guitars (though there’s plenty of that), but by carefully switching things up just enough to keep things fresh, while never sacrificing its accessibility. GLOW ON isn’t revolutionary, but it’s reverb-drenched and slightly softened hardcore is refreshing, and it’s my favourite heavy album of the year.

Song Picks: MYSTERY, BLACKOUT, DON’T PLAY, UNDERWATER BOI, ALIEN LOVE CALL

8.5/10

Richard Dawson is one of those artists glaringly missing from my musical map, and this, his release with Finnish rock group Circle, has made me realise that is a wrong that needs to be righted pronto.

Conceptually the album is rooted (sorry…) in plants, with all seven of its tracks being named after one. Within this framework Dawson weaves the stories he’s so good at, on Ivy, about the Greek God of wine Dionysus, about the true story of a 32,000 year old seed being brought to life on Silene and on Methuselah, about the sad chopping down of what was thought to be the world’s oldest organism by Geographer Donald Rusk Curry in the 60s, the title referring to the name of what is now the oldest known living organism.

Researching lyrics to songs is rarely as fascinating as it is with Henki, but there’s a whole lot more to it than its strong, unique and interesting lyrical content. Dawson’s vocal performance is unpredictable, which is something new for the folk style he leans into. His melodies seem spontaneous, and he’s not afraid to test the range of his vocals and throw in imperfections. Circle’s backing is as masterful as you’d expect from a band that has released around 40 albums. There’s a wide variety of textures, from some that are clearly 70s metal-inspired, to others that are more prog-rock, to more ambient - almost jazzy - work in the breakdown of the 12-minute epic Silphium, which has a superb, almost post-rock finale. Henki stands out like an oak among pines for its sheer uniqueness, and from a songwriting perspective, it’s one of the most inspiring works of the year for me personally.

Song Picks: Cooksonia, Silphium

8.5/10

Many bands sound more and more tired as the years go on, as they become stuck for ideas. This isn’t the case with Low, a duo from Minnesota comprising of Alan Sparhawk on vocals and guitar, and Mimi Parker on drums and vocals. HEY WHAT is their 13th album, and it sounds as fresh, energetic, and bullish as a debut album.

Part trance, part rock, part pop and all Low, HEY WHAT is a statement of minimalism and maximalism all at the same time. There aren’t many instruments here but they all sound huge; that synth pounding into the distance on I Can Wait, sounds like it’s coming from another solar system, a warning of an approaching trance army. Sparhawk and Parker’s vocals often combine on the tracks to create an ethereal sound that seems to have no source, much like the pulverising distorted guitars and synths they sound as if they’ve just been birthed out of the midnight air.

At times, Hey What threatens to crumble into tiny particles and spread into nothingness, as if it’s become too big for this earth. Generally though, Low is a perfect example of making the most of one thing, rather than adding a lot of things. It creates walls of sound without drums or tons of instrumental parts overdubbed, using only the sheer breadth of its sounds. That guitar (I think?) on Disappearing, for example, seems to have its own gravitational pull, sucking you into your headphones.

Low feels like a monstrous barrage of sound and a warm pillow all at once, remarkable.

Song Picks: Disappearing, Hey, Days Like These

8.5/10

SKA DREAM is an oddball - it’s a complete ska rework of Rosenstock’s previous album NO DREAM, one which I confess to not having heard yet, despite it being on my list to check out when it came out last year. I was going to rectify that before listening to this, but then I thought it might be interesting to hear the perspective of someone for whom this is their first exposure to these lyrics and melodies - which I’m told are the same as the initial album.

It goes without saying for a ska album that this thing is energetic, but I’m going to say it anyway. Jeff Rosenstock has always had a talent for great pop-punk melodies and a style of singing that somehow makes them less Blink 182 and Sum 41, and with a lot more edge. Rosenstock’s lyrics are as cynical and brilliant as ever. From the opener NO TIME’s lyrics of having to be ok with living in a world you rather disagree with “Did you learn to make amends with your pile of flaming shit / Gain the patience to deal with total idiots?“ to on the nose commentary of school shootings in the US in NO DREAM, “They were lining up the unsuspecting teens / For a violent moment of celebrity”. Rosenstock is unflinching, and that helps to create that cathartic energy he always seems to muster on his records. He’s also more than happy to make songs less than 2 minutes long, which is an under-appreciated skill in my eyes.

If I had to choose a 2021 album to listen to performed live, then I’d choose NO DREAM. Not only because I’ve missed ska, but because the record’s bursting with resigned anger at the state of the world, and it feels like a scream of frustration at the walls (that of course don’t give a shit) that’s not only relieving but a silly amount of fun too.

Song Picks: NO TIME TO SKANK, Horn Line, Ohio Porkpie

8.5/10

9. To See the Next Part of the Dream

Parannoul

South Korean musician Parannoul’s second album is a post-rock masterstroke. No one knows who they are, or whether they have any help to create this mass of noise.

I guess To See the Next Part of the Dream sounds most like shoegaze if you had to categorise it, but it’s a lot messier than the sparkling, perfectly produced wall-of-sound we’ve come to expect from the genre. The drums on this album sound like they’ve been recorded on a phone - fuzzy and distorted, the bass is there but somehow so woolly it’s hard to tell what it’s doing other than adding some ‘thickness’ and the guitars are so distorted that at times, such as on the title track, they seem to blend into, and become one with the fizzy cymbal mayhem created by the drums. It’s lo-fi, but it somehow also sounds quite full, where a lot of lo-fi is thin. The opening of the penultimate track Chicken sounds bloody humongous for example. Parannoul’s vocals are so drowned out by the din around them, that it barely matters that they’re being sung in South Korean, I’d never have a chance of understanding them even if they were in English. The lyrics are helpfully translated on Bandcamp, and it only takes reading the opening track’s final verse to fully appreciate the amount of self-loathing on offer here:

I wish no one had seen my miserable self
I wish no one had seen my numerous failures
I wish my young and stupid days to disappear forever
My precious relationships, now they’re just in the memories

To See the Next Part of the Dream sounds like the anger of someone being told daily to ‘love themselves’ when all they want to do is scream about how much they don’t. The songs are massive, they build and build so much that at times it feels like flying. It’s as if Parannoul has sunk so low that they’ve found the musical ingredients for euphoria down there, and as the fuzz consumes you for over an hour, they try desperately to scream through the dreamy hiss and chaos. You’re left feeling cleansed, but not because of any renewed positive outlook. Quite the opposite, ‘the next part of the dream’ is a euphoric acceptance of mediocrity.

Song Picks: White Ceiling, Analog Sentimentalism, Chicken

8.5/10

Owusu’s remarkably accomplished debut album is one of the most god-damn fun things to come out this year. Owusu is completely unafraid to shift genres with tracks ranging from hip-hop to rock, to pop and sometimes seemingly all three at once. Owusu states that the album is “Performing what the world wants to see, even if you don't have the capacity to do so honestly. Slathering honey on your demons to make them palatable to people who only want to know if you're okay if the answer is yes. That's the idea, turned into beautiful, youthful, ugly, timeless and strange music.”

It does exactly that, Smiling With No Teeth is infectiously fun while beneath its surface, for those who are ready to hear it, there are stories of depression and mental health struggles. For those not ready to hear it, there’s pumping bass riffs, an infectious enthusiasm coming through from Owusu, catchy melodies, and above all, a variety and quality to the songs that would keep even those with the lowest attention spans entertained. I mean who would have thought that the guy who wrote a song like the emotional depression-ballad A Song About Fishing, would also write something as bouncy and gruff as the excellent Don’t Need You or as ragged and rocking as Black Dogs!. A Song About Fishing , by the way, is quite possibly my favourite song of the year. A perfectly produced song that’s chorus is as apt as anything written on depression this year:

And rise and shine, to dawn I wake
To cast my net in a fishless lake
Rise and shine, to dawn I wake
Casting my net in a fishless lake

Smiling With No Teeth is unpretentious and fun. It has depth while never making you feel bad for not looking for it, and it’s glorious.

Song Picks: Waitin’ On Ya’, A Song About Fishing, On the Move!

9/10

The Weather Station’s fifth album is like a meadow; nothing sticks out and calls for your attention, but together everything creates something majestic. And like a meadow, if you focus in on the individual parts, they’re all gorgeous in their own quiet way.

Tamara Lindeman’s vocals are sung as if no one is listening, so completely personally and quietly that the whole album feels like an intimate and important moment. All the instrumental additions complement this feel perfectly, with an alluring softness to them, gently sparkling as to never distract your attention from the whole, while adding up to make one of the most remarkable soundscapes of the year. A beautifully introverted journey that blooms and blooms with each listen.

Song Picks: Robber, Atlantic, Loss

9/10

Chrystia "Tia" Cabral’s experimental pop project Spellling returns with a third studio album, which Anthony Fantano named his favourite album of 2021 and gave a rare 10 to, something he’s only done with 6 other albums.

The Turning Wheel is sumptuously produced, Cabral’s vocals perfectly clear above the lush soundscapes created by the heap of additional musicians on this album, mainly adding a substantial brass backing to many of the album’s songs. The Turning Wheel is a carefully crafted experience that is melodic, constantly sonically engaging due to the wide array of instrumental touches, and probably the most well-produced record of the year. The whole album is luxurious to listen to and completely cohesive, succeeding in transporting me to a fantastical world that’s a complete joy to be enveloped in. A perfectly executed album.

Song Picks: Little Deer, Turning Wheel, Boys at School

9/10

Tuareg musician Mdou Moctar’s sixth album has made quite a few end of year lists in the English-speaking world. All the more impressive when you consider the whole album is sung in Tamasheq - a Malian variety of Tuareg - and that it’s very much rooted in traditional Tuareg music. For those who don’t know (I didn’t), the Tuareg people are a large ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Algeria, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. Mdou Moctar himself is based in Niger.

Of course, I can’t speak about the lyrical content of the album, but I can talk about the music. It’s certainly refreshing to have more exotic rhythms and instruments than is typical in any of these albums, but that’s far from the album’s only selling point. The melodies on Afrique Victime are gorgeous - the soft recent single Tala Tannam a fine example, but what really makes Afrique Victime so brilliant, is Moctar’s incomparable guitar playing. It could be because I've not listened to any Tamasheq music before, but to me he sounds so unique, so prodigious, that I get excited every time I put this record on. Known to some as the Hendrix of the desert, his solos are the centrepiece to all the album’s tracks, with his guitar work on the title track in particular being nothing short of stratospheric. From the opening track Chismiten, where he arrives with some gnarly bluesy grit, Moctar’s guitar playing is exciting, bursting with energy, and completely his own. He plays using mainly his hands using a rapid finger movements as shown in this interview, and this pick-free style helps create his more free-form, less defined sound that is at times so fresh and powerful that I was giggling with joy. Afrique Victime is the best ‘guitar album’ I’ve heard for a long time.

Moctar, in the aforementioned interview, talks about how music isn’t as controlled in Africa as it is here, when he makes a tape it inevitably gets copied hundreds of times and sold on. Indeed, he first gained notice through a trading network of cellphones and memory cards. He talks of hearing his music on people’s phones as he sat on buses, people none the wiser that the guitarist they’re listening to is sat right next to them. Moctar doesn’t seem all that bothered about fame, ‘I can’t tell them’ he says, it’s pretty clear that Moctar plays the guitar because he bloody loves it, and that comes across perfectly on Afrique Victime, a tour de force of creative joy, and as great a testament to the power of the guitar as I’ve heard this decade.

Song Picks: Afrique Victime, Chismiten, Tala Tannam

9/10

4. Promises

Floating Points, Pharaoh Sanders & the London Symphony Orchestra

We’ve had Pharaoh Sanders on plenty of albums on these lists already, way back in the 60s and 70s on both John and Alice Coltrane’s records for example, and it’s a delight to have him back here in 2021, combining with British producer Sam Shepherd, more commonly known as Floating Points.

Promises consists of one 46 minute piece divided into nine movements. The whole piece is composed by Sam Shepherd, with Pharaoh’s playing featuring extensively, and yet sparingly, throughout. Promises is a triumph of electronic meets classical, an ambient masterpiece that glides like the passing of time on a cobbled Italian street, with people sitting on balconies nursing a coffee as the sun sets. Pharaoh Sanders’ saxophone playing is some of the finest instrumental playing to appear on any modern record, his phrasing is measured and delicate, and yet he’s unafraid to skitter out more elaborate lines such as on the majestic Movement 5. At 80 years old he plays like an absolute master of his instrument, someone who can do it all, and yet does only what is needed. Shephard’s synth and piano provide a sparkling playground for Sanders to showcase his considerable talents in the opening 4 movements, before the Shephard’s string arrangements (played by the London Symphony Orchestra) take a more central role for the record’s second side. The saturated, long notes conjure up images of dramatic landscapes as Shepherd’s central piano twinkle keeps things grounded and flowing, before the piece settles into a gentle sparkle again in Movement 8.

This has quickly become one of my favourite ambient albums, up there with some of Brian Eno’s 70s creations, and I can’t give it any higher praise than that.

9/10

Space 1.8 is London based Belgian-Caribbean jazz musician Nala Sinephro’s debut album.

I mean where do you even start when talking about such an accomplished, well constructed, delicate piece of art from such a young musician. Nala was only 22 when recording Space 1.8, and yet she leads a whole host of UK jazz musicians to create something - that I guess has to be called ambient due to its lack of beats and relaxed, unstructured nature - but is so much more than that. The complex interwoven instrumental parts here combine to create something that immediately calms the mind, and brings on a state of simple clarity. But there’s a journey here too, as things build gently to the almost agitated Space 6, where the off-beat drums sound as if they’re frantically trying to make their way home, and the synths roar coldly before we’re lulled into the slightly calmer Space 7 which is orchestrated so perfectly with its unpredictable synth waves that it feels much like the calm after a storm. The storm may have disappeared, but it still lingers uneasily in you. By the 18-minute closing Space 8 we’re floating effortlessly through the twinkling stars, guided by various, almost bird-like, sounds and carefully breathed brass parts. Nala’s intricate performances on piano, keyboards and pedal harp have gently guided us - rather shyly for someone with such skill - through something that feels truly unforgettable.

Space 1.8 is a place I’ve escaped to on countless occasions this year, and it’s cleared my mind in a way very few things manage to do. I believe that comes from how well such underlying complexity is masked as something simple and ambient. The latter would stop working on me eventually, but Space 1.8’s underlying complexity seems to mean that my mind focuses on different things every listen, making each one its own journey. The album never quite seems the same, it almost seems alive.

Song Picks: Space 1, Space 2, Space 6

9/10

2. Volcanic Bird Enemy and the Voiced Concern

Lil Ugly Mane

Lil Ugly Mane’s third album sees the Travis Miller project turn away from hip-hop and features him singing on most tacks. It also gets the award for sounding the most like its cover this year which, when you look at the rather mad cover, is impressive.

Volcanic Bird Enemy and the Voiced Concern is scattershot, featuring a whole meld of different genres and styles, presented in Lil Ugly Mane’s characteristic lo-fi style. There’s a definite plunderphonic feel to the album here, and I’d most closely link it to a lo-fi and more drowsy version of the Avalanches, with the music seemingly being plucked or influenced from anywhere and everywhere. Vocally Miller is unspectacular and slightly detached, but that fits here perfectly in my opinion. I’m very much here for the way he sings catchy melodies with a lack of enthusiasm, as if he’s somehow bored of coming up with them. It all contributes to the pot-smoke drenched and breezy feel of the record.

I think Miller’s knack for a catchy melody is what ties the whole thing together (along with the delivery I’ve already mentioned), and while the music from song to song varies massively, there’s an undercurrent of fun and playfulness to all Miller’s seemingly LSD infused productions. The evocative, ramshackle and crackling 50s bar sound of styrofoam is just one of the glorious, complete surprises here, in an album chock full of them. The barnstorming distorted guitar haze of discard combined with the seemingly juxtapositional mumbled vocal is another.

Volcanic Bird Enemy and the Voiced Concern is as weird as it sounds, but it’s also brilliantly enjoyable and unpretentious, emanating a warm glow despite its often sombre lyrical content. It sounds like cynical creativity, and I love it.

Song Picks: benadryl submarine, discard, headboard, porcelain slightly

9/10

Electronic music producer Porter Robinson’s second album, and first for seven years perfectly combines folk, synths, electro-pop and shoegaze to create quite probably the year’s most uplifting album. Thematically songs are often about Robinson’s struggles with depression and his writer’s block. Nurture feels like the perfect expression of a turning point for him, one that he perfectly describes in a letter to fans from his Twitter about the single Get Your Wish, my favourite extract of which I’ll include here:

"I realized I shouldn't write music with the expectation that the productivity or achievement will fix my problems, but instead with the hope that my honest expression will move people the way music moves me. So when I was really struggling to write and it seemed impossible, instead of thinking, 'You're struggling because you're a fraud, you're clearly not cut out for this,' I began to tell myself, 'Yeah, this is what you sacrifice.'"

Both his depression and writer’s block are perfectly summarised in the final verse of the album’s lovely closing track, Trying to Feel Alive:

Then somebody somewhere finds
The warmth of summer in the songs you write
Maybe it's a gift that I couldn't recognize
Trying to feel alive

The album opens with pumping dance anthem Look at the Sky and takes us on a journey of well-produced, catchy songs featuring heavily processed vocals from Robinson, using pitch-shifting to give a male-female duet feel. The whole thing is consistently entrancing and cathartically personal and relatable in a way that electronic music - especially electronic music this lively - often isn’t. In a masterclass of how to pace an hour-long album, the record’s more piano rooted interludes and songs are perfectly placed to make the next folk-infused electronica banger hit all the harder. Robinson picked the name Nurture for the album because of how similar it sounds to ‘nature’. In a year where we’ve needed the former, and many have found it in the latter, it feels like the perfect album to celebrate getting through what has been a particularly tough year for many of us. The album’s heavily folk-inspired sound also helps with the ‘nurturing’ feel, grounding the album’s heavy production values somewhat.

Nurture’s rooting in warm, powerful synths and glowing, fuzzy vocals helps it feel like that childhood teddy bear or toy that still gives you comfort through memories of simpler times. Nurture feels like a euphoric bursting out of one’s mental cage in musical format, and there’s something truly glorious about that.

Song Picks: Sweet Time, Blossom, Wind Tempos, Musician, Something Comforting, Unfold

9.5/10

——————————————————————————————————————————————————

The lists I made sure to listen to (with albums that made it into my own top 10 bolded)

Anthony Fantano had the most make it into my own top 10, with 4.

rateyourmusic.com top 10 - this was taken in January 2022, and - with it being based on average user ratings - may change over time.

Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
LP! - JPEGMAFIA
Injury Reserve - By the Time I Get to Phoenix
black midi - Cavalcade
Floating Points, Pharaoh Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises
Lil Ugly Mane - Volcanic Bird Enemy and the Voiced Concern
Lingua Ignota - Sinner Get Ready
Magdalena Bay - Mercurial World
Black Country, New Road - For the First Time
Tyler, the Creator - Call Me if You Get Lost

albumoftheyear.org critic lists aggregated (Top 10)

Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
Tyler, the Creator- CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST
Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises
Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg
Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee
Olivia Rodrigo - SOUR
Low - Hey What
Turnstile - GLOW ON
Jazmine Sullivan - Heaux Tales
The Weather Station - Ignorance

Pitchfork Top 10

Jazmine Sullivan - Heaux Tales
L'Rain - Fatigue
Tyler, the Creator - CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST
Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises
Low - Hey What
Turnstile - GLOW ON
The Weather Station - Ignorance
Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime
Playboi Carti - Whole Lotta Red
Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg

Anthony Fantano (the Needle Drop) Top 10

Spellling - The Turning Wheel
Lingua Ignota - Sinner Get Ready
Arca - KicK iii
Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises
St Vincent - Daddy’s Home
JPEGMAFIA - LP! (2021)
Richard Dawson & Circle - Henki (2021)
Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
Porter Robinson - Nurture (2021)
Jeff Rosenstock - SKA DREAM (2021)

1982 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

December 09, 2021 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

It’s time to musically tackle 1982, the year the space shuttle Columbia made its first mission, Steven Spielberg’s E.T. and the Commodore 64 was released, the Falklands War happened, and Ingrid Bergman died.

We’re here for the music though right? Well, here’s what rateyourmusic.com’s users rate as their top 5 albums of 1982:

#1 The Cure - Pornography
#2 Kate Bush - The Dreaming
#3 Michael Jackson - Thriller
#4 Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
#5 Dead Kennedys - Plastic Surgery Disasters

I’m also grabbing this lot from further down the list:

#6 Glenn Gould - The Goldberg Variations
#9 Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
#13 The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour
#18 Hiroshi Yoshimura - Wave Notation 1: Music for Nine Post Cards

And we’ve also got an extra album from NPR’s best albums by female artists list (Kate Bush’s Dreaming is also on that list, but we already have it above):

Laurie Anderson - Big Science (#80 in NPR’s 150 Best Albums Made by Women)

10 albums, let’s go.

10. The Number of the Beast

Iron Maiden

The English heavy metal outfit’s third album was their last with drummer Clive Burr and first with vocalist Bruce Dickinson.

At this point it’s all a bit of a blur, but I assume I’ve talked about how I’m not a massive fan of the kind of howly, heavy rock that Iron Maiden are famous for, and I’m definitely not a fan of their cover art, this one being partricularly bad. That said, I’ve enjoyed my listens of The Number of the Beast with tracks like Children of the Damned being thoroughly daft and enjoyable. There’s no doubt that Dave Murray knows how to write powerful guitar riffs and ripping solos (see The Prisoner) and that Dickinson’s howled vocals add the required drama to proceedings, it just hasn’t got me past my prejudice towards the genre - something others have managed more effectively.

Song Picks: Children of the Damned

6/10

9. Plastic Surgery Disasters

Dead Kennedys

The Dead Kennedy's second album is lead singer Jello Biafra's favourite and sees them expand further into the high speed hardcore chaos that made Holiday in Cambodia such a great track.

East Bay Ray's guitar riffs are so frantic one imagines his left hand must be a blur while he's playing them, while Biafra’s vocals give off the vibe of someone imminently about to fall off a cliff frantically blurting out as much as they can before they do. Lyrically it’s a mix of political and social commentary, with Biafra’s battling against social norms being as present as ever.

You could certainly critiscise Plastic Surgery Disasters for being samey, and the songs do seem to blend into one a bit, but if you’re after fast songs ranting about a whole range of topics in a relentlessly energetic manner, look no further.

Song Pick: Government Flu

7/10

Kate Bush’s fourth album is often considered her most experimental, and it’s easy to see why. The poppy melodies of her other releases haven’t disappeared entirely, but they are much less frequent and replaced with a playful creativity.

The Dreaming’s tracks feature Kate Bush duetting with herself regularly, in fact - as on the superb Suspended in Gaffa - she’s often singing in four or more distinct styles. Combined with the rhythmic and often staccato instrumentation this creates a really unique sound, and one that I’d struggle to find anything comparable to even today. Bush has herself called the album ‘mad’, and indeed it is. There’s a feeling of freedom to the way the compositions skitter from melody to melody, instrument to instrument and section to section, in a way that is largely unpredictable and unvonventional.

I’m in no doubt that many will find this album a bit too challenging, it’s not as immediately gripping as 1978’s The Kick Inside for example, and there’s not all that much to latch onto or even remember particularly, but to those who give it time this is a really rewarding album that you’re unlikely ever to get bored of.

The Dreaming cements Kate Bush as not only someone who can write great songs - we already knew that from previous entries to these lists - but someone who is completely unafraid to be herself. Bush was already pretty singular before The Dreaming, with its release she became one of the most remarkable artists to grace our airwaves.

Song Picks: Suspended in Gaffa, Sat in Your Lap

8.5/10

The Fall’s fourth album is described by the lead singer, Mark E. Smith, as a satirical stand against "bland bastards like Elvis Costello and Spandau Ballet ... [and] all that shit", and features his standard abrasive vocal style and lyrics rooted in ‘kitchen sink realism’, a movement from the 50s and 60s in the arts that saw protagonists disollusioned with life and living in cramped working-class conditions, portraying a harsh and more realistic style than the art that had come before it. The album was mainly recorded in a disused cinema in Hertfordshire.

The album starts with the fantastically brash The Classical, which unfortunately drops the ‘N’ word within the first few lines, something that was not uncommon at the time. Mark E. Smith has claimed he’s singing as if it’s not him saying it - believable considering his lyrics are often built up of random outbursts coming from seemingly different people - but it’s still problematic as is explored in much more depth than I have room to here. That aside though, the song demonstrates the band’s ability to create an infectiously ramshackle sound - with the melody often coming from the guitars rather than Smith’s vocals, which snarl and grate in a way that’s so brash you can’t help but love them.

Jawbone and the Air-Rifle is another superb track with a guitar riff that you can imagine people bouncing around to aggressively in 80s clubs, Smith’s vocals carry more of a melody this time, something he’s more than capable of doing, while still never loosing that razor sharp edge he has. The track feels entirely unconventional, while also remaining very accessible. It sounds like a band playing in a room far too small for them, so the drums pound over everything else, while the guitars bounce off the grime on the walls and Smith has to thin his voice to make himself heard. It’s a rough, perfectly British mess that’s punker than punk itself. Hex Induction Hour’s remaining tracks are probably less memorable, and certainly less dance-able and infectious, but they’re still the musical equivalent of showing your teeth to the system.

Song Picks: The Classical, Jawbone and the Air-Rifle

8.5/10

The English band’s fourth album wasn’t well received critically, though it was their most succesfull up to that point commercially. It has since garnered plenty of critical acclaim, and is seen as an important album in the development of gothic rock. It was their final album with Simon Gallup, whose departure meant that all of the band’s following albums had a poppier, and lighter feel. This one is very dark though, and was written and recorded during what songwriter and vocalist Rober Smith called “an extremely stressful and self-destructive period”.

The Cure have always been the masters of atmosphere and it doesn’t take long to realise this album is no different, with the opening One Hundred Years’ guitar part sounding positively massive, with so much reverb put on it that you’d be forgiven for thinking you’ve fallen into a cave, “One and one we die one after the other” Smith sings as the guitar echoes this with suitably doomed notes. The Hanging Garden is a great example of the uptempo but downbeat thing that The Cure do so well, as the song chugs along at a fair clip while Smith sings lines like “Fall, fall, fall, fall out of the sky / Cover my face as the animals die” in a manner that suggests he’s had enough. But it’s not all doom and gloom… no, actually it is, every minute of Pornography is unapologetically devoid of hope. It’s a dip into the mind of someone at their lowest point, and yet in all the gloom and sadness, Smith’s melodies still fly. On the title track which closes the album, Smith is practically screaming as the drums march ominously on one side and a doom synth plays like a church organ signifying the end of time in the other, then it all cuts to black. Smith has cited this as the album that turned things around for him personally, and I see that cut at the end as the moment he’s got so low, that the only way is up, a flicker of hope that ignites a fire.

Song Picks: The Hanging Garden, One Hundred Years, Siamese Twins

9/10

Laurie Anderson’s debut is comprised of a selection of highlights from her eight-hour production United States Live - a performance piece in which music was only one element.

Big Science is avant-garde and hard to define. It’s electronic, but more concerned with soundscapes to back Anderson’s spoken word vocals than songs in the traditional sense. Having said that there are still melodies and hooks in there, often provided by other vocalists, as on the eerie title track, which brilliantly conveys the expansion of humankind in the following verse. Here Anderson cleverly turns direction giving on its head, referencing buildings that will be built rather than ones that are/were there:

Well just take a right where they're going to build that new shopping mall
Go straight past where they're going to put in the freeway
Take a left at what's going to be the new sports center
And keep going until you hit the place where
They're thinking of building that drive-in bank

O Superman, which became a surprise hit in the UK after John Peel championed it, is the album’s centrepiece and - in my opinion - masterpiece. Repeated ‘Ha’s’ in two different notes create the song’s spartan musical backdrop as Anderson talks enigmatically, and breaks into eerie melodies as she sings ‘here come the planes’. Originally inspired by the Iran hostage crisis in 1979 - the one depicted in the hit film Argo - it resonates far beyond that calmly presenting the fall of the world into some Orwellian nightmare:

'Cause when love is gone, there's always justice
And when justice is gone, there's always force
And when force is gone, there's always Mom.

Anderson begins to sing more after this song, and the album’s second half shines because of it. There’s a sense that Anderson has freed herself of self-consciousness as she bursts into a gentle, melodic flame.

Big Science is a bit like a 50 minute meditation session, but where instead of ‘scanning’ your body and feeling present, you follow Anderson’s soothing voice into an infinitely interesting and timeless void. It’s a kind of less on the nose, more beautiful 1984 in musical form. One of the most creative albums of the decade.

Song Picks: O Superman, Example #22, Let X=X

9/10

Springsteen’s sixth studio album is made up of songs that were initially intended to be demos that the E-Street band would flesh out, but he decided to release them as they were. It was recorded using just two SM57s and a 4-track recorder, as many a nerdy, wannabe sound engineer forum poster will tell you. Springsteen’s decision to keep the whole thing raw was a stroke of genius, and has played no small impact in the album being one of his most well regarded. Due to the sombre nature of the record, Springsteen never toured it.

Nebraska’s songs are about murderers, working class people, corrupt cops, or Springsteen’s childhood. He’s always been an exceptional storyteller, and when his songs are reduced to simple melodies, sparse acoustic guitar and harmonica arrangements and his voice, it’s his ability to get into the head of his subjects and portray their stories that makes this album shine so brightly. Bruce’s vocals are low and sombre, with none of the energy of Born to Run for example. There’s a resigned longing to all the songs, as if the songs’ subjects are always hoping for more, though they know they’ll never get it.

Such dark and intimate stories are presented here with no frills beside an atmospheric reverb. The lack of backup from a band makes the whole thing more intimate, you’re there with The Boss as he tells his stories. As Pitchfork’s review states, and indeed Bruce himself, Nebraska is as much about the presentation as the content. It was written in the environment it was recorded, and the songs would have lost something when taken out of that context. Nebraska is the perfect document of a moment when Bruce Springsteen sat down in his rented house in New Jersey, and unbeknownst to himself, wrote one of the most touching acoustic albums of all time.

Song Picks: Nebraska, Mansion on the Hill

9/10

3. Music for Nine Postcards

Hiroshi Yoshimura

Yoshimura’s debut album was initially intended to be played in the Hara Museum for Contemporary Art building, but was given a wider release after it garnered interest from the visitors. The album uses only a Fender Rhodes (a type of electric piano) and a piano. In the liner notes Yoshimura stated that he was inspired by “the movements of clouds, the shade of a tree in summertime, the sound of rain, the snow in a town." The album was only released in Japan in 1982, and was not given a release outside the country until 2017, when it was picked up by the Empire of Signs label and re-issued. It’s re-release was highly critically acclaimed.

Music for Nine Postcards is minimalistic, letting each note echo into your ears, it’s sad and yet hopeful, it sparkles and hums. A triumph in minimalism it sounds well ahead of its time, and could just as well have come out this year. The whistful twinkles of Clouds, the almost childish simplicity, but sheer beauty of the melody on Blink, and the quiet euphoria of Dance PM are just samples of the treat that you’re in for if you listen to this gem. The latter is perhaps my favourite album of the track, with certain notes being just out of time enough to feel real, natural, unprogrammed, and human - whilst maintaining a level of repetition that leaves me in a gentle trance. Dance PM is everything this album does so well. Unassuming, simple, really moving and bloody gorgeous from start to finish. Music for Nine Postcards has gently weaved its way into my heart, and I can’t see it ever leaving again. In a decade of excess, it hums along quietly and patiently, waiting for everyone to notice just how damn pretty it is.

Song Picks: Blink, Dance PM,

9/10

I’ve talked about Michael Jackson’s problematic nature in a previous review (1979’s Off the Wall), and how I think the evidence is pretty strong following numerous documentaries on the subject that he did indeed abuse children and that that has undoubtedly tainted his legacy and music, but also - more importantly - caused a lot of children and families unfathomable pain and trauma. Nevertheless, I’m going to talk about the music here, which is completely sublime.

The term is overused but I’ve no reservations in calling Michael Jackson a musical genius, something which is displayed here where he’s at the peak of his powers. Quincy Jones’ production is superb, with crystal clear instrumentation, and instrumental flourishes filling every space in a way that doesn’t feel overblown, but infectious and tasteful. On the all-time-classic opener Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ , that sublime guitar and bass groove are accompanied not only by Jackson’s sublime vocals - effortlessly going from gritty to smooth and always bang in tune - but also an endless array of instrumental touches; that brass shake echoing the bass and guitar line, the synth taps, I could go on. It’s a dance masterpiece, running through your blood and into your heart.

I’ve always been less of a fan of Jackson’s slower songs, but even those are great here, and he conjures up one of his most memorable melodies in the smooth The Girl is Mine where his vocals work surprisingly well with Paul McCartney’s, while Human Nature is another example of Jones’ knack of accentuating Jackson’s vocals by following them with perfect little guitar jingles, with a skittering, superb synth part that appears twice where most artists would hang an entire song on it.

The mid-album trio of Thriller, Beat It and Billie Jean are quite probably the best successive trio of songs on any album ever and Thriller and Billie Jean are undoubtedly two of the greatest pop songs of all time. The former combining gothic and pop in a way that hasn’t really been equalled before or since - those brass stabs, wolf howls, and that groove and narration by Vincent Price creating an atmosphere that’s so brilliant, that despite the fact I’ve hard it countless times, I still whoop whenever it comes on. Billie Jean features what I think is my favourite bass line ever, one which Quincy Jones apparently didn’t like and was only persuaded to use when Jackson told him it ‘made him want to dance’. I guess even the greats are wrong sometimes. The way the song starts with just the drums, before that bass line comes in, those little trumpet hums in the pre-chorus, Jackson’s imperious vocal performance, and that perfect chorus combine to make a song that’ll forever grace a list of my favourites. Hell, I’ve heard it 5,555,423 times, but yet here I am dancing around in my office chair to it, every nerve in my body revitalised. Billie Jean is a freaking beacon of life and energy smashing through your weary flesh.

Oh and I’ve not even mentioned Van Halen’s stupendous solo on Beat It have I? This album is just chock full of brilliance, so apologies if I’ve missed the odd bit.

I can totally understand those who don’t listen to Thriller, but I’m here to review the music rather than its creators, and I don’t think anyone can argue against the fact that this is one of the finest pop albums of all time.

Song Picks: Wanna Be Startin’ Something, Billie Jean, Beat It, Thriller

9.5/10

Classical pianist Glenn Gould initially recorded his interpretation of Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) in 1955, which sold very well for a classical album and very much launched Gould’s career. He re-recorded the variations in 1981 and died a year later in 1982, when this recording was released. Pitchfork have written an excellent comparison between the two here, but as this is an article about 1982 I’ll be focusing on the latter recording, which had sold over 2 million copies by the year 2000.

As Wikipedia states, Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) “is a musical composition for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of an aria and a set of 30 variations. First published in 1741, it is named after Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, who may also have been the first performer of the work.”

I’ve always enjoyed listening to solo piano performances - Keith Jarrett’s The Köln Concert is one of my favourite live recordings of all time - but this one definitely stands out among the crowd. Gould’s virtuoisic skill eminantes from all 30 variations here, with a confident, sturdy style full of beautiful flurries. This interpretation of the Variations sounds autumnal, you can almost imagine the leaves of trees falling in time with Gould’s intricate key presses. The Goldberg Variations is a truly sumptuous piano recording, it makes for great background listening while working, but it shines when you lie down, close your eyes, and submit yourself to its joyful, hopeful music, where Gould weaves delicate worlds of piano notes seemingly effortlessly. There’s something magical about being completely transfixed by just one instrument, and that’s absolutely the case here. The Goldberg Variations is magic.

10/10

1981 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

October 12, 2021 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music

Well, this one’s taken a while as there’s been some goings on in my personal life that have led to a period of reflection. Possibly due to the fact I’ve lived with these albums for a while, this is one of the highest scoring years of the challenge so far.

But anyway, what happened in 1981 outside of music? President Raegan and Pope John Paul II were both wounded by gunmen on separate occasions, MTV first went on air famously starting with the song Video Killed the Radio Star, AIDS was first identified and IBM introduced its first personal computer.

In music here’s what rateyourmusic.com users rated as their top 5 albums of the year:

#1 King Crimson - Discipline
#2 This Heat - Deceit
#3 Rush - Moving Pictures
#4 Glenn Branca - The Ascension
#5 Kraftwerk - Computer World

And here’s some others I’m grabbing from further down the list:

#6 Wipers - Youth of America
#7 Siouxsie and the Banshees - Juju
#8 The Cure - Faith

But we’re not stopping there, Pitchfork’s top 40 from the 1980s includes Computer World - which we already have - and Black Flag’s Damaged - which we’ll add.

Finally, I’m taking a look at NPR’s best albums of all time by female artists list, as well as their reader voted list on the same topic and grabbing the following from there:

Grace Jones - Nightclubbing
Rickie Lee Jones - Pirates
Stevie Nicks - Bella Donna
The Go-Gos - Beauty and the Beat

That’s 13 albums to battle it out for 1981’s title. Off we go.

The debut solo album from ex-Fletwood Mac vocalist Stevie Nicks sold rather well, and was certified quadruple-platinum in 1990.

Featuring a whole heap of additional musicians, many of whom are pretty big names in their own right, the songs on Bella Donna feel nicely fleshed out and well produced. The production isn’t particularly exciting though, and it definitely verges a bit too much into middle-of-the-road country for my liking. There’s enough inventiveness sprinkled throughout though to raise it above much of the repetitive music in the genre, something which Stevie Nicks’ barnstorming vocals, which are impressive while never being showy, only help with further. Oh and it includes Edge of Seventeen, one of the decade’s best pop songs in my books, featuring probably Nicks’ strongest vocal performance on the album.

Bella Donna didn’t blow me away, but it does have a certain sparkle to it that kept me coming back for repeated listens.

Song Picks: Edge of Seventeen, How Still My Love

7/10

Ignored upon release, Black Flag’s debut album has since garnered quite the following as one of the most influential punk rock albums of all time, as well as pretty much giving birth to West Coast Hardcore. Pitchfork ranked it as the 25th best album of the 1980s.

Damaged is incredibly angry, but doesn’t take itself all that seriously, as shown by the inclusion of hilarious tracks such as TV Party, which essentially details a night in in front of the TV ignoring world events. Very much a three chords and the truth kind of album - though Ginn’s guitar on Life of Pain is spectacular , Damaged rattles along at breakneck speed, jumping from power chord to power chord as Robo smashes the drums like a man possessed. Henry Rollins, who had just joined the band, growls over the top of the din with an anger so cathartic that you feel as if you’ve just spent 35 minutes shouting your head off by the time you get to the end of the album, when in fact you’ve just been sat on your arse typing out a review.

Damaged is a train ride into the pits of hell while entertained by a bunch of a clowns with their finger firmly on the pulse of your demise.

“We’ve got nothing better to do,
Than watch TV and have a couple of brews”

Song Picks: TV Party, Rise Above, Gimme Gimme Gimme, Life of Pain

8/10

The Cure’s third album is stylistically similar to Seventeen Seconds from last year’s list, with gloomy atmospheres and sad, detached sounding melodies drifting out from beneath them.

The Holy Hour sets the tone, a song written by Smith whilst in church listening to mass, a song of people slipping away and unfulfilled promises. As with many Cure songs Smith’s guitar work injects just enough energy and hope to stop it being quite as bleak as bands like Joy Division. The album’s only single, Primary, features that fast paced guitar part common on so many of the band’s poppier songs. A song about growing older, the lyrics are once again as bleak as can be, but the overall feel of the song is perhaps as positive as any on the album.

Faith continues the band’s themes of mortality, alienation, and the general futility of life, something that sounds as dour and grey as the album’s cover. But there’s more to it than that, musically there are lights being shone at Smith’s bleak poetics, as if asking him to turn in their direction, as they flicker to instil some hope.

In the caves, all cats are grey
In the caves, the texture coats my skin
In the death cell, a single note rings on and on and on

Song Picks: The Holy Hour, Primary All Cats are Grey, The Drowning Man

8.5/10

Grace Jones’ fifth album was voted as the best album of the year by NME’s writers, and is widely considered as her best album. It sees her turn to a more new-wave style, blending a whole host of genres such as reggae, dub, pop and funk.

Full of drastically re-imagined covers including groovy baselines and Jones’ characteristic vocal style. The highlight of the covers is perhaps that of Bill Wither’s Use Me, which seems written for Jones’ vocal. Of the Grace Jones co-writes, Pull Up to the Bumper is my favourite; another 80s groove-fest, with a bass-line that sounds immediately iconic. Combine that with the wavy synths scattered over the top and you end up with one of the album’s most infectious tracks. Jones’ suggestive lyrics caused much controversy and many radio stations refused to play it on initial release, but that hasn’t stopped it becoming one of her most well known tracks.

Nightclubbing is testament to Jones’ originality. Undoubtedly a massive influence on lots of later pop-music, both in terms of the music itself, but also her image - which works perfectly with the music here - it’s an album completely unafraid to tread its own path, and sounds like the kind of music that people in the Blade Runner universe would listen to. An 80s vision of a future where fun has become sparse, but still seeps through the cracks of an overly sterile world.

Song Picks: Pull Up to the Bumper, Use Me, I’ve Done it Again

8.5/10

Rush’s eighth album continues the more radio-friendly theme started on their previous album Permanent Waves and features two of their most performed songs, Tom Sawyer and Limelight. It was also their best selling album, reaching number 1 in their Canadian homeland, and number 3 in the UK and US.

The opener, Tom Sawyer, is perhaps the quintessential Rush track, we’ve got a whole mix of time signatures, Geddy Lee’s restlessly strolling bass, Alex Lifeson’s atmospheric and powerful guitar, Neil Peart’s incomparable drumming - which is somehow both robotically in time and yet full of boundless human energy - and it all comes together to make something surprisingly accessible. Very prog, but accessible. It’s one of the finest songs in their catalogue for me. But Moving Pictures is no one hit wonder, Red Barchetta creates one of the band’s best stories, a car chase between the titular classic and two more futuristic police vehicles as our protagonist “[laughs] out loud with fear and hope”. Once again the production is punchy, the instrumentation constantly intriguing, and you’re very much kept on your toes throughout.

Moving Pictures is Rush’s most approachable album, and it’s also my favourite. There’s still a pomposity to the lyrics at times, but it seems to work here as the 3 band members are unable to settle on a tempo, time signature, style, or indeed anything. The album has some truly moving moments - YYZ’s magnificently slowed down, almost orchestral mid-section for example - and it’s just full of instrumental brilliance and unique song-structures. A wonderful coming together of all the band’s powers.

Song Picks: Tom Sawyer, Red Barchetta, Limelight, YYZ

9/10

Rickie Lee Jones’ second album is partially a breakup album after her split with musician Tom Waits, it was critical success and was rated as one of the 25 most underrated albums of all time by Word magazine in 2005.

Pirates is an album focused around Jones’ loose piano led song structures. Her spoken word style fits perfectly with the often dreamy, night-time evoking twinkle of her piano playing and the backing instruments. The way Jones weaves intricately poetic vignettes in the verses and then belts prophetically “We belong together”, the song’s title, in the chorus of the opening track is a perfect example of her songwriting skill. She’s clearly capable of writing more standard, accessible hits (just listen to Woody and Dutch on the Slow Train to Peking for proof), but she doesn’t want to, preferring to play with musical structures, poetry and even a mix of genres to create something infinitely more unpredictable and interesting. Traces of Western Slopes is a particular inventive highlight describing care-free nightlife with it’s gorgeously meandering verses and sporadic, tight choruses that seem to drop from the night sky.

I do think Jones’ lyrics get lost in the mix at points, particularly when listening on speakers, which is a damn shame considering how great they are, so this is definitely one I’d recommend checking out on headphones.

Pirates is a real gem, an album evoking late-nights walking quiet streets, thoughts coming and going, and a sense of ease.

Song Picks: We Belong Together, Woody and Dutch on the Slow Train to Peking, Traces of Western Slopes

9/10

Back after a seven year hiatus, King Crimson released their 8th studio album, and with it they find themselves making yet another appearance on one of these lists with only guitarist and founder Robert Fripp and drummer Bill Bruford remaining from the band’s previous line-up.

Discipline lives up to its name in that it feels more disciplined and tight than King Crimson’s previous albums. There’s less 9 minute prog-rock operas, and more new wave and inventive pieces that march along like intriguing and intricate clockwork. There’s more than a hint of the Talking Heads here with guitar riffs repeating over and over again until, though staying the same, they seem to morph into something different. The driving percussion, such as on Thela Hun Ginjeet, dares you not to move. On Indiscipline we’ve got an absolutely barnstorming riff by Robert Fripp, as Adrian Belew stutters and shouts over the top while Bruford’s drums thrash around like an animal dying to a variety of time signatures. Initially, I felt like the two closing instrumentals felt out of place here, but I’ve changed my mind on that. The Sheltering Sky is beautifully haunting, and the closing title track sounds like the birth of math rock with its plethora of time-signatures weaving in and out of each other hypnotically.

Discipline very much lives up to its name. A tight, well crafted and disciplined album at the base with the band’s inventiveness and musical skill generously sprinkled on top. It’s a triumphant comeback.

Song Picks: Indiscipline, Matte Kudasai, Thela Hun Ginjeet, Discipline

9/10

The second and final album from the experimental group is assembled from largely improvised recordings recorded in a disused refrigerated storeroom at a former meat pie factory in Brixton, known as ‘Cold Storage’ recordings, a studio space the band would continue to run after they disbanded. Deceit was designed to convey the anxiety around nuclear war at the time.

There’s experimental, and then there’s Deceit, at times it’s so chaotic it can barely be called music, at others - Paper Hats is a good example - you can almost dance to it. Throughout its 40 minute duration, I wouldn’t say boundaries are being pushed particularly, but it just feels like they don’t exist. Triumph sounds like a drug-fuelled instantaneous idea coming to life, S.P.Q.R’s drums try to keep things in tow until giving up and imploding at the track’s end, much like the idea of civilisation it depicts, on A New Kind of Water, there’s definitely a rhythm, but it’s so complex that it’s hard to decipher, and anyone unacquainted trying to move to it will quickly look daft. Some have argued the vocals are the band’s weakness, but I think they add to the off-kilter instrumentals, providing the odd warm respite - the ‘chorus’ on Cenotaph for example - while generally expressing the press of stress not being allowed to escape or breathe. There’s a tension to the album crucial to its atmosphere, a feeling that at any moment the whole thing could blow up, never to be heard again.

Deceit is a mood, one of industrial fear and dissonance. It’s easy to say that it’s unlike anything else, which is true, but it also succeeds in transporting you out from wherever you are into its uneven, brash and creaking world.

Song Picks: Radio Prague, Makeshift Swahili, A New Kind of Water

9/10

Beauty and the Beat is one of the most successful debut albums from a sales perspective, selling over 2 million copies. It’s also widely critically lauded as a key album in the ‘new wave’ genre.

The all female group’s debut is nothing short of a delight, and one of the most fun albums I’ve listened to for a while. Belinda Carlisle’s vocal melodies are infectious, and will be bouncing round your head long after the album has finished. How Much More is a great example of both Carlisle’s aforementioned vocal talents, but also how well the band backs her up. As if the vocal melody wasn’t catchy enough in the chorus, the guitar riff that follows is bound to have you bopping around with a smile on your face. The album continues in much the same vein, with perfectly crafted pop-tunes lined up one after the other containing a simplicity that hits you like a refreshing sea breeze.

Beauty and the Beat is a superb album in its own right, but it’s even more remarkable that it was so successful in a business that was - and in many ways still is - so sexist. They were rejected from many record companies for being just another ‘girl band’, something many had decided couldn’t be successful. Even when the album was released they were the victim of sexist reviews, among the worst of which was by NME, who claimed “It sounds like a joyous, bubbling celebration by five cute girls, with no thought inside their darling little heads save for tonight’s beach party,” while others claimed if 5 men from the USA (you know, that famously mistreated group) had made the album, everyone would have hated it.

Beauty and the Beat is powerfully joyous in the face of adversity, and though the band recall being disappointed in how ‘poppy’ the album sounded when they first heard it, beneath its poppy exterior this album’s attitude is as punk as anything out there.

Song Picks: How Much More, Tonite, We Got the Beat

9/10

Youth of America_Wipers.jpg — 4. Youth of America

Wipers

Wipers’ second album saw a sharp change in direction for the band, from the more traditional short song punk group evident on their debut album, to the more experimental, atmospheric group unafraid to put out songs over 10 minutes in length we see on this record. Youth of America is regularly cited as one of the most influential post-punk albums out there.

Sprawling pieces ask questions more than give answers. The vocal melodies are always catchy and often anthemic. No Fair laments the unfairness of existence, and asks 'why?', and the superb Youth of America is defeatist and bleak on the one hand, while also being a call to arms, "we've got to save it now" Sage screams as the blaring guitar threatens to swallow him. The mid-section consists of screeching guitar parts, drowned mumbles and post apocalyptic wails from decaying machinery. The guitar hook returns towards the end of the song’s over ten minute duration as Sage repeats 'Youth of America' into oblivion. You're the only hope he implies, but you don't get the impression he feels the place is worth saving.

Youth of America is a superb desolate landscape of noisy decay, with Sage’s constantly searching soul encapsulated in a vocal performance seemingly born out of endless frustration. It’s a man shouting all the questions we’ll never know the answers to at the sky, knowing full well no one up there gives a shit.

Through your mirror there is such vanity
Tell me, what is it that it wants from me?

Song Picks: No Fair, Youth of America

9.5/10

Glenn Branca’s debut album is seen as a no-wave classic, no-wave being a pun on new wave, a style of music it was trying to be the antithesis of. No wave tried not to recycle and develop ideas that were already there, but create entirely new ones using dissonance and a lot of noise.

Ascension was largely an experiment as to what would happen when you play guitar strings tuned to the same note at high volumes, those high volumes were brought across more in the band’s famous live shows than they are here, where you’ve got control of the volume and are unlikely to submit yourself to an intentionally loud barrage of dissonance unless you’re feeling brave. I’d very much recommend braving it though, it’s worth it.

Probably the most challenging album on this list, Ascension is noisy, unafraid to offend, single-minded and chaotic. Even more experimental than Deceit by This Heat, it took me a few listens to get into the groove. But once I did, the apocalyptic church bells of Lesson No. 2; the teetering close to catchy riffs while sounding like the collapse of society of The Spectacular Commodity; the death march of Structure; and the title track, which finishes the album triumphantly like a persistent siren accompanying an alien invasion, had completely won me over.

Ascension is like a relentless noisy chisel working away all the barnacles you’ve picked up from your earthly voyage, it’s fucking magnificent.

Song Picks: Lesson No. 2, The Spectacular Commodity, The Ascension

9.5/10

Siouxsie and the Banshees’ fourth album is generally seen as one of the most important post-punk albums, and was both critically and commercially successful on release.

Siouxsie Sioux’s vocals have a real sense of importance to them, whether she's singing about being smitten on the opening track, or about what happens after death on Into the Light, her vocals really pull you into the music. The band's solid, multi genre influenced backing adds plenty of intrigue; the way the toms mix with that timeless guitar line on Into the Light is a prime example of the band's talent for creating a unique atmosphere of darkness that is somehow still inviting. ‘Guitar riffs’ would have to be ticked as another of the album’s strengths with the howling effort on Arabian Nights and 2000s indie foreshadowing guitars on Monitor and Halloween being prime examples. In fact, the more I think about it what makes this album are the vocals, and the guitar work, which are both consistently sublime.

Juju is bloody timeless, something not all that common in the 80s. It could have come out yesterday, and it clearly influenced a whole heap of things that did. It also contains probably the best vocal performances of the 80s so far.

Song Picks: Spellbound, Into the Night, Monitor

9.5/10

Kraftwerk’s eighth album deals with the rise of computers in society, it was ranked as the 25th best album of the 1980s by Slant Magazine, and the 18th best by Pitchfork.

Even more relevant now than it was in 1981, as our lives have now well and truly been taken over by computers, Computer World contains more human sadness in its crystal clear synth lines than their previous albums. Despite its content, it feels more soulful somehow, like the resigned cry of someone who’s only method of communication is through the computers they’re surrounded by.

I think what gives Computer World this magical sense of humanity are two things. Firstly, the production is absolutely top drawer, gone is that harshness from some of their earlier albums - and indeed from the albums of many of their contemporaries - and its replaced with an electronic smoothness that can only be described as ‘warm’. Secondly, the synth melodies here are sublime: like futuristic nursery rhymes they somehow cut straight to the core. Those four notes of the two title tracks seem to echo through the stratosphere all the way to the sun, while Computer Love is probably my favourite song of the 80s so far, with a combination of wonderful synth melodies - which were later used by Coldplay on their 2005 song Talk - complementing the lost robotic vocal perfectly. It’s a masterpiece. As Pitchfork put it when rating the song the 53rd best of the 1980s “It's hard not to wonder if the title ‘Computer Love’ was meant as ‘love for computers’ or ‘love through computers.’ Both ideas are now so commonplace and intertwined that they verge on indistinguishable. It’s hard to think of another song out there that so perfectly and warmly sums up the ‘Computer World’ we live in today.

Computer World came completely out of leftfield for me, I’d really liked the previous Kraftwerk albums that appeared on these lists, but I hadn’t loved any of them and I thought this would be the same. How wrong I was. Computer World perfectly predicts the world we live in today, but instead of making that chilling and apocalyptic as is generally done, they’ve approached the topic with warmth and compassion. There’s a sense that no matter how surrounded by computers we get, our humanity will still seep through the cracks, whether that be by the creation of emotive melodies using computerised sounds, or by writing such as this on that computer screen in front of you.

Song Picks: Computer World (1&2), Computer Love, Home Computer,

10/10

1980 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge

August 03, 2021 by Clive in Clive's Album Challenge, Music, Clive

And so we begin with the 1980s. I’m going to make a couple of changes (don’t worry they’re not that radical!) to the format of these going forward:

I’m going to make a concerted effort to make reviews shorter, so probably more of a summary feel than the song by song narrative I’ve been relying on fairly frequently. I’m still very much finding my review style, something I hope this challenge will help me with, so I’ll keep experimenting with this until I find a style that seems the most ‘me’.
Instead of doing a roundup at the end of a decade, where I check other lists and review any from the decade that have passed me by I’m going to try and incorporate a few from other lists - particularly female artist lists - as I go.

So, before we get onto music, what happened in 1980? Ronald Raegan was elected President of the USA, John Lennon was shot dead in New York City, CNN was launched as the first all-news network and Janice Brown made the first long-distance solar-powered flight in the Solar Challenger.

Onto music, here’s the top 5 rated albums for 1980 on rateyourmusic.com, which - as usual - automatically get added into my list:

#1 Talking Heads - Remain in Light (Also #5 on Pitchfork best of 1980s list)
#2 Joy Division - Closer - (Also #12 on Pitchfork best of 1980s List)
#3 Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
#4 John Williams - Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back
#5 Peter Gabriel - Melt (Peter Gabriel 3)

Of course, we can’t stop at five, so I’ve grabbed a few from further down the list:

#6 Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell
#9 Rush - Permanent Waves
#12 David Bowie - Scary Monsters
#14 Kate Bush - Never for Ever
#20 The Cure- Seventeen Seconds

Then, in a futile attempt not to miss anything I’m grabbing the below from a mix of Pitchfork’s best of the 80s list (anything from their top 40 not already included), NPR’s greatest albums by female artists list, and a reader version of the same NPR list.

Prince - Dirty Mind (#33 on Pitchfork best of the 1980s list)
The Pretenders - Pretenders (#60 NPR’s 150 Greatest Albums Made by Women list)
X - Los Angeles (#87 NPR’s 150 Greatest Albums Made by Women list)

And finally a recommendation from a friend: The Cramps - Songs the Lord Taught Us.

That brings the total to a hefty 14 albums. I’d best get on with it. Let’s see who emerges victorious.

Black Sabbath’s 9th album is their first without Ozzy Osbourne, and first with replacement vocalist Ronnie James Dio. It’s also where the 2006 band, again featuring Dio on vocals, gets its name from. The album sold well, becoming the band’s third best selling album, and best selling since 1975’s Sabotage. Critically, a lot of reviews at the time seemed to focus on whether it did or didn’t sound like Black Sabbath.

I’d say it doesn’t sound like Black Sabbath massively. Dio can certainly sing, and his style suits well here, but he doesn’t have Osbourne’s vocal charisma in my eyes (or ears), and sounds a bit cookie-cutter 80s metal to me. I think Heaven and Hell is a really enjoyable album, it’s not as interesting or varied as the previous Sabbath albums we’ve looked at, but it is quite infectious. Iommi’s guitar riffs are on point, and his soloing on tacks such as Die Young is stratospheric. Bill Ward’s drumming pounds more than ever, and Butler’s ever reliable bass playing provides a great foundation to everything.

Heaven and Hell sounds a bit like a band that are really bloody good at what they do playing it safe. Everything sounds clean and rather predictable, but their considerable sonic skill still makes it a very fun listen.

Song Picks: Children of the Sea, Heaven and Hell, Lonely is the Word

7.5/10

Rush’s seventh album see them them turning away slightly from longform songs and towards a more radio friendly format, though the closing song, Natural Science, is still over 9 minutes long.

Permanent Waves is probably one of the band’s most accessible albums, opener Spirit of the Radio is one of their most poppy songs, featuring a wavy arpeggio from Alex Lifeson on the electric guitar, and fluttering and yet completely on point drums from Neil Peart. It’s a pop song written by a band with considerable instrumental talent who aren’t afraid to show off. When the instrumental section lifts off and shifts effortlessly between reggae and metal as the track closes, it’s clear the band have lost none of their inventiveness. Lyrics are never Rush’s strongpoint I feel, and it’s the slightly on the nose nature of Freewill - which is otherwise excellent, especially Lee’s high pitched finish, which was the last time he’d sing like that on a recording - and other songs like Entre Nous, that make the album less interesting than it could be in my opinion. On the epic closer, Natural Science, the band focus on what they do best, flitting from one time signature to another like restless children who also happen to be musical virtuosos, it’s another surprisingly moving epic from the band.

Song Picks: Spirt of the Radio, Natural Science

7.5/10

X’s debut album was produced by ex-The Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek and ranked at number 286 in Rolling Stones’ best albums of all-time list.

As soon as the starting pistol fires, Los Angeles hits full speed and never lets up. The opener Your Phone’s Off the Hook But You’re Not perfectly displays the band’s unique combination of punk rock and rockabilly in a song about lead singer Exene Cervenka’s sister. Tragically, Exene’s sister died in a car accident on the night of the band’s first gig in support of this album in 1980. The album is energetic, with John Doe and Cervenka’s vocals being consistently great, and working together particularly well on one of the album’s highlights, the haunting The Unheard Music as well as what is quickly becoming one of my famous punk songs The World’s a Mess; It’s in My Kiss, where the rockabilly influence once again adds an unadulterated energy to proceedings.

Inexcusably, in the album’s title track the band drops the ‘N’ word, something an all white band rightly wouldn’t get away with now. The song itself personifies a case of tunnel vision, about someone blaming everyone and everything around them for their problems rather than perhaps once taking a look in the mirror. Apparently the band no longer use the ‘N’ word when performing the song live, changing the lyric to “every Christian and Jew” instead. Unfortunately, it’s still here on the re-release, and somewhat tarnishes what is otherwise a thoroughly enjoyable album.

Song Picks: Your Phone’s Off the Hook But You’re Not, The Unheard Music, The World’s a Mess; It’s in My Kiss

8/10

11. Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables

Dead Kennedys

American punk-rock band Dead Kennedy’s debut album is clearly inspired by the Sex Pistols, and is generally seen as an important album in the hardcore punk genre.

The album is energetic and simple, with much of its appeal being the humour and warble of Jello Biafra’s lyrics and vocals respectively. California Uber Alles is the album’s most famous track, a pop-perfect song about his unfounded belief that California hippy-ism was going to be imposed on the whole of the USA. It’s the only song that prominently features multiple vocal tracks, creating a real punch to the chorus which is further emphasised by East Bay Ray’s searing power chord riffs. It shows Biafra’s vocal energy and humour perfectly. The album’s other banger, Holiday in Cambodia, is a perfect critique of the privileged guy who self-righteously talks about those less fortunate than himself, while never actually doing much to help. The mix isn’t as punchy as California Uber Alles, and again there’s an uncomfortable dropping of the ‘N’ word, but the song is brimming with the liveliness that the band is known for. You could certainly criticise the rest of the tracks for being samey and not all that inventive, but there’s something to be said for the infectious vigour the whole album has. It feels like a musical kick in the arse.

Song Picks: Kill the Poor, California Uber Alles, Holiday in Cambodia.

8/10

Prince’s third album was produced, arranged and composed entirely by Prince in his home studio. He also played the vast majority of the instruments. As you might expect from the title, it’s completely filthy, and is often considered one of the main albums that smashed open the gates for sexually explicit albums and songs in later years.

Quite probably the sexiest album of all time, Dirty Mind is nevertheless a bit too unintentionally comedic to actually be an aphrodisiac. The opening title track sets the tone, managing somehow to be funky and yet entirely on the beat with a synth powering the piece forward like a disco fuelled train. When You Were Mine is one of Prince’s most famous songs, with cracking melody after cracking melody and that synth part combining with the twangy guitar work to create a truly iconic musical moment. Things start to get more comedic as Do It All Night enters the fray. There’s no point me even talking about the subject matter, the title says it all, but that bass part is some of the cheesiest and funkiest disco brilliance I’ve ever heard. Prince’s productions are intricate, and brilliantly measured, which is all the more impressive considering he’s playing most of the instruments here.

It’s difficult to take proceedings particularly seriously as Prince talks about sexual fantasy after sexual fantasy, but damn is this record a lot of fun. It’s rather impossible to sit still, and even trickier to wipe that stupid smile off your face as the album emits a beam of positive energy. Dirty Mind is quite literally ridiculously funky.

Song Picks: Uptown, When You Were Mine

8.5/10

The Pretender’s debut album very much put the band on the musical map, and is regularly mentioned in best albums of all time lists, such as that by Rolling Stone where it came 152nd in the latest iteration.

Pretenders is an intriguing mix of punk - with songs such as the opening Precious with its marching guitars and lively vocals from lead singer Chrissie Hyde - and pop, with hits such as Brass in Pocket and Stop Your Sobbing. Chrissie Hyde is just as at home with either style, and can certainly carry a catchy melody with plenty of personality. There’s a refreshing honesty to all the album’s tracks and Chrissie is unafraid to tackle more promiscuous topics such as on the explicit Tattooed Love Boys. Of the other band members it’s guitarist James Honeyman-Scott who provides the most memorable performances, with his guitar work on Kid being particularly fantastic, from the excellent riffs that follow each verse to the perfect solo that’s just the right side of cheesy. Oh, and there aren’t many better pop songs out there than Brass in Pocket, which blends the band’s punk attitude brilliantly with their growing pop sensibilities.

I think anyone can enjoy Pretenders, it’s a great pop record with some punk smattered in to keep you on your toes.

Song Picks: Stop Your Sobbing, Kid, Brass in Pocket

8.5/10

English rock band The Cure’s second album was their first to yield a UK Top 40 single, A Forest. The band’s lead vocalist and songwriter Robert Smith wrote most of the album’s music and lyrics at his parents’ home on a Hammond organ with a built in tape recorder. Bassist Michael Dempsey didn’t like the direction the band was going in and so left and was replaced by Simon Gallup.

Seventeen Seconds is regularly cited as an early example of gothic rock due to its gloomy atmosphere, and its that atmosphere that makes this record. The album is blurry, undefined, and rumbles along while you fill out the gaps in your mind. Guitar and piano lines are often repeated seemingly endlessly as you’re lifted into a quiet, calming, and ill-lit dream. Robert Smith’s vocals are often barely audible over the instrumentation, a distant, melodic mumble about failing relationships and the endless existential struggle. The album does occasionally pop out of the clouds and hint at The Cure’s poppier side, with songs like Play for Today perfectly demonstrating their penchant for bouncy guitar riffs perfectly accompanying Robert Smith’s quietly tortured vocals, with each as capable of a hook as the other. A Forest provides a slightly murkier demonstration of the same talents.

Seventeen Seconds is not the kind of assertive album to drill your brain with ideas, it’s a more passive, contemplative album for your brain to add its own notes and thoughts, for which it provides a rather gorgeous foundation.

I drown at night in your house
Pretending to swim, pretending to swim

Song Picks: Play for Today, Secrets, A Forest

8.5/10

7. Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)

David Bowie

David Bowie’s 14th album followed his critically lauded and massively influential Berlin trilogy. Scary Monsters sees Bowie turn to a more commercial sound, with a removal of the more experimental electronic tracks prevalent on particularly the first two albums of the trilogy. Scary Monsters was regularly talked about as Bowie’s last great album, until the releases of The Next Day and Blackstar in 2013 and 2016 respectively.

Scary Monsters feels like a culmination of the poppier aspects of Bowie’s 70s recordings, with catchy melodies, slightly overblown production, and that line between accessibility and weirdness that Bowie always treads so well. Songs like Ashes to Ashes and the bouncy Fashion are perfect examples of this, while Teenage Wildlife treads similar sonic grounds to Heroes, with Robert Fripp’s guitar - which is prevalent on many of the album’s songs - once again providing a perfect dramatic and melodic backdrop to Bowie’s howled vocals in what I think is one of Bowie’s more underrated songs. An album full of 80s pomposity while still being very Bowie, Scary Monsters is somehow both simple and complex at the same time. The sugar rush of a sweet, and the depth of flavour of a good vintage cheddar. Obviously those two things together would be disgusting, but hopefully you get what I mean.

Song Picks: Ashes to Ashes, Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), Teenage Wildlife, It’s No Game (Pt. 2)

8.5/10

6. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Soundtrack

John Williams

Composed by John Williams and recorded with him conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, the Star Wars soundtrack is unarguably one of the most iconic soundtracks in cinema, and nowhere is that demonstrated better than in this soundtrack release for Episode V.

Obviously the main theme is quite probably the greatest main theme of all time. Nothing gets my excitement flowing quite like the start of a Star Wars film as the text scrolls and the horns blare out that fabulous, triumphant tune. But it’s the lesser known pieces that make this collection what it is; the gentle, meditative beauty of Yoda’s Theme, the tentative hopefulness of The Training of a Jedi Knight, and the tense, winding The Heroics of Luke and Han. The latter first introduces the famous melody of The Imperial Death March, which is then elaborated on in Darth Vader’s Theme, one of the most perfect pieces ever written for a soundtrack, perfectly capturing the menace that is The Empire, while the gentle flute sections make it clear there’s hope of some humanity beneath the mask.

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back does exactly what you’d want a soundtrack to do, it transports you to another world, in this case one of the greatest universes ever created. It’s a cinematic, nostalgic and glorious testament to the power of music in elevating everything, even if that thing is already damn fabulous.

Song Picks: Main Theme, The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme), Yoda’s Theme

9/10

Kate Bush’s third album was the first ever album led by a female artist to enter the UK charts at number 1, and sees her trademark high vocal grace numerous inventive productions - much like her debut.

The album contains three top 20 singles, which summarise the album well. Babooshka, a tale of a woman who poses as someone else to test her husband’s loyalty, and one of Bush’s most famous songs. A great example of how she can make the slightly weird wonderful, with her Babooshka chorus being rather difficult to remove from your head once you’ve heard it. Army Dreamers is a more delicate number, featuring great interplay with Kate Bush’s clear vocal and the murkier male backing vocal, it’s a Waltz that skips along with a sad acceptance of a son’s death in war. The album is closed by Breathing - which is a good example of the effective production present throughout the album - which Bush herself worked on alongside Jon Kelly - skipping from ominous, almost orchestral sounds to a beautiful floating bass and synth section that Bush perfectly complements with a vocal that sails from softly piercing highs, to comforting lows as effortlessly as only she knows how. It’s a masterpiece written from the perspective of a foetus growing in the womb and frightened by nuclear fallout, musically portraying the juxtaposing tone of comfort and fear perfectly.

The rest of the album’s tracks live up to those, continually highlighting Kate Bush’s considerable talent for singing, songwriting, and intrigue. Like a lot of my favourite albums, you never feel like you can grasp it completely, it slides slowly and delicately out of any attempts to catch it.

Song Picks: Breathing, Army Dreamers, All We Ever Look For

9/10

Released two months after Ian Curtis’ suicide, Joy Division’s second album was again produced by Martin Hannett, who’s sound had such a big influence on their first record. As with their debut, it’s regarded as one of the best albums of all time, and particularly important in the post-punk movement.

Closer is as desolate, industrial and bleak as its predecessor, but it’s a little more tight, with less of what could be called ‘jams’. The album opens with Atrocity Exhibition, featuring a rather jolly tom riff from drummer Stephen Morris, which is accompanied by a screeching racket and Curtis’ characteristically deadpan delivery, painting a world of chaos. ‘This is the way, step inside’ he sings as he invites us into the uncomfortable, dissonant noise of his mind. The synth on Isolation is surprisingly catchy, one could even say positive, but Curtis’ detached lyrics about an affair he had on his wife are anything but:

Mother I tried please believe me
I'm doing the best that I can
I'm ashamed of the things I've been put through
I'm ashamed of the person I am

Passover features some of Sumner’s best guitar work, and is a great example of how the band always wrote around the bass and drums, the guitar and vocals providing power from that jumping off point. This is something again evident in the glorious A Means to an End, where Curtis repeats ‘I put my trust in you’ to infinity like a disappointed citizen of the Earth.

By the time we get to the closer, Decades, which again juxtaposes something hopeful - that spritely synth part - with the majority of the track sounding like oblivion itself, it’s been another journey into the a bottomless, dark pit. But one of inescapable beauty.

Song Picks: Isolation, Passover, A Means to an End, Twenty Four Hours

9/10

The debut album by American punk rock band The Cramps was recommended to me for inclusion on this list by my good friend Alasdair.

Let’s be honest, the rock ‘n’ roll that shocked and offended many of our ancestors now sounds pretty tame. Songs the Lord Taught is perhaps as close as we’ll get to understanding how they felt in the 1950s. Although the album’s influences are clearly rock ‘n’ roll and rockabilly, their smothered in so much grime that they become barely recognisable. On the cover of Jimmy Stewart’s Rock on the Moon the guitar is treated with so much echo and reverb that its tight percussive sound becomes a mush only just recognisable as a rock ‘n’ roll riff, and yet still infinitely danceable. Lux Interior’s vocals have great immediacy and freedom to them which complement the band’s messy theatrics perfectly. On Garbageman, the instrumental section in the middle sounds like some sort of garbage disposal centre; crunching, full of sludge and undefined. Interior’s vocals blend in perfectly, like a man who’s just walked into this monstrosity and decided to spontaneously howl along to the centre’s futile attempts to deal with capitalism’s waste. Producer Alex Chilton called the band the night before the album was due to be mastered asking them to re-record the whole thing. Obviously, they refused, and it’s that insistence on being an unfiltered version of themselves that makes this album the messy and unfettered piece of timeless brilliance that it is.

Songs the Lord Taught Us is quite unlike anything else, but while that often comes hand in hand with something being challenging to listen to, I don’t think that’s the case here. Buried beneath the wholesome mud are accessible melodies and riffs that anyone could enjoy, and indeed this is one of the most straight up enjoyable albums I’ve ever heard. A cathartic reminder that even when utter chaos unfolds in front of you - as I’m sure it did during these recording sessions - just going with the flow is sometimes the best thing to do.

Song Picks: Fever, Garbageman,

9/10

Talking Heads’ fourth album, and final album produced by Brian Eno, sees the band experimenting with polyrhythms and funk heavily inspired by Fela Kuti. Regularly considered the band’s magnum opus, it features more side musicians than any of their previous albums.

Remain in the Light is a whirlwind of grooves starting with the perfectly produced and grooviest song ever written about the Watergate scandal, Born Under Punches, and finishing with the eerie and sparse The Overload. It’s a journey of musical creativity, never afraid to repeat itself to burrow its ideas deep in your brain, and punctuated by enigmatic and spontaneous vocal performances from Byrne. These combine perfectly with his new stream of consciousness lyrical style, something he adopted due to struggles with writer’s block, as well as due to inspiration from early rap and African academic literature. The band are on infectious top form and the Fela Kuti afrobeat influence is obvious, but it's the unexpected touching moments like the darkly atmospheric Listening Wind, featuring some superb howling guitar work from Adrian Belew, that makes Remain in the Light not just an album of enjoyable tunes, but an album of continual intrigue and mystique. I had to read into them to work out what many of the album’s songs were about, but I’d actually advise against that. Byrne’s bursts of lyrical energy plant images and ideas in your mind that differ with each spin of the record. It seems to morph into whatever you most need that day, and for that reason it’s one of those albums that’ll be a companion for life.

Song Picks: Born Under Punches, Listening Wind, Once In a Lifetime

9.5/10

1. Peter Gabriel III (Melt)

Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel’s third solo album is technically called ‘Peter Gabriel III’, but has taken on the name ‘Melt’ due to its cover art. Melt is widely thought of as Gabriel’s breakthrough album as a solo artist, demonstrating his willingness to push things in new directions.

Melt feels like the perfect introduction to the 80s. It kicks of with Intruder, which triumphantly introduces us to the sound of the decade, a gated snare drum played by Gabriel’s former bandmate Phil Collins. Collins features on many of the albums tracks and even performs a very ‘In the Air Tonight’ fill on No Self Control. Gabriel’s vocals are engaging throughout, showing much more variation than any of his Genesis work with everything from a resigned croak on the aforementioned Intruder, to a triumphant scream on the powerful And Through the Wire. Production wise it’s colourful, with saxophones (yes, I told you this was 80s), xylophones, synths and a whole heap of guitar effects creating a futuristic, dramatic atmosphere. The album is notable for the way it nails its crescendos - No Self Control’s nearly takes your head off for example - and how it manages to nail drama while somehow not quite dropping into the cheese that most of the music attempting the same in the 80s did. There’s echoed saxophones on Start, reverb worthy of the world’s largest cathedral on No Self Control and cascading power chords on I Don’t Remember. It all threatens to become too much, to collapse under its own sense of pomposity, but it never does. Every song hits an all-conquering home-run, flooding life into fatigued veins. It embraces the dark, and then obliterates it with light, finishing with a magnificent ode to the murdered anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, a seven and a half minute call to arms which finishes, most fittingly, with two gated snare drum blasts. The 80s are here my friends, the 80s are here. Melt is an ambitious, perfectly executed album that’s a perfect representation of its decade.

You can blow out a candle
But you can't blow out a fire
Once the flames begin to catch
The wind will blow it higher

Song Picks: And Through the Wire, No Self Control, Family Snapshot

9.5/10