I was fully prepared for this to be a disappointment, but luckily I was pleasantly surprised. Eyes of a Stranger is one of my favourite songs, and I had emotionally prepared myself for it to be surrounded by crap, the same way that Animotion did with Language of Attraction.

I’m happy to declare that it was all for nothing! I should have looked closer at the album’s back cover. The words “Produced by Mick Ronson” would have set my mind at ease like nothing else could. Another fact that I only found out just now as I was researching the album; Bob Rock, super-producer of Northern Lights and Metallica, was a member of the Payola$. Crazy.

This album is everything that new wave and power pop should be. It’s punchy and energetic, even in the slower songs. There are a couple of ska tinged tunes on here, which is par for the course in this genre, and more than a few instant favourites. I love this album. I’m finding myself with very little to say about this one, either because I’ve already done a MONM entry tonight, or maybe because I don’t feel I have to sell something this good.

Youth

It’s pretty egotistical of me of me to think I could “fix” an album that went double platinum, but the sequencing of Tusk really bugs me. It’s no secret that the songs were written and recorded in a couple different ways by different people, mostly under the supervision of Lindsey Buckingham. It’s a shame that his bedroom experiments didn’t push a little bit more into the other’s songs, as the transitions are quite jarring. At first I thought that a simple song sequence change could iron out the problems, but Lindsey’s songs just stick out too far. If his sound influenced the other’s compositions more, and if we had Nicks singing lead on one of Buckingham’s loud, experimental rockers, then this could be a perfect album. Walk a Thin Line and Tusk both come close to bridging the gap, but both are at the end of the album. It’s as if you are listening to two camps coming from either end of a spectrum to finally meet in the end. This sounds great in theory, but it feels like an unclear vision.

I’m pointing out the flaws, but what we do have here is two great albums, trying to live on the same two slabs of vinyl together. It’s like the Odd Couple, and in some ways they work, but I do plan on dividing the album up in iTunes, just to see if I can either I can make two great albums of these songs, or maybe just one that allows me to go on a journey with it, rather than having it boss me around in every direction.

I’m putting up two songs in sequence of the album (tracks 8 and 9) so you can hear both personalities of Tusk.

That’s All For Everyone

Not That Funny

Energy? To quote Sick Boy: “What a fucking misnomer.” I was hoping that this would be an album of disco, or funk or anything but what I got here. What do we have here? Wikipedia calls it, “an album of west coast soft rock.” And look at that cover! How energetic can you get? Nothing says excitement more than milling about a construction site looking mildly bored.

I made the mistake of thinking that since everything I knew of the Pointer Sisters was some sort of dance or electro, then I’d at least get something upbeat, funky even. To be fair, there are a couple of good tracks, buried in the second side. And of course, you can’t deny that their voices are amazing. They do a decent cover of Springsteen’s “Fire” which would be at home on an MOR Yacht Rock compilation. I’ll reserve final judgement since I’m not sure I’ve heard the original. But then they spend any capital they earned with that by managing to drain all the funk out of Sly Stone’s “Everybody is a Star” All in all, an adequate, but forgettable album.

Fire

An aside: Break Out, the album which contains the most hits by Pointer Sisters (mostly cocaine-club dance tunes) was recorded after one of the ladies had become a grandmother.

Ok, so I’d been recommended YMO my whole life as a band I’d like. More often than not, when someone tells me I’d like a band I end up never listening to them. I don’t really know what my problem is, it’s like if I don’t stumble on them on my own (whatever that means) then I don’t get the attachment to form a bond with the music. So here we go, my first listen to YMO, and…

It’s great! Of course it’s great, so many people that know my tastes have told me to listen to them. Why would people tell me I’d like this? They are the Japanese Kraftwerk, what the hell’s not to like? I like Japanese music, I like Kraftwerk. Then, just when I’ve been charmed enough to think I’ve been a fool not to have listened earlier, they do a crazy cover of Day Tripper! Fun!

Ok, so this isn’t the longest blog entry. I’m going to try and do a second one before the night is through, so I’m going to ration my words. To make up for it, here’s a shot of the back of the album.

Check out that crotch grab!

And here’s RYDEEN, which was their biggest hit, according to Wikipedia. It’s a perfect blending of Japanese melodies with Kraftwerk like sound and song structure.

RYDEEN

Oh goodness this album is a treat. First, the packaging, which consists of a gorgeous textured cover that was printed on a letterpress, a cd sized booklet of artwork and quotes that includes the note “Fourth Printing February 1996″ (a year after it’s initial release) and finally the credits and thank-yous on a black 11×8.5 card printed with silver ink. With all that to deal with, the music better be beautiful, right? Not just an excuse for people to get all crazy with the packaging. No disappointments.

The personnel on this album reaches 16 people. I would have been surprised that it was as much as half that, because I’m sure I never heard more than five instruments at a time. This is a compliment, when you have that many people, everyone better know their role in the creation even if it’s just a small contribution. The head of this outfit is Jason Nobel and along with violist Christian Frederickson and pianist Rachel Grimes form the core, then beyond that are various collaborators. With the one day for one album nature of Month of New Music, I’ve only had a chance to listen through once. As I listened, while nodding in and out of consciousness a little I should admit, I continuously thought, “Oh, that’s surprising, but I totally get this album now.” and it never really turned out to be true.

While researching I found this blog entry on it, which seems to go through the album song by song describing each. While I’ve done these sorts of reviews in the past, I grown to hate them because it leaves very little room for the reader to get into the album that isn’t in reference to your review. It’s like imposing someone else’s ego on every minute, rather just on the idea of the album. Does that make any sense? What I’m saying is that once I read descriptions like those, I have very little interest in hearing the actual record, as it feels like I already have an opinion on it. These blog entries seem to be more about my experience listening to the record, then the music itself, which is the reason why, I’ve written 500 words here without talking about what the record even sounds like.

That previous paragraph is my explanation for describing things in broad strokes. Broad strokes are good sometimes, see?

So. This album. It has many references, but it isn’t a slave to any of them. At times you are going to think it’s a modern classical album, at times, a jazz album. Some songs sound far out on an experimental tangent with Slint-like droning, while some follow a strict set of rules, in the same way that minimalist classical music does. They all have a common feel, like they were crafted by the same hands and minds.

It’s a beautiful record really, and I think everyone should probably give it a try. This is why I’m linking to a download of the entirety of it, in addition to the link below of my favourite song from it: the sprawling, eleven minute M. Daraguerre. But, really, these people are not famous in any big way, and the packaging is a good ¼ of the experience, so you should pick up a physical copy if you enjoy it.

M. Daraguerre

This is the third album in a row from the mid eighties. I could probably do a full week plus of these. It could be the Month of New Music Eighties Week. MONWEW is fun to say out loud. Don’t worry, this will be the last you will hear of that.

Howard Jones. Probably best known for Things Can Only Get Better (Grooveshark link), a great single that did well on the North American charts. Before that it seems he was very well known in the UK, and according to Wikipedia, around the world. Human’s Lib is one of those albums that had crazy success in the UK, while over in North America, we shrugged. It’s too bad, because this is a pretty decent listen. Let’s say if on a scale of one to ten, where one is yesterday’s first MONM album, and ten is a worldwide chart-topping undeniable classic, like say Purple Rain, then this is a solid 5. I’d even try to push 6. The lyrics don’t insult my intelligence, the music is well produced, his voice is strong and has a lot of character and his vocals often incorporate triplets, which for some reason always wins me over.

Hey, whatever, it’s a softball review. What can I say, I’m pooped. I’m posting my favourite song off the album, the opening track, which is a bit darker than the rest of the album.

Verdict: I’ve sort of given up on being clever in this part because I’m not all that clever.

Howard Jones – Conditioning

I needed something to get the feeling of that last album off me. Malcom McLaren’s Fans is (I will quote the ENTIRE wikipedia article on it):

an attempt by to fuse opera with 1980s R&B and contains adaptations of pieces from famous operas such as Madam Butterfly and Carmen.

As an “attempt”, I’d say it was successful. It’s a pretty safe bet to say this probably sounded bonkers in 1985. Now, we’re pretty blasé about mashups and genre bouncing. It’s rare for early attempts to sound so well put together, I rather enjoyed the listen. I never really listened to much of Malcolm McLaren’s music, but that’s going to change. It’s probably of interest to some of you that the producer, Stephen Hague went on to produce The Pet Shop Boys first album and multiple albums by New Order as well as other synthpop bands.

Fans is a surprisingly strong album, for all it’s pretense. I’ll be listening to this again. I had a hard time choosing a song to link to for this, so I went with the most recognizable of the operas.

Carmen (l’oiseau rebelle)

And here’s the video for Madam Butterfly:

I like a lot of music. I like a lot of music of questionable worth. I like pop. I have not one, but TWO Sunscream albums. I can talk at length of the genius of ABBA and The Go-Gos.

This album is shit. The main single, Obsession, or better known as the theme song to Fashion Television, is actually one of my favourite songs form the 80s. I could listen to it over and over, and have. It’s one of my favourite karaoke songs. If this album was full of Obsessions, it would be a classic. It ain’t. It’s soulless crap. I’m trying to find more descriptive ways of telling you how bad it is and the task defies me.

The problem here is that it isn’t even that the music is badly made, or that the lyrics are actually hysterically awful. Everything about it is just so mediocre. Take Adrian Gurvitz’s “Classic”. AWFUL! So awful. But it’s such a catchy train wreck I can’t help but adore it. (that is probably just me though) The biggest problem with this album is that it was like no one even cared about what they were recording, which seems hard to believe, because you must be committed to doing something if you are going to dress like this while doing it:

Holy shit.

Verdict: kill this to death

Jake Mandell is an extremely interesting guy. Go ahead and visit his website, it’s ok, I’ll be here when you get back. That’s right, not only is he a musician, he’s a freaking neuroscientist.

I bought this album in 2006, while I was living in Tokyo, in Ikebukoro, one of the more remote districts. Not remote for me, because I lived 20 minutes away by foot. Remote in the sense that the only gajin that visited that area were probably residents, not tourists. I bought it without really knowing much about him, just that I liked a couple songs sent to me by friends.

Anyway, it’s the glitchy sort of electronic music. Minimalist techno to maybe narrow that down for the more pedantic, fans of Warp or Skam record labels would be very comfortable with this. (and really, if you are, you’ve probably heard of it anyway) It’s got sort of the crunchy minimalism of Plastikman, but with a bit more melody. (but just a bit) Personally, I prefer a few more hooks myself, which is why I’m more likely to opt for Plaid than something like this. And while I’m a fan of Autechre’s ridiculous noise rhythms, this isn’t quite messy enough to scratch that itch. I’m not faulting this album for either of these points, I am enjoying what I’m hearing, just trying to put it into perspective.

So, why has this album remained unlistened to for so long? Well, first of all, while I was living in Japan I didn’t have a turntable, so it sat — with the 20 other records I bought while there — in a bag, waiting to be shipped back home. That’s not the main reason though. While I have a deep love for music like this, my love is fairweather. Or rather, gloomy weather. I have to be in a very specific mood to listen to an album like this. It is something that you can dance to, for sure, but I prefer to ingest this stuff with headphones while laying down, simply being, rather than doing. And, to get back to why it took so long, I have a few go to albums for when I want that fix. (The Black Dog: Spanners, Plaid: Not For Threes and Autechre LP5 being the most prominent) I just wasn’t ready to let another one in. But, it’s probably time to let this one enter the rotation, and considering it’s winter time, the best time of year for this stuff in the headphones, I’ll be spending some time with it again soon.

Some people were disappointed that there weren’t download links to songs off the albums I’m listening to. Since they are on vinyl, there is a bit of work involved either in searching or ripping. We’re lucky in this case though, Mr. Mandell has been nice enough to give us the entire album for download on his site, since it is out of print anyway. Also on the other end of the same link is his blog entry talking about how he made the album. I’m pretty sure there will be a couple of other Month Of New Music peeps that will find the story interesting.

Download Jake Mandell’s Quondam Current

Verdict: +

I’m getting a little ahead of the game here, because there will be days when I can’t do an album. Xmas party season and all that, so today you get two.

I was prepared for an album much less diverse and listenable, something much less ambitious. This being a soundtrack, I expected a grouping of enjoyable, but pedestrian soundscapes. But of course that was before I knew that this was his follow up to Songs in the Key of Life. (which is an album that should be issued to every human at birth to teach how great music can be) Stevie eases you into a lull with the first three songs, all pretty instrumentals, he then gives you a taste of his amazing voice in the fourth, and to reward our patience things start getting weird, in a really good way.

Whatta you want? We got traditional Japanese chanting, jazz funk comedy, full on club disco, bouncy pop, and then we are back down to earth again for awhile. Of course, you do get the Stevie Wonder shmaltz once in awhile, but it’s done so well I can’t fault it. So many fun surprises, so rich with interesting melodies.

If I were to have to pick out something to naysay here, it’s that the mastering is a little brassy. This is one of the first albums to be recorded digitally, and you really can hear it. While the process does give it an exceptional clarity, it’s at the expense of some of the album’s warmth. But I only bring that up as an observation, I wouldn’t really consider it a true detriment.

Verdict: 4 out of 5 botanists recommend this album

Something light and warm for a bitterly cold, snowy day. Once again, I can’t say much about this. I don’t know much about Cuban music. I bought this record mostly for its beautiful cover. My only real thoughts are that it sounds like a less gimicky (and therefore less interesting) Esquivel, whom I quite like. The vinyl itself is in pretty rough shape, so I couldn’t really get the subtleties out of this music.

But like I said, it made me feel warm for about an hour.

————————–

Ok, so I wrote the above around noon yesterday, before I was able to download a new version of this album. I have to say, the little I was able to make out, between the skipping, crackling and needle wear, intrigued and charmed me enough I had to find a digital copy to review. I wasn’t giving it the respect it deserved.

Then I found someone else’s blog entry, written on the author’s mother’s 94th birthday, where they told me that this album was their mother’s favourite. How could I possibly dismiss this music with a short 87 word non-review. So, I downloaded it and listened.

It’s lovely, and inspiring, and each song has a personality that carries you up and down on a journey that reinforces my deep seated desire to visit Cuba. It’s a shame that the lounge fad of the mid 90′s (there’s that 90s reference again) didn’t actually bring about a long lasting respect for the musicians and arrangers that made this music. I mean beyond Esquivel and Ferrante & Teicher. Or, maybe people like me are the resurgence’s legacy.

This is the sort of thing that people need more of in their lives. Real musicianship. Not to say we don’t have that happening at all, but it isn’t happening with such accessible emotional zeal.

Here’s the download link I used for this album’s second chance.

Verdict: 1 out of 1 second chances.

Another album from someone else’s past. I’ve mentioned old friend’s musical tastes a couple times in these posts. It’s a recurring theme for these albums because I’m often picking up older music because I find myself thinking “I remember when so-and-so would talk about this album, I should really give it a go.” Month of New Music is giving me a chance to do this.

For those as green as I am to The Who, you probably won’t recognize many songs on Quadrophenia. I am pretty sure I’d heard the album’s finale, “Love, Reign O’er Me” before, but I can’t be sure. It was released as a single, as was “The Real Me” which I am even less sure I’d heard before.

I’ll give you a quick explanation of a complex album: it’s a semi-autobiographical concept album, dealing with all the members of The Who rolled into one character, Jimmy, a mod. It revolves around events stemming from the 1964 Battle of Brighton between the Mods and Rockers. If you aren’t familiar with the history, you might have to do a bit of research to know what they are talking about, but not much. The bulk of the meat here is Jimmy wrestling with his inner demons.

Because of the scope of its subject matter, it would be premature of me to write any sort of review on this album. I’m sure this post will elicit much head-shaking from those that consider this album required listening. I’m tempted to agree that it may be, it’s a stirring work, and it also begs for multiple plays. I also messed up when playing the album, I ended up listening to it in the wrong order. It’s a two record set, and it was pressed for play on a record changer, for a listen interrupted with only one flip of the records rather than three. I didn’t notice this and I didn’t notice until after I heard side 4 before I’d heard sides 2 and 3. This made the experience a little disjointed. I’ll have to remedy that soon.

Rating: 4/4 personalities.

Odd chord choices, lo-fi recording, abstract noise washes. These are the ingredients to the kind of music most of my art school friends were listening to in the mid-late 90s. I liked some of it, but much of it just sounded boring to me. I inherited this record when one of these art school friends moved to New York a couple years ago. The Sonora Pine is from 1996, and it sounds like it, but that’s not to say it doesn’t sound great. I doubt I would have liked it then, but my tastes have developed a little in the past 14 years. There is enough of a hook to these songs that you actually can find yourself swaying to them or tapping your foot. That’s the sort of connection I wasn’t able to make back then. Thanks, Angela, for leaving this record with me. Glad I finally got a chance to listen to it. Perfect music for lounging on the couch when you are stuck in the house on a snow day in the middle of the afternoon, which is lucky, because that’s exactly what today has been like.

ALSO: I’m not sure I’ve been clear, but my plan for The Month Of New Music is that I’m listening to 31 records from my vinyl collection that I haven’t heard yet. I listen to vinyl very differently than I do mp3s — which is my other main source of music. (I turn my CDs into mp3s when I want to listen to them) I don’t often listen to whole albums off the computer or iPod, but you really have no choice but to with vinyl. So, while I might gush over an album when I listen to it on one medium, I might totally ignore it in another. I also don’t often buy music I’ve never heard before on vinyl, unless it’s flea-market price. So, considering these factors, me listening to a month of new vinyl is a very interesting experiment, at least personally. It’s a hard thing to explain. I hope I’ve done at least a mediocre job of doing so.

Don’t blame him for stealing me, you let him.
And where your love stopped, he went a little bit farther.
You changed so much, I was more at ease with a stranger.
But it wasn’t hard, our love was already in danger.

When I bought this album, I assumed by the slick design and the fact that Sammi Smith looked African American (she is not, as you can see by this Google images search) on the cover, that I was buying a soul album. I was in fact buying a little known album by one of the few women welcome in the “outlaw country” genre. I am not the biggest country fan, but I LOVE Cash, Nelson, Kristofferson, Jennings, Cline, Jones, etc. Being surprised with this type of country is not unwelcome.

I don’t know who’s writing the songs on this album. From what I can figure, she is most well known as the voice for Kris Kristofferson’s Help Me Make It Through The Night. (which I’ve never heard — probably) If she is writing these songs, all the better, if she is delivering songs she did not write, any songwriter would be hard pressed to find a more perfect vehicle. If you are not a fan of outlaw country, then you will find nothing here to make you a fan… maybe. (I’d be tickled to find someone who was given a new appreciation for this music after hearing this album) But!… (and PLEASE don’t think that I’m being derisive when I say this) there is much here for those that dissect feminist poetry. In Why Do You Do Me Like You Do she describes a tragic domestic violence situation, and makes it so real and emotional within a three minute country song it’s hard to take. In Foxy Dan, she is the vivacious young minx (or at least that’s how I imagine this character), seduced by a dangerous, charismatic gangster. There are themes within each tune that can resonate for young women and seduce young men or even break the heart of either sex — over and over.

My only real fault with the album is that twice Ring Of Fire is evoked as an embarassingly obvious melodic influence on the songs (and once I heard something uncomfortably close to the beginning of Harper Valley PTA). At the time, there were probably much more blatant lifting of melodies, so I guess I can forgive this transgression. Truly, the good deeds outweigh the sins in this case.

Verdict: Recommended for fans of the genre. No numerical rating because if this intrigues you at all, you should just seek it out and make up your own mind. That’s what this music is all about.