Reviews by ikejiri

The Libertines
At the time I liked their first album a lot and off the back of Don’t Look Back into the Sun and Can’t Stand Me now I was really excited to see them at Reading in 2004, but they all went tits up and didn’t play.

Listening now Can’t Stand Me Now still holds up, it’s a great bit of mid 2000s indie with added self mythologising, the lyrics feel quite quaint today but at the time it was prime indie melodrama. The Man Who Would Be King and What Became of the Likely Lads are the types of song it seems they are always striving for, that sense of (rather cliched) doomed hedonistic romanticism that they never quite manage often enough. But on these two tracks it does all come together with their ramshackle indie punk vibe to make some very listenable bits of music.

Outside of those tracks though, there isn’t much of great interest. Stripped of the tabloid notoriety and the excitement of the moment much of it feels quite one note and curiously lifeless. The bass is generally good, but despite all the other elements being present - the twin guitars, the punky rhythms, the slurred delivery and deliberately self regarding ‘poetry’ - it ends up feeling too studied and affected to be genuinely dynamic and exciting and there just don’t seem to be enough good songs.

A 3 feels fair, it’s a nice bit of nostalgia with some good songs, but not much else to be essential listening. I may be tempted to stick it on again at some point, but equally I’ll just as easily forget about it again.
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Playlist submission: Can’t Stand Me Now

Songs in the Key of Life
I remember being slightly put off by the density of this when I first bought it, after I already had Innervisions and Talking Book, and being slightly underwhelmed by the lack of immediacy of the opening track.

But the truth is Love’s In Need of Love Today is an excellent track, slowly working its charms, much like a lot of the album outside of the super catchy, Sir Duke, I Wish, Pastime Paradise and Isn’t She Lovely.

There’s some many tracks and so much stuff on here, but a few highlights outside the classics above are the spacey, squelchy unusual semi ambient sounds on Have a talk with God, the gentle balladry of Knocks Me Off My Feet and melody of Ordinary Pain, the strut and racial politics of Black Man, the classic laid back Stevie melody of As, the energy of Another Star, the synthy catchiness of Ebony Eyes, the funky All Day Sucker and the melancholy harmonica of Easy Goin’ Evening.

There’s a lot to process and take in, but it is an incredible record, getting better with each listen, often songs that started out unpromisingly become favourites, and it has that same eclectic, scattershot feel of the White Album. It also feels like a final emetic burst of creativity and ideas and his high watermark, and that he was never quite as good after this, becoming more middle of the road and less interesting.

I don’t think it can be anything but a 5.
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Playlist submission: I Wish

Don’t Stand Me Down
I used to really like this album but haven’t listened in at least 15 years. I can totally see how it is a bit marmite, a bit like Kevin Rowland himself. And I suppose liking or disliking it will depend on your appetite for 12 minute part spoken word conversations, clear musical nicks, oddly crooned vocals and a slightly meandering spirit. Somehow though that all works for me, and I don’t get a sense of deliberate and performative eccentricity, more a sense of a distinctive and interesting voice making an album full of ideas and moments that sidestepped expectations and commercial imperatives post Come On Eileen.

This is What She’s Like is probably the key track, and it either encapsulates what’s great about the band and this record or it sums up all there is to dislike about them. I’m of course on the side of liking it, from the conversational sections to the exuberant blue-eyed soul and celtic-soul fiddle led sections, it’s a great engaging and esoteric listen.

With Dexy’s in general, there is a lot more to them under the surface than they get often get credit for I think, there’s a lot of craft and skill in their arranging, Knowledge in Beauty and The Waltz show this, with some great little parts on mandolin, lap steel and fiddle, and both these track create a great and slightly doleful country tinged atmosphere, a little like Nashville Skyline. One of Those Things shamelessly steals from Werewolves of London, and I think they retrospectively added Zevon as a songwriter, but I like the idea of nicking the riff and then saying all songs sound the same. And then I just generally enjoy their pop/rocksoul/irish/country blend, evident on stuff like Listen to This.

While I don’t think it’s necessarily the great lost masterpiece that many critics seem to think it is, I do think it’s an excellent, quirky, engaging singular listen, full of wit, charm and a unique sensibility that does start to burrow into your consciousness after a while.
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Playlist submission: This is What She’s Like

Meat Puppets II
Zippy
Animal from the Muppets
Orville
Roland Rat
Kim Jong Il from Team America

Meat Puppets aren’t going to break into that list, even though I liked this.

There’s a nice amount of charm to it, the alt/punk/indie/psychedelic country looseness and stoned slackery chaos really grew on me.

Split Myself in Two feels like a bit of aimless thrash and doesn’t really indicate what the rest of the album is like. Magic shows the slightly wonky charm of things, a nice sped up bit of punky country, which continues with the slightly Byrdsian and edgy Lost. Plateau is great of course, and Cobain’s choice of this, So Me and Lake of Fire show what a good ear he had.

Climbing is fine as a bit of woozy country and I really like Aurora Borealis’s little hook and spaced out feel, and We’re Here is a great bit of plaintive, careworn alt rock with a great bass line. Although I don’t mind the riff, New Gods has quite a similar aimless feel as the first track. I’m A Mindless Idiot is really nice, the guitar interplay is great, a lovely instrumental track. The Whistling Song has a similar feel to We’re Here, a nice bit of wonky stoned alt-rock.

This got better and more interesting with each listen, it’s charm percolating to the surface, and despite a bit of unevenness with the more thrashy/punky tracks it’s a really interesting and idiosyncratic listen. It’s on the margins of 3 and 4, I’ll settle on a high 3. I’ll definitely come back to it outside Split Myself in Two and New Gods, and I think it will continue to grow on me
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Playlist submission: I’m a Mindless Idiot

They Were Wrong, So We Drowned
Never heard of this, but Liars is such a generic mid 2000s indie band name I assumed it would be something akin to Hard-Fi or Reverend & The Makers or any other mid-tier band of that period.

I really loved the concept of witchcraft and witch trials etc, but I found it struggles to create much atmosphere or ambiance to evoke that. I now understand they are an experimental noise rock band, so a creepy folk feel is not in their wheelhouse, and the slightly awkward nature of the songs is what they are going for, but I think it does need some gentleness and melody to balance the experimental elements of their music and reflect the themes they are writing about.

On the occasion it does work it’s decent, when the droning and rhythm sync and the keyboards bring some life, like on They Don’t Want Your Corn, They Want Your Kids and when the tribal rhythms create some spookiness on Read the Book That Wrote Itself, or when they deliver a suitable spectral feel on Flow My Tears the Spider Said, but too often its horizontal banging repetitiveness drags and the songs feel much longer than their run times.

Conceptually it's great, but musically it too infrequently delivers on that concept and consequently it’s difficult to sustain much interest. I had thought it may be a grower, but I didn’t feel much closer to it by the end of the third listen, and I started to get the sense that it’s not as smart or as challenging as it believes it is.

It’s not unlistenable, and I’m all for people going off into weird corners and making esoteric and idiosyncratic music, but I feels this isn't that great an example of that, and even though I like the concept that’s not enough to make want to come back to it, so it lands as a solid 2.
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Playlist submission: They Don’t Want Your Corn, They Want Your Kids

Brothers in Arms #1
The saxophone and trumpet of Your Latest Trick comes on and I’m in the back of the car on a late August Sunday in the late 80s, coming back from visiting grandparents. The thought of the end of the summer holidays lingers and the houses I pass are held by the sun’s despondent ennui, hazy and muted. Some people trim their hedges and cut their lawns, waiting for dinner and the Antiques Roadshow and thinking about work. The Funday Times on my lap that grandad saved for me, is calling in it’s nauseous debt, and all there is left to do is let Dire Straits play on and hope there will still be some daylight when I get home.
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Playlist submission: Money for Nothing

Millions Living Will Never Die
I’m sure I’ve heard the name Tortoise but I don’t think I know anything about them. My assumption is that they are a kind of grunge alt rock band?

The first track was a bit of a surprise on that basis though, and I absolutely loved it, the first 10 minutes kind of reminiscent of Neu! with its motorik rhythm, mesmeric bass line and keyboard lines, before becoming slightly more abstract and ethereal, and then heading off into more of a textured sound collage, before circling back to the feel of the first part. Great track.

Glass Museum feels rather prosaic in comparison, although it is pleasant enough it doesn’t create a particularly interesting atmosphere. A Survey however is great, again very krautrock with it’s mesmeric simplicity. The Taut and Tame is a bit of a grower, the persistent riff and the rhythm pattern in the middle section are pleasingly steady.
Dear Grandma and Grandpa feels a lot like some of the Neu! Album tracks, the occasional fluttering rhythm and dubby bass giving it a gentle calming atmosphere, before segueing into the excellent Along the Banks of Rivers with its cinematic sounding guitar and jazzy organ creating a dreamy, woozy ambience and a great end to the album.

I really enjoyed this, particularly after expecting something more grungy, it was great to get something so interesting and immersive, encompassing those Eno and Krautrock influences, and Djed really is a corker. It’s a solid, high 4 and will definitely go on my list of work/focus albums.
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Playlist submission: Djed

Power in Numbers
I listened to this A LOT when it came out, especially as I loved What’s Golden, a superb track, aJ5 classic. This and just after was the period where they seemed to be playing at every festival I went to, I think I must have seen them 5 or 6 times.

Despite it being a very good album, I do think it’s a bit odd that this was chosen for the list ahead of Quality Control, which for my money is their strongest album start to finish, as this one does drag a little over the last 15 minutes or so.

It has all the elements that make J5 great though, jazzy organ, flute and horn samples, Cut Chemist and Nu-Mark’ beats and scratching, catchy hooks, the interplay of Akil, Zaakir, Marc 7 and 2na (love 2na’s baritone delivery) and smart, thoughtful lyrics reflecting a range of themes and messages.

Freedom, If You Only Knew and Break is a great run, If You Only Knew’s flute sample is extremely catchy and that little guitar sample on Break is superb. The bass on A Day at the Races really makes the track, a great groove.

What’s Golden still sounds great, satisfyingly catchy and I love the ‘pop music’ breakdown and the verbal Herman Munster. Thin Line is also a great track, the string sample is great, sombre and downbeat, reflecting the lyrics.

It does get a bit patchy after this, it’s never porr, and delivery wise it never lets up, but it does start to feel a few tracks too long and a little unfocused. High Fidelity’s flute and horns are great though, Hey is an excellently low key track and Acetate Prophets is a superb exercise in turntablism.

Its a great listen, and I’m tempted to go for a 5 just as its the sole representative of J5 on the list, but it is for me a rung below Quality Control so I’ll go with a solidly high 4.
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Playlist submission: What’s Golden

There’s No Place Like America Today
I’d not really heard of this album before, but I thought it was excellent; kind of sad and despairing with a haunted melancholy to the music and lyrics, but all tied together with that sweet, rich, warm voice.

Billy Jack feels like the other side of Superfly, the sadness of an extinguished life, while the fantastic When Seasons Change feels like an ode to resilience, with that same sad undertow. So in Love feels like one of the few hopeful moments on the record. Musically I like Jesus alot, with that guitar in the chorus, but its overtly religiosity feels a bit overbearing. Blue Monday People is great, a snapshot of reality and futility. Hard Times tight groove is superb, symbolic of words and themes of hardening your heart in the face of tough times. Love to the People’s hints at upbeatness are cut through by the bleakness of the verses, but amplified by the chorus.

The playing, particularly the bass and drums, is absolutely superb. Not overly showy, but tight and precise, augmenting and embellishing when necessary, and letting the songs breathe. I also love the really slowed down tempos, really intensifying the dispiriting themes and lyrics.

This really got under my skin over repeated listens, it’s trading of immediacy and optimism for a spareness and a mournful tone working a slow kind of hypnosis. It was a 4 at first but after a few listens I can’t really think of a reason to not give it 5 - it’s a sad and sombre 35 mins of brilliantly played, fantastically sung, anguished mid-70s soul.
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System of a Down
Along with Tool, System of a Down, are one of those metal bands that are always cited as being smarter and more interesting than their peers, but listening to this I don’t really get it. You can hear some slightly more pop-punk/nu-metal elements, some Queen-esque theatricality and moments that reflect their Armenian heritage but on the whole it's just more of the same, double kick drums, heavy guitars, shouting, screaming and burping and GCSE level lyrics about war and bad things. Thank god genocide exists otherwise these people would have no lyrics to describe how angry they are.

It probably doesn’t help that this has come two days after Megadeth, if this had come first I probably would probably have had more tolerance for it. Again I can completely appreciate that this is good if you are into it, but the more metal we get, especially this close together, the harder I find it to find moments of interest.

This wasn’t Sepultura levels of irritation so I’ll stick with the standard 2 stars.
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Playlist submission: Soil, as I like that little guitar riff at 2.36 onwards

Water From an Ancient Well
I resisted looking up anything about this before I listened, from the artist’s name, album title and cover I thought it might have been a Middle-Eastern/North African album.

But of course it’s Jazz, with, when you think about it, one of the most Jazz Club album titles you could imagine, a kind of pretentious earthiness.

I’m still not sure if I can distinguish good jazz from bad jazz, although I’m finding it less of a struggle to listen to than I did before doing the list. And the music on here seems to be a curious mix of not so great cruise ship banality and some genuinely good tracks like Song for Sathima, Manenburg Revisited and The Mountain.

Song for Sathima has a lovely melody, excellent piano and a nice understated feel. Manenburg Revisited’s bass is fantastic, I’ve never really heard much jazz double bass played like that, and the piano led melody is great, punctuated only briefly by the horns, conjuring a nice smooth Film 89 feel, an excellent track. The flute, piano and slightly pastoral atmosphere of The Mountain, make it a rather pleasant and pretty song.

The rest, while not necessarily bad do just tip into slightly irritating, with not enough piano and too many stereotypical jazz tropes of walking bass lines, splashy/brushy cymbals and overly prominent horns. Sameeda is probably the worst for this, with those comically low horns, and feeling like jazz parody.

It also feels like a lot of the riffs and melodies are familiar, like Moon River on the Wedding. Maybe they are intentional references, but often it feels like they are going to turn into something well known, before drifting off somewhere less interesting.

Overall the good tracks do just about outweigh the more boring tracks, and I did find it more listenable with repeat listens. While I may not actively seek this out again I wouldn’t be that bothered if it came on. High 2, low 3 territory, I’ll go 2 as realistically I doubt I will ever listen again.
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Playlist submission: Manenburg Revisited

Rust in Peace
Got one chance, infiltrate them
Get it right, terminate them
The Panzers will, permeate them
Break their pride, denigrate them
And their people, retrograde them
Typhus, detriate them
Epidemic, devastate them
Take no prisoners, cremate them

Is this actually not that bad, or is it not that bad in comparison to the majority of the dogshit metal or metal adjacent albums we’ve had; your Panteras, your Napalm Deaths, your Sepulturas, your Alice in Chains, your Marilyn Mansons? It's certainly more melodic and accessible than those albums, and I didn’t really feel the urge to bin it off entirely, and I actually think I kind of enjoyed the first two; Holy Wars is probably a superior bit of thrash metal and Hangar 18 has an almost latin feel to it and is actually pretty fun. But then that familiar sense of tedium sets in, the rhythmic monotony, the guitar squealing and general juvenile take on politics and war. The odd, occasional moment when it deviates, e.g. when it slows down a little on Five Magics, when those little bits of Spanish guitar that appear here and there and the bass intro on Dawn Patrol, are pretty welcome, but are too few and far between. If you were to take any track in isolation it would probably be a fun enough silly metal listen, but when you stack them over 40 minutes it is pretty tiresome, and fundamentally there isn't really much for me here beyond the novelty of listening to the first couple of tracks.

Like any genre, if you are into metal this is probably great, and you can probably differentiate and appreciate the nuances of all the metal sub-genres, and hear the little things that make this good, but if you struggle with any metal post-Black Sabbath, like I do, it all just become a rather laborious jumble of drums, guitars and adolescent histrionics.

It isn't that bad in comparison to much of that dogshit metal, but for me ultimately it isn’t really that good either, and although I’m glad to have given it a go a couple of times I can’t imagine listening again.
☮️ ☮️
Playlist submission: Hangar 18.
Ps I think that’s meant to be John Major on the right hand side on the cover
Pps https://theonion.com/humanity-still-producing-new-art-as-though-megadeth-s-1819578062/

Live at Leeds
Another band I had a period of obsession with about 15-20 years ago. I bought the deluxe edition of this on CD when it was released, and I think the CD versions with 14+ songs have become the de facto versions, rather than the original 7 track release. The deluxe version is over two hours long and includes almost the whole of Tommy, and while that’s worth a listen, the other tracks either side of that are on the standard CD release are the most essential, particularly the versions of Heaven and Hell, I Can’t Explain, Young Man Blues, Substitute and the medley strewn My Generation. And of course there are the versions of A Quick One While He’s Away and Magic Bus, which are both thrillingly, transcendently brilliant, especially that moment when Moon first comes smashing in on Magic Bus at around the 3.21 mark. In fact you probably could just listen to these two tracks and ignore the rest and you’d get the idea, and why this is always heralded as one of the best live albums of all time

They do sound incredibly powerful and exciting, right at the peak of the original line-ups' live powers. Also I don’t think the audience were mic'd up, so the crowd noise is almost non-existent during the songs, so you can really hear the alchemy of their playing. Moon is relentless, I know he would have been aided by some substances and would have built up ‘match fitness’ from being on tour but it is incredible how he maintains so much energy from start to end. Entwhistle is obviously a great bassist, but you can really get a sense of their performance dynamic, as he’s somewhere between lead bassist and rhythm guitarist, while Townshend is somewhere between rhythm guitarist and lead guitarist. Townshend really is great on here, showing what an excellent, versatile and clever player he is, oscillating between different volumes and tones and anchoring the whole thing with some semblance of structure. Dan I’m sure you’ll know much more about this but from my cursory reading it seems his set up enabled him to switch between tones and sounds just using his volume knob? Sometimes on record Daltrey’s voice can be a little grating, but here he’s in his element, having to compete with the cacophony the rest of the band were making probably bought out the best in his voice, and he mixes the shouting and screaming with some more delicate tones too.

As always it’s kind of tricky to rate live albums, like the Cash ones and the Jerry Lee Lewis one. The original release misses some of the best stuff, A Quick One While He’s Away most prominently, and the CD releases are pretty long, so it can feel a bit like you are being pummeled in the head by Entwhistle and Moon. Having said that, if you are going to listen to a live album, you may as well listen to this, and whichever version you listen to, the energy and visceral thrill of their live prowess is undeniable, so it would feel churlish not to give it a 5.
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Playlist submission: Between Magic Bus and A Quick One, While He’s Away. I’ll go Magic Bus.

In Rainbows
I can’t remember what I paid for the download, but looking back the pay-what-you-want mechanism is the least interesting thing about the album, as the music is absolutely fantastic; jittery and dense punctuated by moments of clarity and beauty, fusing the electronica and dislocation of Kid A onwards with some of the instrumentation and feel, if not the sounds of OK Computer.

I don’t think it feels like a deliberate retrospective agglomeration of those albums though, it feels much more forward looking than that, that they are more comfortable with themselves and how they write and record their music, which probably reveals itself in some of the more personal and intimate lyrics, especially the opening lines of House of Cards.

Each song is great, and each one has so many great moments or elements; the quintuple meter of 15 Step hinting at the rhythmic and percussive weight of the rest of album, the scuzzy riff of Bodysnatchers, the harmonies of Nude, the overall oddity of Weird Fishes, the elegant strings and percussion and ominous synth tones of All I Need, when the strings come in on Faust Arp, the cymbals high on the right channel and the bass underneath on Reckoner, the contrast of ‘infrastructure will collapse’ with the opening lines and beauty of House of Cards, the clarity of Thom’s voice on Jigsaw as it builds, the stateliness and lyrical conceit of Videotape.

Similar to the Beatles, my favourite album depends on the day, but this is always up there, it’s an exceptionally good album, with no weak tracks. Easy 5.
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Playlist submission: House of Cards

Low-life
I’ve got this on vinyl funnily enough. I had a bit of a New Order obsession about 15 years ago and I bought some cheap copies of some of their albums. This might not be as well known as Power, Corruption & Lies or Technique, but it’s definitely one of their best, most consistent albums and is probably right at their peak of their mix of post-punk, dance, rock and synth pop. Some songs more straightforwardly pop and some more straightforwardly dance, but all with the distinctive New Order combination of detached, mauldin sincerity.

I’ve always loved Love Vigilantes, with its obvious lift from Love Me Do and it’s story about a ghost/non ghost returning from war. And Perfect Kiss is a superb song, a great NO single.

This Time of Night is another excellent bit of dance rhythm driven pop, with some great little hooks and a sinister air. Sunrise is one of those NO tracks that starts out unpromisingly, but its prosaic intro turns into something really hypnotic and immersive, a trick they manage to successfully pull over and over - Bernard’s ‘simple’ guitar patterns, Peter Hook’s twangy bass melodies, Stephen’s dancey rhythms and Gillian’s keyboards/synths really are a great combination and elevate what may seem like a basic structure into something really interesting. Sooner Than You Think is probably the only real dip in quality, but it’s still a more than decent NO album track.

Elegia is a great bit of cinematic synth pop atmosphere, a little like a John Carpenter soundtrack, brilliantly cool, austere but moving tribute to Ian Curtis. It definitely feels very Low era Bowie, which I guess is nodded to by the album title.

Sub-culture, has a very similar sequencing and rhythmic structure to Blue Monday, but is an excellent dance pop song in it’s own right. Face Up has that great NO drum sound, similar to the Temptation re-mix, and has a simultaneously jaunty riff and wistful melody and lyric, a great closing track

I hadn’t listened to this in a while and was thinking it was probably a solid 4, but re-visiting it over the weekend it’s become a 5 - it’s an excellent album of great New Order tracks with 4 absolute belters in Love Vigilantes, Perfect Kiss, Elegia and Sub Culture.
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Playlist submission: Elegia

Rio
This makes me think of an early episode of Only Fools and Horses when Rodney tries to impress a girl by turning up with this album under his arm. It also feels like the band my older sister would have been into, had I actually had sister 8 or 9 years older than me.

Rio is an undeniably fantastic bit of pop music, and Duran Duran in a nutshell: great chorus, great melody, brilliantly self-assured, with an irresistible 80s pop-funk-disco-rock-synth sheen and terrible, naff lyrics. Hungry Like the Wolf is similar, brilliantly catchy, a great chorus and ‘I smell like I sound’. I’ve always really liked Save a Prayer too, with its swaying rhythm and wistful melody.

The rest of it is uniformly above average synth pop in that same vein, full of memorable hooks, riffs, synths and choruses, without, New Religion’s 80s cop thriller soundtrack atmosphere aside, quite reaching the heights of those singles.

Lonely in Your Nightmare has a great little earworm of a chorus, Hold Back the Rain has a pleasingly thumpy rhythm, Last Chance on the Stairway has that excellently melodic bass, and The Chaffeur has a great woozy off kilter The Normal style experimental synth vibe.

The rhythm section really is excellent, probably the thing that separates them from some of their contemporaries, there’s some great melodic bass and synth bass and that great 80s drum sound too.

You can hear Bowie (again), Chic Roxy Music - if you are going for this type of synth-pop-funk sound and style you probably couldn’t choose better influences.

Full of hooks and memorable melodies, where the choruses and style outweigh the substance, but it doesn’t matter, it’s such a fun listen that it’s an easy 4.
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Playlist submission: Rio

Liquid Swords
I only really know the title track, which is superb, with that great organ sample and the excellent delivery. The rest of it is great too, and it definitely gets better with each listen, the groggy feel getting under your skin.

I really love the sound of it all, that kind of thin and piercing snare sound, and the brilliantly built loops and beats, a kind of dense and woozy and slightly wonky world, giving a disconcerting but attractive ambience. The sampling is excellent too, not as exuberant and excessive as Paul’s Boutique, but a judicious use of keyboard, horn and vocal samples, all contributing to the percussive, mesmeric atmosphere. I love that trumpet sample in Living in the World Today, the choral sample in Gold, that little riff in 4th Chamber that sounds like a vibraphone, Ann Peebles in Shadowboxin’ with the great bass line. There’s also that slightly unsteady synth line in Hell’s Wind.

I also love his vocal style and timbre, kind of similar to Method Man but a bit clearer and more distinct. Lyrically it also avoids much of the misogyny of most mid 90s hip hop, and while there is a lot of violence, it seems to be treated thoughtfully (most of the time), making it a more introspective take on the usual unsettling themes.

I really enjoyed this and the world it paints, and there are some excellent tracks in Liquid Swords, Gold, 4th Chamber, Shadowboxin, Hell’s Wind and B.I.B.L.E, along some lots of very god tracks. Illmatic is still the high point for me for this type of album, but with more listens I think this will be up there too. It’s easily a high 4, but I’ll bet on it being a 5 with more listens.

💧⚔️💧⚔️💧
Playlist submission: Hell’s Wind

Let it Bleed
This really reminds of university, graduating from Greatest Hits to the albums from their imperious pomp. At that time it was probably my favourite of the Beggar’s Banquet - Let It Bleed - Sticky Fingers - Exile on Main Street axis, and while I would probably tend towards Exile nowadays it’s still up there as one of my favourite albums. Back then I don’t think I really appreciated how much country there was on it, and listening today it’s interesting how nearly every song has some country touch or influence on it. I know their country influences are obvious, but I would probably tend to think songs like Jumpin Jack Flash, Honky Tonk Women, Gimme Shelter and Brown Sugar are emblematic of this period, but so much of their stuff around this time was very country.

Alongside the totemic Gimme Shelter, Midnight Rambler and You Can’t Always Get What You Want at the beginning middle and end, there are some of their best albums tracks, the country blues of Love in Vain, the hoedown of Country Honk, the propulsive and rocking Live with Me, the loose, druggy, not so subtle sexual euphemisms and barroom feel of Let it Bleed, the cracked, careworn and satisfying You’ve Got The Silver and the paranoid, sinister absolutely fantastic Monkey Man.

Like all of their albums of this period the playing is great, and is probably in the sweet spot of the tightness of Sticky Fingers and the looseness of Exile, Charlie as always is great, particularly on Midnight Rambler and You’ve Got The Silver. Bill’s bass playing is excellent, a great tone and while not showy there are some great touches and moments, particularly on Let it Bleed. Keith’s playing on here really is exceptional in between Brian withdrawing and Mick entering, so many great lines and phrases, always adding to the songs. I love his playing on Monkey Man especially. Mick’s vocals are particularly sweet too, it might be the best of his singing voice. And the cast of additional performers is incredible, Merry Clayton, Leon Russel, Jack Nitsche, Al Kooper, Ry Cooder as well as their stalwarts Ian Stewart, Jimmy Miller, Nicky Hopkins and Bobby Keys. Hopkin’s piano really is fantastic, particularly on Let it Bleed.

I don’t think I could ever get tired of Gimme Shelter, and I’ll definitely never get tired of that break in Merry Clayton’s voice with the woo in the background. If this was just Gimme Shelter 9 times it would be a 5. If it was just Gimme Shelter, Midnight Rambler and You Can’t Always Get What You Want it would be 5. If it was those 3 songs plus all the others it would also be a 5. So basically anyway you slice it, it’s a 5.
🎂🎂🎂🎂🎂
Playlist submission: Gimme Shelter

Sea Change
I bought a hooky version of this on CD from a bloke selling counterfeit albums on the street outside the Staten Island Ferry Terminal in Manhattan in November 2002 while visiting Mackie. I often wonder why he chose this album to copy and that spot to sell it. It doesn’t really say carefree fun loving New York excursion.

Anyhow, funding crack addictions aside, it’s a truly excellent album, up there with Odelay and Midnite Vultures as my favourites of his. The difference between Midnite Vultures’ dynamic soul/funk and Prince-esque vibrancy and energy and Sea Change’s intimate, sometimes bleak, focused and concentrated folk and country-dappled melancholy is starkly brilliant.

While all the songs are thematically and tonally similar, they don’t feel repetitive at all, gently lapping and swaying with each other over the course of the album, all with slight variations in instrumentation, tempo and arrangement. The playing is great, sympathetic and rather lovely little guitar and keyboard embellishments and the string arrangements are fantastic, from the pastoral to the vaguely middle eastern.

The first three songs really grabbed me when I first listened, the country guitar on The Golden Age evoking Lonesome Me, Paper Tiger’s shuffling percussion, guitar and string arrangement are superb, and Guess I’m Doing Fine’s melancholy melody accented by the reverb and guitar is brilliant.

It remains excellent after that, each track is great, but some highlights for me are It’s All in Your Mind with its ghostly and reverb guitar piano, Round the Bends use of upright bass, the fingerpicking of Already Dead, Little One with it’s heavier oppressive guitars, and Side of the Road, a great bit of downbeat country-folk melancholia.

All through the album you can pick up the influences and references - I’m sure Sunday Sun is a Nick Drake reference to Saturday Sun, but there’s bits of Neil, Dylan, other folk and country as well as some electronica inflected rhythms and drums, adding to the subtle variance of the songs.

It’s a great sad album as well as being just a great album. Easily a 5, clive

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Playlist submission: The Golden Age

Lust for Life
I remember having a best of Iggy and the Stooges CD which had Lust for Life and The Passenger as the sole representatives of this album, so consequently I know nothing of the rest of it.

Lust for Life and The Passenger are great of course, brilliant bits of late 70s rock, Lust for Life’s 50s-ish rock n roll feel with Iggy’s drawling, punkish charisma is a great combination. I’ve never so closely listened to The Passenger before and there is some excellent guitar under the vocals in the 2nd half. And of course it’s a great song with a fantastic sense of woozy, vaguely sinister momentum.

I know it was a different time but why were people in the 60s and 70s obsessed with singing about 16 year old girls? Sixteen adds to that canon, and from 45 years later it does feel a bit icky. Some Weird Sin is ok, but the guitar licks feel a bit cheesy.

The bass and drums are excellent throughout, and when Carlos Alomar plays lead it's good, but there’s something about Ricky Gardiner’s tone and playing that sometimes feels a bit dated. For a Bowie-produced and co-written album it feels like he generally only has a faint spectral hand in matters, apart from the backing vocals and, of course, Tonight and then the excellently melodramatic Turn Blue (even though it definitely sounds like Iggy’s singing I Shat Myself Down). Success is fine, pretty catchy and the backing vocals are very good.

Neighbourhood Threat feels like a pre Post-Punk New Wave track, and has a nice simmering slightly malevolent quality. Rhythmically Fall in Love with Me is great, and it has a real Station to Station/Lodger feel to it, a great closing track

Not quite sure where this sits, it has some absolute bangers in Lust for Life, The Passenger and Tonight, and great tracks in Turn Blue, Neighbourhood Threat and Fall in Love With Me, but Sixteen, Some Weird Sin and Success are a little underwhelming in comparison, and there’s something about the whole thing I find doesn’t quite grab me fully. It’s clearly a very good album, but it’s probably on the cusp of 3 and 4, and based on how often I might want to revisit, I think I’ll settle on 3.
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Playlist submission: The Passenger