DAVID BYRNE
FEELINGS
1997-LUAKA BOP
Produced By DAVID BYRNE, JOE GALDO & MORCHEEBA
1. Fuzzy Freaky
2. Miss America
3. A Soft Seduction
4. Dance On Vaseline
5. Gates Of Paradise
6. Amnesia
7. You Don’t Know Me
8. Daddy Go Down
9. Finite=Alright
10. Wicked Little Doll
11. Burnt By The Sun
12. The Civil Wars
13. Untitled
14. They Are In Love
When David Byrne walked away from Talking Heads in 1991, he embarked on a career of so-so world albums, weird soundtracks and collaborations with the hardly pop friendly Brian Eno. Those who have waited patiently for Byrne to return to his Talking Heads style of sound must not have gotten the memo: in the midst of all of the strange records he’s put out in the last 20 years, there was once a gem called Feelings. Released in 1997, Feelings is a stunning album: and more fun than anything he’s recorded solo in 20 years combined. Byrne uses more conventional instrumentation, more rock driven songs, some world beats and a string section to come up with what is easily his most accessible solo album.
Feelings is loaded with highlights. “Fuzzy Freaky” and “Miss America” are a potent 1-2 punch. “Dance On Vaseline” is Byrne doing Heads-like dance music. And oddities like “Daddy Go Down” and the string quartet driven “Burnt By The Sun” will surprisingly stay in your head. It took Byrne years to go down this road, and he hasn’t embraced this type of music since. But Feelings is a forgotten gem of an album. It’s Byrne doing what he actually does best: moving your feet, making you laugh a little, and making quirkiness an art form.
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THE VERVE
URBAN HYMNS
1997-HUT
Produced By THE VERVE, CHRIS POTTER & YOUTH
1. Bitter Sweet Symphony
2. Sonnet
3. The Rolling People
4. The Drugs Don’t Work
5. Catching The Butterfly
6. Neon Wilderness
7. Space And Time
8. Weeping Willow
9. Lucky Man
10. One Day
11. This Time
12. Velvet Morning
13. Come On
Oh, these short lived English bands. The Verve released two unnoticed albums before calling it quits in 1995. They got back together shortly afterwards, added a second guitarist, and got a license to sample Andrew Loog Oldham’s string version of The Rolling Stones song “The Last Time”. The result is The Verve’s only real shining moment: “Bitter Sweet Symphony” made them stars, and also made them not a dollar. ABKCO Records claimed they used too much of the song, so they ended up with the entire song being credited to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, 100% of the royalties, and Verve singer Richard Ashcroft noting that it was the “best song Jagger and Richards have written in 20 years”.
Of course, it was a massive hit, and rightfully so. The string sample works perfectly, and the song is the bands shining moment. But, there’s also tracks like “The Drugs Don’t Work”, “Sonnet”, “Catching The Butterfly”, and “Come On”. It’s a more than solid album on the whole, and one of the better British guitar albums of the late 90’s. And, of course, The Verve split up after this album, so there wasn’t anything to show growth afterward. But it’s a solid piece of time, even if they didn’t make a single dime on its best song.
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Yeah, I have to agree. I reviewed Urban Hymns on my diary a couple of weeks ago. A very solid and listenable record. But no more than that. And too long!
LAIKA
SILVER APPLES OF THE MOON
1995-TOO PURE
Produced By LAIKA
1. Sugar Daddy
2. Marimba Song
3. Let Me Sleep
4. Itchy & Scratchy
5. Coming Down Glass
6. If You Miss
7. 44 Robbers
8. Red River
9. Honey In Heat
10. Thomas
11. Spider Happy Hour
Named after the first animal in space (a Russian dog), Laika was known in the 90’s as “The Best Band You’ve Never Heard Of”. And for good reason. This band has elements of electronic with sweet dreamy female vocals, but there are also many other elements happening in their music: guitars, samples, horns, woodwinds…and it all seems to work extremely well. They balance the edges of electronic with the edges of pop as expertly as anyone ever has, making this a truly cool band. Silver Apples Of The Moon is their debut, and a fine one at that.
Led by Margaret Fiedler (who was once in Ultra Vivid Scene, Moonchild, and a collaborator with Moby) and Guy Fixsen, Laika made four albums. This one has no hits, but as an entire piece stands as a fascinating work. It’s very much a mood album, but not a snoozy one. It may take a listen or two, but once you’re hooked, this might end up being one of your favorite bands. Not electronic like Deadmau5 or the like…it’s much closer to rock & pop than it is to rave music.
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LAIKA
SILVER APPLES OF THE MOON
1995-TOO PURE
Produced By LAIKA
1. Sugar Daddy
2. Marimba Song
3. Let Me Sleep
4. Itchy & Scratchy
5. Coming Down Glass
6. If You Miss
7. 44 Robbers
8. Red River
9. Honey In Heat
10. Thomas
11. Spider Happy Hour
Named after the first animal in space (a Russian dog), Laika was known in the 90’s as “The Best Band You’ve Never Heard Of”. And for good reason. This band has elements of electronic with sweet dreamy female vocals, but there are also many other elements happening in their music: guitars, samples, horns, woodwinds…and it all seems to work extremely well. They balance the edges of electronic with the edges of pop as expertly as anyone ever has, making this a truly cool band. Silver Apples Of The Moon is their debut, and a fine one at that.
Led by Margaret Fiedler (who was once in Ultra Vivid Scene, Moonchild, and a collaborator with Moby) and Guy Fixsen, Laika made four albums. This one has no hits, but as an entire piece stands as a fascinating work. It’s very much a mood album, but not a snoozy one. It may take a listen or two, but once you’re hooked, this might end up being one of your favorite bands. Not electronic like Deadmau5 or the like…it’s much closer to rock & pop than it is to rave music.
THE VERVE
URBAN HYMNS
1997-HUT
Produced By THE VERVE, CHRIS POTTER & YOUTH
1. Bitter Sweet Symphony
2. Sonnet
3. The Rolling People
4. The Drugs Don’t Work
5. Catching The Butterfly
6. Neon Wilderness
7. Space And Time
8. Weeping Willow
9. Lucky Man
10. One Day
11. This Time
12. Velvet Morning
13. Come On
Oh, these short lived English bands. The Verve released two unnoticed albums before calling it quits in 1995. They got back together shortly afterwards, added a second guitarist, and got a license to sample Andrew Loog Oldham’s string version of The Rolling Stones song “The Last Time”. The result is The Verve’s only real shining moment: “Bitter Sweet Symphony” made them stars, and also made them not a dollar. ABKCO Records claimed they used too much of the song, so they ended up with the entire song being credited to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, 100% of the royalties, and Verve singer Richard Ashcroft noting that it was the “best song Jagger and Richards have written in 20 years”.
Of course, it was a massive hit, and rightfully so. The string sample works perfectly, and the song is the bands shining moment. But, there’s also tracks like “The Drugs Don’t Work”, “Sonnet”, “Catching The Butterfly”, and “Come On”. It’s a more than solid album on the whole, and one of the better British guitar albums of the late 90’s. And, of course, The Verve split up after this album, so there wasn’t anything to show growth afterward. But it’s a solid piece of time, even if they didn’t make a single dime on its best song.
The fact that jagger/Richards get all the royalties on that track is a bit mental. The Oldham version is effectively a cover and the sample in question bears no resemblance to the original version everyone knows. In fact the whole of the Oldham version sounds nothing like the last time. Bitter sweet symphony is basically that track with some singing and drums on it. Whoever wrote the Oldham version should have had the royalties. The verve should have been pleased they didn't get sued by Aphrodites Child for their track Rolling People.
FAITH NO MORE
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
1997-SLASH
Produced By ROLI MOSIMANN & BILLY GOULD
1. Collision
2. Stripsearch
3. Last Cup Of Sorrow
4. Naked In Front Of The Computer
5. Helpless
6. Mouth To Mouth
7. Ashes To Ashes
8. She Loves Me Not
9. Got That Feeling
10. Paths Of Glory
11. Home Sick Home
12. Pristina
Album Of The Year was released in 1997, and was immediately disliked by fans and critics alike. Then, the band broke up…and suddenly, this album, was actually pretty good. Don’t believe the hype. Fans and critics and everyone else (the band included…they didn’t just pull the album title out of a hat) panned this, and the reasons are clear. Faith No More was a once great band that didn’t care anymore. They split up shortly after this because they all had better things to do. It happens sometimes.
There are some things that sound like they may have been pretty good ideas, but they were never fully realized. There are parts of this that are okay…and some (like “Mouth To Mouth”, for instance) that will simply annoy the shit out of you. This is far from the worst album ever made…it’s not even the worst by this band (see Introduce Yourself). But it’s a major disappointment from a band with the talent and pedigree of Faith No More.
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NORMAN GREENBAUM
SPIRIT IN THE SKY
1969-VARESE SARADANDE
Produced By CARY E. MANSFIELD
1. Junior Cadillac
2. Spirit In The Sky
3. Skyline
4. Jubilee
5. Alice Bodine
6. Tars Of India
7. Power
8. Good Lookin’ Woman
9. Milk Cow
10. Marcy
11. School For Sweet Talk
12. Children Of Paradise
13. Canned Ham
14. Save Me For A Rainy Day
15. Chocolate Milk
16. Spirit In The Sky (Demo)
17. Norman Greenbaum Radio Promo
Truly one of the strangest albums in my collection. Norman Greenbaum is thought of as a one hit wonder, but actually, from the late sixties and into the early 70’s, he was around quite a bit. He had a hit as a member of Dr. West’s Medicine Show in 1968 with a song he wrote called “The Eggplant That Ate Chicago”…that says about all you need to know about Greenbaum. His big hit, “Spirit In The Sky” (a song about Jesus from an obviously very Jewish person) made him a star, and the song is huge even today. He claims that it’s not really about Jesus, but about watching Westerns as a kid and wanting to die with his boots on…THAT kind of spiritual.
As for the rest of the album, it sounds woefully dated, hippie psychedelia even as the era was dying. And as far as that cool electric guitar sound he got on the title track, only the wonderful “Canned Ham” comes close…in fact, “Canned Ham” is the only other saving grace on the album (“When you gonna buy me a canned ham/I’ve been waitin’ so long/When you gonna buy it, when you gonna satisfy me”). Otherwise, if you have to have “Spirit” and want to get to know one of rock’s true strange people, go for it. Otherwise, stick to compilations. And go find “Canned Ham”.
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1. The Genesis
2. N.Y. State Of Mind
3. Life’s A Bitch
4. The World Is Yours
5. Halftime
6. Memory Lane (Sittin’ In Da Park)
7. One Love
8. One Time For Your Mind
9. Represent
10. It Ain’t Hard To Tell
It should come to the surprise of no one that I had not been extremely knowledgeable about rap. I’ve tried to keep an open mind over the years, and finally I went to a couple of pretty smart online friends who gave me some recommendations. The first stop, unanimously, was Illmatic. And for good reason. The debut of Nasir Jones is a pretty stunning piece of work. The album is about the teenage life of Nas (he was 20 when this was released) growing up in Queensbridge, NY. Musically, the album is tastefully done, without the excesses of much of hip hop. Nor is it done with just a cheap sounding keyboard patch and a minimal beat that sounds like it was purchased off the internet. The music is done well, with solid sampling from some great sources (Kool & The Gang, Average White Band, Michael Jackson, Parliament, and so on).
But with solid music tracks aside, what makes this a great album is the lyrical prowess of Nas. This guy is truly a poet. It takes a lot to sell me on rap, and this kid did it in ten songs. In 40 minutes, he paints a picture of a gang infested ghetto life that is graphic, sad, beautiful and believable. It’s not just about that life, but there’s also hope for a future above what he’s known his life to be. I never thought I’d say this…but this rap album is a masterpiece. Nas hasn't been able to match this, but on his first try, he may have set the mold for what the perfect hip hop album should be. Moving and masterful.
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GEORGE HARRISON
1979-DARK HORSE
Produced By GEORGE HARRISON & RUSS TITELMAN
1. Love Comes To Everyone
2. Not Guilty
3. Here Comes The Moon
4. Soft-Hearted Hana
5. Blow Away
6. Faster
7. Dark Sweet Lady
8. Your Love Is Forever
9. Soft Touch
10. If You Believe
11. Here Comes The Moon (Demo Version)
By 1979, the huge creative burst that George Harrison let out as an unrestricted songwriter after the breakup of The Beatles was long since over. He had already released a string of mediocre albums when this one came out. The only difference was that George was in a very happy place in life: he had just married Olivia and they had just had their son Dhani. The songs are thus more about domestic bliss and direct love than before. But the quality of Harrison’s songwriting was still very clearly still on the downhill slide. The result is an album that would have been perfect adult contemporary music a decade and a half later.
The highlights are rare. “Blow Away” is the lead single and the strongest track, but it would have been glaringly bad on an album like All Things Must Pass. “Here Comes The Moon” is an obvious attempt to follow up on the similarly titled Beatles era song, and the results are far from great, although the song is pleasant enough. Bottom line: George was done at this point. Stick with the earlier stuff, or the later, Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty inspired work.
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