Emily's Albums A to Z

Listened: Monday May 24

The Bends is one of my favorite albums ever. I have to admit that I didn’t own the first two Radiohead albums until well after OK Computer and Kid A. I was a fan of their singles on the radio; I just didn’t take the time to check out all their albums until I had worn out the later ones. I was missing something!

Sulk is the only hetero-male legit torch song I can think of. High and Dry, Fake Plastic Trees, Nice Dream, and Bulletproof are all very creepy (ha) but beautiful songs. The guitar and bass are really good as a whole, and the relatively immature angst of this album is kind of cute compared to later Radiohead.

Despite not owning the album at the time, The Bends era holds a special place in my heart in terms of nostalgia. My high school friends and I saw Radiohead at the Berkeley Community Theater for Live 105’s Green Christmas. They were the second band to play in a 9 band lineup (the other bands were Sonic Youth, Billy Idol, Oasis, Jawbreaker, The Rentals, Garbage, No Doubt, and Toadies, for context) and according to the internets they played:

The Bends
My Iron Lung
High & Dry
Just
Fake Plastic Trees

I remember the circumstances of that show a lot more than how or what Radiohead played. Friends had to lie to their parents to go to a show that far from home and we had to leave before Oasis was done, to catch the last BART train back to Fremont, where I had parked my newly acquired 1986 Volkswagen Jetta with the whistley radio. We packed that car full of 5 teenagers for the trip (and this was before the rules about kids not being able to drive a car full of kids after midnight – thank god. I pity today’s teenagers!) and as a new driver it seemed a big deal to drive so far outside normal routes with a full car. Probably because of all the exigencies, it’s a really fond memory and these songs definitely bring all that back.

Listened: Monday May 24

Behind the Music is an immediately accessible album with diverse grooves and arrangements (plus a somewhat disturbing album cover). At times it sounds like the Beatles, the Shins, or Coldplay. It’s just nice background music. However, I never really got into TSOOL’s music enough to remain a fan. It’s enjoyable, but not love-inducing for me.

Listened: Monday May 24

A classic. And great work music. Beaucoup Fish is dance music with a soul and a positive attitude. Underworld still play a bunch of these songs at their shows to this day (King of Snake, Moaner, Push Upstairs) because, frankly, they’re still fun, even if they’re over 10 years old now.

If you can spare the $4.99, download the Underworld edition of the iDrum app. Many of these songs are on it and you can do your own mix of them, which is really cool and addicting. Many times I’ve been up late making mixes when I should’ve been sleeping!

Listened: Friday May 21

Beatles For Sale is the last Beatles album I acquired in my Beatlemania phase. Probably because it’s the least famous as a whole and has no famous ‘Beatles’ song on it (Eight Days a Week being only a minor song in the pantheon).

I always forget how much fun it is to play.

I also always forget on the early albums which of the lesser known songs are Lennon/McCartney and which were written by Lieber/Stoller, Little Richard or the like. I’m repeatedly shocked when I realize which songs the Beatles wrote that I was sure were written by more experienced songwriters. I could have sworn No Reply, Baby’s in Black, and Every Little Thing were written by the “big guys”. Lennon and McCartney were excellent style mimics as well as lyric writers.

This album is drenched in handclaps, which somehow really works and increases the energetic qualities and old school feel of it. I’ve got to remember to play this album a lot more when I need some “buckle down, sing to yourself, and crank” music.

Listened: Friday May 21

It’s amazing to me – ignoring close reading of lyrics for a minute – how much the White Album is like a children’s record.

Piggies, Bungalow Bill, Ob-la-di, Blackbird, Birthday, Me and My Monkey, Good Night – all could easily be played for children. Plenty of other things on this album are not, though. Helter Skelter is sonically frightening/challenging. Happiness is a Warm Gun is not explicitly sexual, but definitely has overtones and even if it wasn’t about sex, singing about how great a gun is is less than desirable. And Revolution 9, let’s not even go there. But what can I say about the White Album that hasn’t already been said? It competes with Sgt Pepper for most studied Beatles album.

I’m glad I was very versed in the Beatles’ other albums before hearing this one. It was my first Beatles album I owned on CD (and not taped from the library’s copy – the only one they had was on vinyl and I wasn’t set up to tape that). I have to admit that I’ve always disliked both Back in the USSR and Birthday. Imitating the Beach Boys (who I am not a big fan of) did not strike me as interesting when taken out of chronological context, and Birthday I just found silly. Though actually upon reflection it’s a pretty brilliantly simple song. It should be noted that I used to be a lot more anti-Paul and staunchly pro-John than I am now, so that might have something to do with it.

Listened: Friday May 21

I didn’t own any Creedence albums until recently when Amazon has started having one of them on sale each month for $5 as a download. I need to listen to Bayou Country a lot more.

According to Wikipedia, this album starts off with “over-driven amp vibrato on a slow setting”. Definitely the guitar and the vocals on this album are both similarly shredded, in a good way. I can hear the Jimi Hendrix influence in the guitar solos and CCR do not skimp on harmonica.

This project is clearly paying off insofar as my music nerdery – I learned what “humbuckers” are when I dug into the Wikipedia article on this album (not that I practically know what they are, really, having no electric guitar experience whatsoever).

Listened: Friday May 21

Barrier is from back in the day when I was doing my obscure British music research. I haven’t listened to it in probably 10 years. Listening to it now, it sounds a lot like Ned’s Atomic Dustbin in musical style, but unfortunately the sound of the singer’s voice and the treatment of it make it resemble Creed a bit too much for me.

Listened: Thursday May 20

Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci could accurately be categorized as the 90s Welsh Beach Boys. They like to experiment with lots of instruments (both traditional and modern), have very sweet and singable songs (even the ones in Welsh when you have no frickin’ clue what they’re singing about), and I’m pretty sure they did a lot of drugs. Maybe there isn’t much else to do when you grow up in Wales.

I give you Patio Song – “Well, isn’t it a lovely day. Oh, my patio’s on fire.” Yes, that’s really how it goes.

I don’t recall how I discovered them – I think near the end of high school. I was trying to find out about all the obscure British bands I could, for both music nerd ego reasons and anglophile reasons. Barafundle alone was worth all the slogging though record store bins – in those pre-Napster days it was hard to find some music even when you knew what you were looking for.

I’m still proud that my college roommate, who only really liked mainstream pop music, came to love this album enough to request that I play it!

Listened: Thursday May 20

Ah, Art Brut. When I heard the first strains of this album I worried about what to say in this entry. I know of many people who find Art Brut annoying. Their singer doesn’t really sing – he talks or yells – and they can push the bounds of irony past reasonable limits.

But I find that funny. The fact that they’re British probably gives them a pass.

Maybe this will give you some idea of what I mean:

A song about not being able to get it up? (Rusted Gun of Milan – “Don’t tell your friends!”)

A song about the wonders of a new girlfriend? (Good Weekend – “I’ve seen her naked — twice!!”)

A song dripping with extreme irony about the power of music? (Formed A Band – “We’re going to write the song that makes Israel and Palestine get along.”)

A song about how riled up you can get looking at the wonders of modern art? (“Modern art makes me want to rock out.”)

A song describing a pasty white British music dork’s wet dream? (Moving to LA – “I’m drinking Henessey, With Morrissey.”)

Really the best song on the album, though, is actually somewhat serious. Emily Kane is about the singer’s first girlfriend, when they were 15 and they “didn’t understand how to do much more than just hold hands”. Even in the midst of real emotion, that extreme irony can’t be completely held back though – ” I hope this song finds you fame, I want schoolkids on buses singing your name”.

Definitely one of the most tongue-in-cheek albums I own, amongst quite a few to choose from.

Listened: Thursday May 20

After all that love for their B.R.M.C. album, I have to admit that I haven’t listened to Baby 81 much at all. This might even have been the first time I listened to it all the way through. For some reason I’ve let it sit around unheard all this time. Happens sometimes.

From what I can tell, they mashed up the pre-Howl sound with the Howl sound (harder sound, less reverb, especially on the vocals). Which is not a bad thing. I actually like Howl a lot, despite it being wildly different in sound than their first two records. There were a lot of hard-core fans who had a Subterranean Homesick Blues-type reaction to it – what the hell is this, give us our BRMC sound we know and love. But I’m getting ahead of myself.