Reviews by richardwiggins

I’d never heard of Giant Sand before today. Jumping into their mammoth discography midway through feels like I’m catching up, but I love what I hear. Howe Gelb has an awkward sense of humour. His performance is pitched as if he is performing to no-one, strumming in the corner of an empty bar trying to make himself laugh, occasionally getting into a tight, gnarly groove.

This is a record which rewards active listening and does everything possible to dissuade you from engaging in it. The luscious fingerpicking and whispery vocals could so easily wash over you - don’t let it! Whether it works for you will likely depend on how bothered you are that individual songs are fairly indistinct from each other. At points it almost feels like Gelb is performing one long song off the top of his head, taking brief pauses to sip his beer. I personally find the overall effect enchanting.

When I heard about My Life In The Bush of Ghosts I wrongly assumed it would be David Byrne doing his full on David Byrne vocal performance over the top of a Brian Eno record, and the concept got me very excited. Nothing was ever going to live up to the idea that I had in my head. Instead it's a very tasteful instrumental meeting of creative minds, a blend of the two artist’s sonic palettes. Byrne’s bouncy, eccentric instincts come up against Eno’s more patient, atmospheric ones. Together they are manipulating sounds, textures and samples from Africa and adding a psychedelic flare, leading to a unique sounding Western record.

We have different ideas nowadays about how appropriate it is for artists to draw so deeply from non-dominant cultures but it does look like Eno and Byrne made efforts to be respectful to the (admittedly sometimes unwitting) collaborators who make up the record’s samples. The results speak for themselves, with this being a curious exploration of culture, even if it's not exactly my favourite mode for either artist.

SAULT has a radical sound. Inflo creates sparse, austere R&B without the flourishes you’d usually associate from the genre. It puts a lot of pressure on the songwriting and vocals to be exceptional, and the group mostly lives up to this. I’ve only heard Inflo’s work with Little Simz before now and enjoyed hearing the sonic thread that binds the two projects.

Untitled (Black Is) is a very 2020 record and a very Black record, responding to Black Lives Matter and George Floyd while also reflecting the claustrophobic feeling of the international lockdowns. It's interesting to hear a British group commenting on the state of race relations from across the pond, while I appreciate that these themes are ultimately universal, it would have been cool to also hear them zone in on some of the problems we have in the UK.

Some songs caught me and inspired the meaningful response that was intended, other bits of speechifying sounded a little cheesy to my ears, though I recognise that these are the ears of a middle class white man.

Raekwon lyrically and tonally is a bit serious for my tastes, I’d have liked a bit more of a sense of humour, but the command he has of his flow and the hypnotic beats do a lot of heavy lifting. It’s exceptionally well produced and made for a vibey, floaty listen.

Korn are definitely interesting, what they are doing is incredibly weird, nice clashes of discordant sounds, great drumming, satisfying crunchy guitars but the vocalist sounds like a deep gargling toilet flush. The random outbursts of scat singing sound comedic, but are performed with such intensity that I’m not sure that there’s any tongue in cheek element. When he is being more conventional it’s ridiculously intense “dead bodies everywhere!” He’s going for a posturing ‘deep’ aesthetic which I find hard to take seriously. It’s a shame that the vocals are so ever present because instrumentally I love this thing!

Frank was not the album which catapulted Amy Winehouse into the public consciousness. Even after she achieved fame you’d rarely hear songs from the debut on the radio despite stations spinning cuts from Back to Black and her Zutons cover almost non-stop. Frank is definitely the lesser of her two records, mostly because of lack of single power, but it absolutely has its place. It is vibier, more atmospheric and a more cohesive whole than the follow up.

The tone of the instruments and general aesthetic of Blue Cheer are tremendous. There’s a good energy to the performances which sound very fresh for 1968. Unfortunately the compositions don’t do anything for me and I found myself checking for when the album would be over when it’s only 32 minutes long. They sound like pioneers but not the finished article.

The vintage sitar cover versions of Western songs are good fun, reminding me what I enjoy about the originals while showing them off in a new flavour. The original compositions are more nourishing though - and left me relieved that it wasn’t 40 minutes of Doors and Rolling Stones covers. The whole album is an early successful example of fusing Indian and Western styles, with some elements of the final tracks almost sounding a bit like Primal Scream. Very cool.

While it's surprising how well Nirvana’s songs stand up in their acoustic form, there is no doubt to me that their music loses some dimension and edge when the distortion and bluster is removed. It is true that the band’s most appealing qualities lie in their melodies but for me there is a smaller but critical component missing from most of these arrangements which limits their impact and presence. Regardless, their material holds up well with the only total flop being the under-rehearsed Pennyroyal Tea.

Where I do not agree with fans of this record is on the quality of the cover songs. The Vaselines and David Bowie are battered and bruised by the MTV Unplugged experience, detracting from the overall album. The trio of songs from Meat Puppets II fare much better thanks to the actual Meat Puppets being invited on stage but with the exception of Oh Me their songs don’t suit Cobain’s voice. I’d rather hear the other Curt (who is onstage!) sing them. Though it must be said how amazing it is that Cobain championed more obscure acts, or in the case of Leadbelly, introduced classic acts to a new audience.

Nirvana only have four records: MTV Unplugged and the three studio albums. Unplugged and the iconic Nevermind firmly sit on the more accessible side of their catalog. This may be completely unfair, but I can’t help but feel that part of the overwhelmingly positive reception for MTV Unplugged was due to it both being released shortly after Cobain’s death and it being the band’s second accessible record. Fans of Nevermind (which is the largest subset of Nirvana fans) suddenly had a second place to focus their attention in the wake of Cobain’s death. For me it's a good listen, an interesting artifact, but not a classic record or a patch on their studio albums.

This is a sweet little album that I thought I knew nothing of but I quickly recognised some radio hits from my childhood. They’re doing something deliberately nostalgic, hugely positive and very out of step with where music was at in 2003. It’s not particularly eventful or exciting though, in fact it’s very faint and left me somewhat surprised that The Thrills were ever a chart topping band.

This is an album which really knows when to go for it and when to pull things back. Seagull is an immense way to kick things off, a sweeping wall of sound, homing in on and washing out the “rock out” elements of what made The Stone Roses debut so successful the year before. At the same time Ride, with the same pallet of reverby guitars and huge, thudding drums, are more than capable of producing emotional little ballads like In a Different Place. There are a small number of songs, each of epic proportions and never a wasted moment.

There’s a consistently interesting combination of sounds, though admittedly nothing that truly ever sets my world alight. I like the dubby, chill soundscapes which slowly morph, change and reveal themselves. Some are more effective than others but they all create a welcoming vibe. The variety of singers keeps things fresh while the production is consistent enough to make for a coherent album experience.

Suede are usually the fourth band mentioned when people list Britpop acts off the top of their head: “Blur, Oasis, Pulp and Suede”. I’m convinced that these groups sound nothing like each other and that the whole movement was a marketing ruse rather than a genre. Oasis were inspired by The Stone Roses; Blur by The Kinks; Suede, who I’m consciously listening to for the first time today, sound inspired by Morrissey; and I’ve never properly listened to Pulp (sorry).

I was less than four months old when this record came out so unaware of the brief but significant impact it had in the UK. Their atmospheric, dejected sound is cool but listening with unfamiliar ears I am surprised that it was ever mainstream. It sounds niche, and unlike several actually niche British indie bands of the early 1990s (The House of Love and The Wedding Present come to mind) I can't hear any big singles. Lyrically Brett Anderson is pitching himself as an outsider with a chaotic lifestyle, which definitely has an appeal, but not the kind of mass appeal of the other “Britpop Big Four”. This is no way a point of criticism, just a point of confusion.

Ultimately for me Suede are an interesting, vibey group, but one with an elusive appeal.

Given its reputation I was expecting more from Elephant. The singles are very effective - rough and bolshy garage rock with broad appeal. The Hardest Button to Button has a simple but gnarly hook at the centre of it which is perfectly exploited. However the basic, stripped back songwriting does not translate as well to the folkier numbers. I am a huge fan of folk rock, and even whimsical twee folk, but I did not find much enjoyment in any of these cuter songs. When they then switched back to the simple and bold rock songs it began to sound a bit one note. A songwriting approach this straightforward would probably lend itself better to a half hour LP.

It struck me in its opening moments how formative What’s Going On has been, both musically and lyrically, on the soul and hip hop that has come since. It’s not just that it’s been heavily sampled - there is a general attitude and vibe on this LP which has made its way into the broader ecosystem.

You’d think that a political soul record would feel more serious than this but artists like Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield were able to reflect on the state of the nation without wearing it too heavily. What they were singing about was serious, the way they were singing was anything but.

What makes Gaye stand out from his contemporaries is how singular a focus his most popular records have. To stay fixated on one topic for 30 minutes without a dip in either meaningful commentary or musical excellence is no small achievement.

Lyrically Serge Gainsbourg is deliberately sparking controversy. He is a man in his mid-40s singing a series of love songs about a fictional 14 year old girl from Sunderland. Comparisons to Lolita spring to mind but the direct inspiration was his 24 year old wife Jane Birkin who is pictured on the album artwork holding a teddy bear. Presenting fictionalised versions of Jane and himself with a heightened age gap is there to (in my opinion) give a sensationalist edge to a series of poetic love songs directed towards someone from a different generation. I’m kind of indifferent to this device but can see why it would wind some people up, as that was the intention.

I can’t speak French though, so none of this had any bearing on my enjoyment of the album which can be summed up like this: the way Serge’s vibey rock instrumentals mix with the luscious, cinematic strings and his softly spoken, narrative heavy, mostly spoken vocals totally works on me.

This is my favourite of the Brian Eno art rock albums I’ve heard. There is a perfect harmony and balance between the hyped up pop tracks and the more zen, drawn out offerings. The calmer songs have more of a pop flare to them than their equivalents on Another Green World; and the energetic ones are beautifully silly and bouncy. I particularly love Eno’s childlike, wide-eyed approach to the lyrics. The thoughtful, sombre piano led By This River is my favourite Eno song I’ve heard - I’d love to hear him in this mode again.

It's interesting to hear some early hardcore punk. Lots of posturing, noise and bluster is a welcome thing - it reminds me of being at fantastic (if sparsely attended) gigs in small venues. Too many albums are overlong for no reason, so it's nice to be reminded how far you can push the other way.

Having recently been wowed and surprised by The Who Sell Out from The Who’s looser, more psychedelic earlier period I was a bit suspicious of diving back into their hard rock material but once again this band show themselves to be one I’ve severely underrated. While this is less of a match for me genre wise, the reassuring, robust qualities of a song like Baba O’Riley is undeniable regardless of how your bread is buttered. They assert themselves in such a way that you can’t question whether they’ve got the situation under control - you just have to sit back and appreciate it.

It’s not all of that level, the middle of the record is a little faint, but it comes back with a vengeance with the solemn and dramatically chilling Behind Blue Eyes (I’m ashamed to say I’d only ever heard the Limp Bizkit version!!) Then Won’t Get Fooled Again which is as good a justification as any for the existence of the whole hard rock genre.

While The Who Sell Out might be more my flavour I must admit that this feels more like an “album.” I can see why people are nuts for it. I won’t get fooled again!

The perfect cross point between alternative dance and baggy. A vibey, groovy rock band with a keyboard and programmer bringing the dance music. It’s crazy that a group who presented themselves as raucous, careless nihilists somehow managed to turn in one of the tightest, fluid, meticulously detailed records of the 1990s. It had a defining influence on the sound of the decade yet has never been replicated.