THE SMITHS
THE QUEEN IS DEAD
1986 – SIRE
Produced By MORRISSEY & JOHNNY MARR
1. The Queen Is Dead
2. Frankly, Mr. Shankly
3. I Know It’s Over
4. Never Had No One Ever
5. Cemetry Gates
6. Bigmouth Strikes Again
7. The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
8. Vicar In A Tutu
9. There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
10. Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others
The Smiths were probably the greatest band of the eighties, and The Queen Is Dead was their finest album. Led by the strange, unusual and pompous singer Morrissey and the excellent guitar work of Johnny Marr, the band hit their creative peak on their third album, before things got weird and they started hating each other. Morrissey’s flair for the dramatic, Marr’s hugely underrated guitar work, and the band’s ease with utilizing strings and winds make their best batch of songs exceptional. And there is some really great stuff here. “The Boy With The Thorn In His Side”, “Frankly Mr. Shankly”, “Cemetry Gates” and “Bigmouth Strikes Again” may not have been hits here in the US, but that’s more a testament to how misguided the American music tastes were at the time than anything negative about the quality of The Queen Is Dead. In short, a lot of us were missing out. Big time.
Remember…this was 1986. Pretty much everything, especially from England, was buried in plastic beats and synthesizers. The Smiths were different. They were a very guitar based band, and their songwriting was light years ahead of their contemporaries. On The Queen Is Dead, everything about this band was working on all cylinders. Hard to believe that they would be gone for good just a year later, but they were. The rooms got too small for Morrissey and Marr to be in together. They haven’t made any music together since 1987, but the magic of The Queen Is Dead lives on. There is not a weak track on this, not a wasted note, not a bad lyric, or a piece of it that you’d want done differently. This is the shining moment of a great band that was only here for a short time. The Smiths were the class of a decade, and their legacy lives with this extraordinary album. Must have!
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1. Food For Songs
2. Start With Me
3. Here And Now
4. One thing Left To Do
5. Tell Her This
6. Being Somebody Else
7. Roll To Me
8. Crashing Down
9. It Might As Well Be You
10. Never Enough
11. It’s Never Too Late To Be Alone
12. Driving With The Brakes On
There are a bunch of acts in rock and roll who had a reluctant biggest hit song. Sheryl Crow (“All I Want To Do”) and Blind Melon (“No Rain”) are examples of musicians who ended up surprised by their top hit. Del Amitri also falls firmly into that category. A band that survived being dropped from their original label after just one album, these guys toughened up their sound for Twisted, their fourth album, and landed an unlikely hit in the pop nugget “Roll To Me”, a song that barely fits with the rest of their repertoire. At barely two minutes, “Roll To Me” indeed sounds like an afterthought, surely intended to be not much more than filler. But the song was a hit, and brought Del Amitri a much wider audience. As for the rest of the album, the heavier guitar sound is new to the band at this point. It gives them an edge, taking away the emphasis on the almost too perfect harmonies that the band is well known for.
What really carries Twisted (as well as its slightly better predecessor Change Everything) is the songwriting. Bassist/singer Justin Currie and guitarist Iain Harvie were clearly at their peak during this period, and the quality of songs shows that. “Here And Now”, “Driving With The Brakes On”, and “Tell Her This” are proof that, especially when spiced by the heavier guitar work, Del Amitri had the goods. And they bring it here…this album is a great listen, a breath of fresh air, especially in the flannel driven depressing state of rock music at the time. The band was unable to top the success of Twisted, and particularly “Roll To Me”, on their next album, which led to their demise by 2002. But for a two album stretch from 1992-1995, Del Amitri was almost as good as anyone. You should have Twisted, and you should most definitely have Change Everything…all of the Del Amitri you would ever need.
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'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
The Smiths were probably the greatest band of the eighties, and The Queen Is Dead was their finest album. Led by the strange, unusual and pompous singer Morrissey and the excellent guitar work of Johnny Marr, the band hit their creative peak on their third album, before things got weird and they started hating each other. Morrissey’s flair for the dramatic, Marr’s hugely underrated guitar work, and the band’s ease with utilizing strings and winds make their best batch of songs exceptional. And there is some really great stuff here. “The Boy With The Thorn In His Side”, “Frankly Mr. Shankly”, “Cemetry Gates” and “Bigmouth Strikes Again” may not have been hits here in the US, but that’s more a testament to how misguided the American music tastes were at the time than anything negative about the quality of The Queen Is Dead. In short, a lot of us were missing out. Big time.
Remember…this was 1986. Pretty much everything, especially from England, was buried in plastic beats and synthesizers. The Smiths were different. They were a very guitar based band, and their songwriting was light years ahead of their contemporaries. On The Queen Is Dead, everything about this band was working on all cylinders. Hard to believe that they would be gone for good just a year later, but they were. The rooms got too small for Morrissey and Marr to be in together. They haven’t made any music together since 1987, but the magic of The Queen Is Dead lives on. There is not a weak track on this, not a wasted note, not a bad lyric, or a piece of it that you’d want done differently. This is the shining moment of a great band that was only here for a short time. The Smiths were the class of a decade, and their legacy lives with this extraordinary album. Must have!
Unlike Meat Is Murder, The Queen Is Dead is an album of undisputed greatness, so I don't have anything substantial to add this time, I'll just grab the chance to say that from a huge fan's perspective your review did it justice, hats off to you.
The Smiths were probably the greatest band of the eighties, and The Queen Is Dead was their finest album. Led by the strange, unusual and pompous singer Morrissey and the excellent guitar work of Johnny Marr, the band hit their creative peak on their third album, before things got weird and they started hating each other. Morrissey’s flair for the dramatic, Marr’s hugely underrated guitar work, and the band’s ease with utilizing strings and winds make their best batch of songs exceptional. And there is some really great stuff here. “The Boy With The Thorn In His Side”, “Frankly Mr. Shankly”, “Cemetry Gates” and “Bigmouth Strikes Again” may not have been hits here in the US, but that’s more a testament to how misguided the American music tastes were at the time than anything negative about the quality of The Queen Is Dead. In short, a lot of us were missing out. Big time.
Remember…this was 1986. Pretty much everything, especially from England, was buried in plastic beats and synthesizers. The Smiths were different. They were a very guitar based band, and their songwriting was light years ahead of their contemporaries. On The Queen Is Dead, everything about this band was working on all cylinders. Hard to believe that they would be gone for good just a year later, but they were. The rooms got too small for Morrissey and Marr to be in together. They haven’t made any music together since 1987, but the magic of The Queen Is Dead lives on. There is not a weak track on this, not a wasted note, not a bad lyric, or a piece of it that you’d want done differently. This is the shining moment of a great band that was only here for a short time. The Smiths were the class of a decade, and their legacy lives with this extraordinary album. Must have!
Unlike Meat Is Murder, The Queen Is Dead is an album of undisputed greatness, so I don't have anything substantial to add this time, I'll just grab the chance to say that from a huge fan's perspective your review did it justice, hats off to you.
Hey...thanks! I do very much appreciate the kind words!!!! _________________ May we all get to heaven
'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
SPRING CREEK BLUEGRASS BAND
RURAL & COSMIC BLUEGRASS
2006
Produced By SPRING CREEK BLUEGRASS BAND
1. I Wonder Just Where You Are Tonight
2. Waterline Blues
3. Caleb Meyer
4. Clinch Mountain Freak-Out
5. Blueridge Cabin Home
6. Bowling Green
7. In The Backwoods
8. Harvest Of ‘55
9. High Up In The Mountains
10. Clara Belle
11. Memories Of Greenbriar
12. Gone But Not Forgotten
GOLDEN SMOG
ANOTHER FINE DAY
2006 – LOST HIGHWAY
Produced By PACO LOCO
1. You Make It Easy
2. Another Fine Day
3. 5-22-02
4. Long Time Ago
5. Corvette
6. Beautiful Mind
7. Listen Joe
8. Cure For This
9. Hurricane
10. Strangers
11. Frying Pan Eyes
12. Gone
13. Never Felt Before
14. I Can
15. Think About Yourself
Maybe the most interesting supergroup ever assembled, Golden Smog has also had maybe the most disappointing discography of any of them not named after a large continent. On their first two albums (Down By The Old Mainstream and Weird Tales), the band’s sound was hampered by a lack of production and the members not really taking things seriously. After an eight year hiatus, Another Fine Day suffers from just the opposite. Gone is the sense of fun that used to go with the group, and in its place is a strong sense that they really wanted to get it right this time. In many ways, this release wins over the earlier two…better production, better vocals, more cohesive instrumental tracks. But, the lack of fun and the limited involvement of Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy keep this from rising far above the aforementioned albums. Still, this band is always worth a good listen or three.
While the sound is vastly improved, there’s unfortunately nothing as catchy as “Pecan Pie” or “Radio King” or “Ill Fated”. But what is here is satisfying. The instrumental closing of “Listen Joe” is magnificent, Muni Camon’s guest vocal on “Cure For This” is dead on, and a Kinks cover (“Strangers”) makes things even better. This album is, in spots, heavier, and the harmonies are worth hearing over and over. Ultimately, these guys from Soul Asylum, Wilco, Big Star, The Jayhawks made a great sounding album, actually a step above the stuff that made them a legend of a thrown together band for fun. The Smog made another album (Blood On The Slacks) in 2007, but haven’t released anything since then. Maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ll get yet another disc from this collection of great musicians. Until then sample their four albums, and enjoy friends putting aside fame to make music because it so moves them to do so.
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THE CRYSTAL METHOD
TWEEKEND
2001-GEFFEN
Produced By THE CRYSTAL METHOD
1. PHD
2. Wild, Sweet And Cool
3. Roll It Up
4. Murder (You Know It’s Hard)
5. Name Of The Game
6. The Winner
7. Ready For Action
8. Ten Miles Back
9. Over The Line
10. Blowout
11. Tough Guy
You have to give The Crystal Method credit for one thing at least…they sure don’t sound like just a duo. The second album from this pair of Vegas electronic artists has a sound that bears little to no resemblance to a lot of the thin sound of what a lot of dance music was at the time. A big hit single (“Name Of The Game”) and some high profile guest musicians (Scott Weiland and Tom Morello), along with the powerful sound of The Crystal Method should have been a formula for a massive success. This was, unfortunately, not the case. Instead of building on the positives of their debut album, Vegas, Tweekend is actually a big step backwards. It’s loaded with great riffs that go nowhere, solid beats buried in too much repetition, and a lack of cohesion that takes what could have been a solid and powerful work of an album and makes it forgettable and less than ordinary.
The Crystal Method has lasted almost 30 years now…but they have not been very prolific. In the 20 years since Tweekend, they have released only four albums, an indication that while they may be dedicated, they may also not have a whole lot of ideas floating around. The best Crystal Method experience lies in their debut, or in the follow up to Tweekend, Legion Of Boom. As far as this effort is concerned, it’s a below average sophomore album with not a whole lot other than “Name Of The Game” to recommend it. Trip hop and electronic from the period are much better represented from the period by acts like Tricky and Sneaker Pimps and Massive Attack. While this album does move, it just doesn’t move enough to be satisfying, and leaves you wishing there was more to it than there is. Skip this and go for better albums…of which there are plenty out there to choose from.
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LOVE AND ROCKETS
SWEET F.A.
1996 – AMERICAN
Produced By LOVE AND ROCKETS & JOHN FRYER
1. Sweet F.A.
2. Judgement Day
3. Use Me
4. Fever
5. Sweet Lover Hangover
6. Pearl
7. Shelf Life
8. Sad & Beautiful World
9. Natacha
10. Words Of A Fool
11. Clean
12. Here Come The Comedown
13. Spiked
14. Sweet F.A. (Reprise)
The roots of what is known as gothic music can be found in Bauhaus, a band that lasted only about four years. Without singer Peter Murphy, the rest of the band reformed a few years later as Love And Rockets, which combined elements of electronic and guitar based rock to build a sound that is, most of the time, simply beautiful. Despite spots where Sweet F.A. (the band’s sixth album) slows almost to a complete stop, this is also responsible for some of the most gorgeous moments in 1990’s rock. Songs like “Pearl”, “Sweet Lover Hangover”, and “Here Come The Comedown” are gentle flowing moments, and when the band gets heavier (“Judgement Day”, “Shelf Life”), it works perfectly as well. The flaw here is that Love And Rockets seem to have too many tricks up their sleeve…too many styles, too many directions, which can be frustrating at times. But, for the most part, this works well.
The best thing about this and other Love And Rockets releases is that you will surely find at least a handful of songs to love. And they have more good albums than bad. The real centerpiece of Sweet F.A. is the trance like “Words Of A Fool”, a beautifully layered yet simple song built on layers of electronic and heavy guitars. This song is everything that’s great about this band: perfectly textured, driving, medium paced and executed to a tee. If you can like the diversity that Love And Rockets brings, then Sweet F.A. will be a keeper for you. The band made one more album before splitting in 1999, but there are, along with all oof the Bauhaus and Love And Rockets recordings, plenty of solo albums from Daniel Ash and David J, along with the discography of Tones On Tail…these are prolific guys, and they rarely disappoint. Sweet F.A. is a winner, an album that works on almost every level.
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LIVE
THROWING COPPER
1994 – RADIOACTIVE
Produced By JERRY HARRISON
1. The Dam At Otter Creek
2. Selling The Drama
3. I Alone
4. Iris
5. Lightning Crashes
6. Top
7. All Over You
8. Shit Towne
9. T.B.D.
10. Stage
11. Waitress
12. Pillar Of Davidson
13. White, Discussion
14. Horse
In 1994, music was just starting to get interesting again. And one of the bands that was making life fun again as a listener was Live. Particularly, their second album, Throwing Copper. This band was heavy, creative, and sang songs that were maybe a bit top heavy in the realm of seriousness, but they were most certainly not boring. Singer and lyricist Ed Kowalczyk delivers the one-two punch that put Live on the map in the best pair of hits from the year. “I Alone” is brilliant in its heaviness and dynamics. And “Lightning Crashes” became an unlikely monster hit with almost nothing but rhythm guitar and vocals. Throwing Copper is worth having for these two songs alone…the fact that the rest is as solid as it is makes it even better. The band was at their peak here, gleefully tearing through song after song with a sound that helped make the death throes of classic rock, hair metal and new wave all the more tolerable.
The album, produced by Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads, also features the excellent “Selling The Drama”, “All Over You” and “White, Discussion”. Although they have continued to record, the band has never approached the success of this album, which remains really the only album by Live that you will ever need. Kowalczyk tried to screw his bandmates out of their publishing rights in 2008, resulting in a lawsuit and his dismissal from the band, but they somehow patched things up and he's back in the fold.. Outside of that, and Throwing Copper, there isn’t much that’s memorable about this band. But Throwing Copper is really very good, and very much worth having. And “I Alone” and “Lightning Crashes” still sound as good today as they did in 1994, when the landscape of our musical world was still evolving and growing from the mundane to the exciting. Live didn’t last long as far as being relevant, but they did play a big part in the music of that exciting time. So, thanks, guys. Throwing Copper was a cool moment.
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PHOENIX
WOLFGANG AMADEUS PHOENIX
2009 –GLASSNOTE
Produced By PHOENIX & PHILLIPPE ZDAR
1. Lisztomania
2. 1901
3. Fences
4. Love Like A Sunset (Part I)
5. Love Like A Sunset (Part II)
6. Lasso
7. Rome
8. Countdown
9. Girlfriend
10. Armistice
Phoenix may be the most famous rock band to ever come from France. Not the first, but after their blitz in 2009, probably the biggest. Phoenix had a minimum amount of success early in their career, making three almost unnoticed albums, Then came Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, a pair of monster singles, non-stop touring and ultimately, a Grammy Award for best alternative rock album. The rise of the album was slow, but the live shows, TV appearances, and critical acclaim finally paid off and made them stars. The hits that gained the band all of the attention are excellent, and have strong connections to European history. “1901” is about life in Paris at the turn of the previous century, while “Lisztomania” refers to the fan frenzy connected to Hungarian pianist Franz Liszt during the mid 19th century. Not exactly what you would expect from a 21st century rock band.
Aside from “1901” and “Lisztomania”, the rest of Wolfang Amadeus Pheonix is, by no means, weak at all. “Lasso” is also a fine song, and contains an actual guitar solo, rare for the band. The two part centerpiece of “Love Like A Sunset” works very nicely, and there is nothing about the rest that can be considered inferior or weak. Clearly, Phoenix had reached their peak here, and the album is a fine reward for years of toiling as an unknown. Stardom doesn’t come without a price, however, and Phoenix has struggled since the release of this album to stay focused on the music. It took four years to get the follow up album, Bankrupt!, out, and while it’s good, it fails to reach the heights that this album did. Whether or not Phoenix can surpass what they did on Wolfang Amadeus Phoenix remains to be seen, but it’s going to be hard to beat an album as tuneful and solid as this one is.
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