Emily's Albums A to Z

Listened: Tuesday July 13

Brassy is one of the few bands I’ve been introduced to at a show and was intrigued enough to buy their album later. Which I kind of feel bad about since I’ve been to so many shows – am I just super picky? Though to be fair a lot of the time I’ve heard of the opening bands before going to the show, so it’s not apples to apples.

In Brassy’s case, Muffin Spencer (yes, I think that is her real name) had such great charisma and powerful attitude that she immediately got my attention. It also helped their cause that they followed one of the worst opening bands I have ever seen – Pancake Circus. Brassy coming on was a breath of fresh air.

As I  noted earlier, Brassy is well-described as twisted cheerleader rap. I can’t put my finger on why I like Brassy when I usually am annoyed by groups of a similar style. Maybe Brassy tread the sassy/annoyingly-in-your-face line just right for me. They also know how to be catchy without being incredibly repetitive. Unsurprisingly, with all those attributes, this album is great for work-listening.

Listened: Monday July 12

By the Gorky 5 period, GZM was starting to put together really great albums instead of just having a bunch of (admittedly good) songs thrown together.

Gorky 5 has fewer songs in Welsh (which is neither good nor bad) and fewer instrumentals. Considering how good their older instrumentals are, this is a bit of a bummer, though several of the songs have long instrumental intros (the beginning half of the song has no lyrics) so that sort of makes up for it. But the album as a whole is tighter and leans a bit less goofy than the prior releases.

Listened: Friday July 9

I remember when Gorillaz came out how fresh it sounded. Clint Eastwood is a great song, mixing up rock, rapping, dub, and electronic music into a tasty stew for your ears. The radio remix of 19-2000 was another splendid soundtrack to my time in Wales, along with Desmond Dekker, as it was in constant play on Radio 1 at the time. I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since this came out; it still rocks the house. I’m not as much of a fan of later Gorillaz records, but this is a classic.

Their first tour might have been the weirdest show I have ever been to. The whole time we were staring at a screen with cartoons projected on it, behind which you could occasionally see silhouettes of the actual people playing the music. Needless to say, it wasn’t actually that interesting. Their music isn’t really a live-show thing.

I can’t seem to find it online, but I read a music editorial after 9/11 that said Clint Eastwood (which was still in heavy rotation on the radio) was the theme song for youngsters at the time, as in “I’m useless, but not for long, my future is coming on”. I remember hoping they were right, since I had just graduated from college and my future was coming on, in the middle of a gun-shy market, and at times I felt totally useless. However, for me it’s not Clint Eastwood but Sound Check (Gravity) that takes me back to the freaky post-9/11 time; it never fails to creep me out.

Listened: Friday July 9

I much prefer Goosefair to the Barrier EP; the singer’s voice sounds less Creed-y. I forgot I’d already referred to their resembling Ned’s Atomic Dustbin – again that was my first thought upon hearing this album.

The hidden track is a cover of Wuthering Heights (Kate Bush). Which is actually really great, despite being very different than the original.

Listened: Thursday July 8

I checked out The Good, The Bad & The Queen because of its incredible pedigree (Damon Albarn, Paul Simonon, Simon Tong and Tony Allen) and because they would be playing at Coachella 2007.

I wasn’t disappointed – this another album that I knew was modern the second I put it on. It just has the “sound of the now” to it. I can hear hints of Radiohead‘s influence on the music side. It’s also achingly British (shocker) and Damon’s voice sounds great.

When I saw them at Coachella, there were several moments with rather creepy ethereal wind – right as they stopped playing a song, a huge gust would come and flutter the Buddhist-like flags decorating the stage, almost like their set was haunted. It worked well.

Hello readers, I’ve been moving house and vacationing so not a lot of updates have been happening recently. Will get back in the groove this week. Thanks!

Listened: Thursday July 8

The Good Will Out is Embrace’s first album, which in 1998 was a little late to the Britpop party at least in America. This album was big in the UK, but I would bet few Americans know anything about them.

Embrace have a very Wall of Sound like production – there’s a lot going on underneath each song. The songs are very anthemic and singable and I think this is a stronger album than Drawn From Memory, mostly because the strings are not as heavily used as on Drawn.

I also love the cover photo – brilliant.

Listened: Thursday July 8

Good News is the album that really got me into Modest Mouse. I had been a casual fan for years, due to my good friend Audrey being a big fan while we were in college. I heard their music all the time and even saw them play a show at the Great American Music Hall. I owned a couple of albums, but I didn’t know deep in my bones what total badasses they are.

When Good News came out, Audrey and I had mostly drifted apart as friends, so I hadn’t been to Modest-Mouse-land for a while. Hearing songs like Float On and Ocean Breathes Salty made me want to go back and review all their prior albums and that’s when I suddenly realized how classic they are.

I’ve since fallen madly in love with all their early work, and I can’t imagine my musical life without them. Thanks, Good News!

Listened: Thursday July 8

Good Feeling is one of the classics of college life for me. All the songs are great to scream along to and rock the air guitar. There’s also the right amount of young-person-angst mixed with optimism in the lyrics.

Happy could be such a cheesy song with lyrics like “I’m so happy cuz you’re so happy”, but somehow it’s not. Happy was a staple of early Travis performances; they always ended their shows with it, which worked out perfectly, since by that point everyone was unabashedly happy. It’s still one of my favorite Travis songs to this day.

The last time I saw Travis, Fran was singing Falling Down and jumped up on a seat next to an audience member. Then he actually did fall down on her just as he was singing “I’m falling down” and apologized profusely. Life imitating art quite literally.

Listened: Thursday July 8

This is one of those entries I’ve been itching to write. I have to thank my former coworker Mike for introducing me to a great documentary called This England, about the Northern Soul scene of the 70s and early 80s. If you love any kind of music (especially dance music & DJs, since this is where that culture originated) you should check it out. One warning though – even if you are decently familiar and comfortable with UK slang and accents, some of the people in it will challenge you with their Northernese. I think I can understand most of them upon repeated viewings, but it took me a bit.

I picked up the Blackpool Mecca album in particular because I loved the opening song in the documentary, Turnin’ My Heartbeat Up by the MVPs, and this album is where I could find it.

I love many of the other songs on this album, especially Soul Improvisations part 2 by Van McCoy, Hold Back The Night by The Trammps, Are You Ready For This by the Brothers, and Phoenix by Aquarian Dream. I need to pick up the rest of the albums in the Golden Age series and see if the songs are all this great.

One bummer is that another of the songs I love from the documentary, Out of My Mind by Rain featuring Charity Brown, is still quite rare and doesn’t appear to be available anywhere on CD. Guess I need to figure out how to use the YouTube to MP3 tools I know are out there!