I've been a bit lax in updates the last couple days. Been working a good bit, and not a lot of albums have interested me. But on Saturday, the 8th we did have a big anniversary of a big time Black Met al album. I did listen to it and so better late than never...
"Today" (Saturday, the 8th) is the 20th anniversary of Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk by Emperor!!!
A couple months I got into Emperor's debut. It was so vivid and intense and strangely beautiful at points. I listened to it a few times. Then I stopped and moved on. Then on Saturday I finally dove into their sophomore album.
In many ways this is even better. The beautiful and eerie opening is absolutely stunning. The drumming by a new drummer at the time is more breakneck and clear and intense. The guitars are similarly frightening and brutal to their debut. The album is truly beautiful in many ways. Before listening to Anthems, I was not anticipating such a meticulous and varied album. I was, obviously, a Black Metal tour-de-force. And it delivered that aspect in spades. Anyway, it is pretty solid. Too bad memebers of the band are so oppressively dangerous to society and such thugs! Oh well.
---------------
Yesterday legitimately I did not see anything interesting to listen to, so I didn't.
----------
Today is the 50th Anniversary of Live In Europe by Otis Redding!!!!
This is an EXCELLENT live album. The recordings may not be the clearest or most amazing of any live album. But the MUSIC is stunning and so alive and so gosh darn SOULFUL. The crowd is clearly so invigorated and with it, the band is tight and spare at the right times. And Otis is his typical elementally powerful best.
The ballads are the stand outs here just as they are on his studio records (to me anyway). "I've Been Loving You Too Long" and "These Arms of Mine" awaken all the loving, romantic aspects of me every time. These more rocking, classic stax songs here are also so fun and awesome. The covers are okay. Not a fan of "Day Tripper". But that is maybe the only point of this live set that I feel remotely "meh" about. But even "Day Tripper" has a certain, sweating, working, power that I can't deny.
Overall this is an ace Live album. _________________ -Ryan
Yeah, I love that Emperor album. Just so powerful. Won't be listening to that for a while. lol. What did they do? Are they the band that burned down churches? I forget.
That Otis album sounds perfect though. Never checked out his live stuff before. Been really into Sam cooke lately....
MercuryTurn your back on the pay-you-back last callProfile St. Louis
Yeah, I love that Emperor album. Just so powerful. Won't be listening to that for a while. lol. What did they do? Are they the band that burned down churches? I forget.
That Otis album sounds perfect though. Never checked out his live stuff before. Been really into Sam cooke lately....
The members of Emperor promoted church burning, yes. As did several other bands of that time and place. Samson of Emperor took part in the church burnings as did Faust (these Fucking names! jesus...). Anyway, also Faust is a real piece of of garbage. He was also convicted of killing a man because he was making flirtatious/sexual advances on him.
Anyway, it's interesting that some despicable people are so capable of making awe-inspiring works of art.
-----
As for Otis live, yeah I think you'll dig it. It's super solid. It's weird cuz based off his pictures and his voice and his soul I always thought of him as a wise old man of soul. But he was only 26 when he died. I was super surpised to learn that. I thought he was like 33-36 something like that. Anyway, random ends now.
I'll get into a new diary today soon I think. _________________ -Ryan
The story of Fleetwood Mac has always been super interesting to me. The way they progressed from one of the great British blues bands of the 60s into the quintessential California Pop Rock group of the late 70s is just wild. As an avid blues fan at a young age, I stumbled upon their music in my search for the greatest british blues. Peter Green is easily a blues guitar genius. And I was very much a fan of their 1st debut with Green at the helm. Of course I knew that Fleetwood Mac would later become a whole different animal, but at the time I had no interest in how they managed to change from THIS ballsy brand of blues nirvana into "that breezy pop band my mom loves with Stevie Nicks singing all the sappy songs...".
Then I finally decided to listen to "Rumours". I figured it may be pretty good. I was not anticipating how much I would love it. I played it to death for awhile when I was about 19. Although it was so different from the work of theirs I was familiar with, I was out of my blues purist mindset enough to see its brilliance.
After this I never went back to learning more about how this came to be, how this change happened. I never had much more than a passing interest in their "2nd Debut" which is how I always saw this album.
So, today, due to its anni, I decided to listen. I listened 2 times through. It was very nice. My creative juices aren't flowing, so I am not inclined to be very illum inating in this review. But basically it has the same soft balladry of Rumours but without quite the same level of polish or perfection. Also I admit that the story and the drama surrounding Rum ours gave it a bit more significance. Now I know that that is a piss poor way of listening to music, finding external factors and narratives to make it seem more interesting. But when I first listened to the follow up to this "@nd debut" or reinvention I did find myself reading more into the songs, hearing the sadness and knowing the story of what brought it about just piqued my interest a bit more is all.
All that aside, the songs here are actually gorgeous. The more rocking songs are very alive and accessible, and the quiet moments are stirring and nice. Blah Blah Blah. I have nothing new or remotely interesting to say. Its a good album.
Their true debut is more exciting and inspired to my ears. But this is such a different animal it really is quite silly to compare them.
Okay, I have run out of steam here. I am going to do some more work from home, listen to a super interesting course on facebook advertising, then maybe listen to Joy Division's Substance (the other anni today I kinda wanted to make note of, then I will hopefully be back for more. _________________ -Ryan
Ever since I heard bananarama for the first time I've been just totally into them. Their first 2 albums are fabulous dance-pop albums. Especially have a good amount of love for their debut Deep Sea Skiving.
Now, this is my first experience with their 3rd album, True Confessions. Listening now and its absolutely excellent! This was their first album that fully embraced pure pop, hit-making aspirations. As a result perhaps the tracks are each so warm and detailed. Their sound by this album was more polished than ever. And the sweet pop melodies hit even more directly and beautifully. The synth pop rhythms are bouncy and energetic on tracks like "True Confessions", and especially "Ready or Not". And the track "In A Perfect World" is dark, nocturnal, sexiness. "Venus" is just pure genius! So firey and inspired. I love that beat. Excellent cover.
That slinky bassline on "Cut Above The Rest" is so damn awesome! And the whole song is a memorable jamming gem. And "More Than Physical" gets me all hot and bothered. I love that mechanical beat and that shuffly keyboard sound, and the vocals are so gosh darn catchy!
Overall the album is subtly imbued with a soulful sadness. So where you're perhaps expecting buoyant 80s Girl Group Pop thru and thru, you're served up with a surprisingly deep dose of melancholy couched in some of the most infectious dance pop out there.
Deep Sea Skiving is still definitely their best album that I've heard. Its just slightly more inventive and gritty and cool. But True Confessions is easily second. Its a brilliant little album truly.
Gosh I love me some Bananarama! _________________ -Ryan
Today is the 81st Birth Anniversary of Albert Ayler!
Sadly he died at the young age of 34. But he made music. He made music that people who are cool like. I have never gotten into him. I tried listening to Spiritual Unity once about a year ago. I turned it off not in disgust, but in a tangled mass of confused consternation. I had been really really into the works of John Coltrane and Alice Coltrane and Pharaoh Sanders and Eric Dolphy and and and ... , so I thought it was high time I dug into this. I thought I was ready. I was not. The only other album I have had a similar reaction to was Coltrane's Ascension.
Anyway, I decided to give this a listen in celebration of Albert Ayler's legacy...
Okay, and after the catchy and beautiful intro of "Ghost: First Variation" I was thinking "I got this!". Then the free jazz starts encroaching with all its jazzy freeness, and I notice strange physical reactions. My eyes squint, my hands hold my phone more tightly, my breathing becomes more irregular. It's like my mind is telling my body "Hold tense for a bit while I find SOMETHING to latch on to. Some meaning in this maelstrom that's been placed in close proximity to my logical being."
But, this time, I persist. I know there is something here. I can feel it, if vaguely. And I tell myself "Just listen. What is going on? What are those drums doing? What is that bass saying? Listen to the sax, is it really just random squawking? Just CONFRONT and PERCEIVE this music."
After doing this, I noticed I started to like it again. I relaxed, I sipped my coffee, had a good long drag, and started just feeling comfortable and interested. A Little smile may have even crossed my lips.
Its weird, not something I totally "Get", but there is something beautiful about it. The music conveys some sort of wild striving for human connection. The different dramatis personae of this particular sonic play are generally just moving about, doing their own searching, thinking up fun and interesting things to say, going on their merry or introspective way. Then that makes the moments of "Unity" or connection, where all the players/personnel/characters come together all the more sublime. Its like they see each other briefly and come together and sing and play in harmony with one another. Then they all disperse again.
This ebb and flow of structure (or more traditional and easy to digest structure) and freedom and lostness, is what builds into this strange musical artifact its drama. Its really quite interesting and beautiful and like nothing else I've ever heard. Not Quite.
I do love that sweet melody of the Ghost Variations first and second variations.
I noticed this with other albums that at first I didn't get but later clicked with, that it tends to make any more simplistic or traditional music seem pointless and lacking in any dynamics. For example when I really fell head over heels in love with Miles's In A Silent Way I noticed that for weeks after whenever I heard an album that was pop or rock or folk and was generally very straightforward in structure I let out a loud yawn and stopped the record and searched for In A Silent Way or something somewhat like it.
I don't know that this album and the fact that I kinda like it Really like and maybe even LOVE it now will have a similar effect on me. I mean I was going to listen to a Matthew Sweet album next or Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid. Will those albums seem unimaginably simplistic now? I guess we shall see.
Anyway, now what is playing in my ears is "Ghost: Second Variation". The beautiful intro is long gone. Albert's sax is blazing away, the bass is trying to get its point across with some stuttery madness, the drums are plugging away with some beautiful chirpy thing, and the bass seems to have succeeded in getting Albert's attention cuz the sax just dropped out. I imagine Ayler just looking at the bass player with an understanding look, waiting for a chance to jump in with his thoughts. Oh there it is! They are really talking this out together now. Talking over each other like something in "His Girl Friday". It's beautiful, yet somewhat incomprehensible as well. The beautiful melody at the end, another one of those aformentioned moments of unity, then the track ends. A Classic.
And with that, just an update, the album just ended. I almost without thought and just on reflex pushed play. I really like this. Now I want to start unraveling it a bit. What has happened to me these last 40 minutes??? _________________ -Ryan
Okay, and after the catchy and beautiful intro of "Ghost: First Variation" I was thinking "I got this!". Then the free jazz starts encroaching with all its jazzy freeness, and I notice strange physical reactions. My eyes squint, my hands hold my phone more tightly, my breathing becomes more irregular. It's like my mind is telling my body "Hold tense for a bit while I find SOMETHING to latch on to. Some meaning in this maelstrom that's been placed in close proximity to my logical being."
Great review, Mercury! That first paragraph really had me laughing. I've been many a times with many record.
Peace, brother! Glad it seems to be clicking for you. Certainly not my speed rn. 🤣
MercuryTurn your back on the pay-you-back last callProfile St. Louis
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Mercury
Repo
