GREAT post, brother! Love me some Testament & Voivod!
And great question!! Personally, I think there is a BIG THREE (SlaYER, METALLICA, MEGADETH) and then a little three (Testament, Overkill, & Anthrax) and then a Teutonic Three (Kreator, Destruction, & Sodom) I actually prefer the Teutonic Three to the little three.
My two cents! lol
huh... that is a neat and nuanced way of looking at it! Overkill was majorly overlooked by me! Also I am not (as mentioned earlier) super familiar with Sodom nor Destruction. Will get on it! _________________ -Ryan
GREAT post, brother! Love me some Testament & Voivod!
And great question!! Personally, I think there is a BIG THREE (SlaYER, METALLICA, MEGADETH) and then a little three (Testament, Overkill, & Anthrax) and then a Teutonic Three (Kreator, Destruction, & Sodom) I actually prefer the Teutonic Three to the little three.
My two cents! lol
huh... that is a neat and nuanced way of looking at it! Overkill was majorly overlooked by me! Also I am not (as mentioned earlier) super familiar with Sodom nor Destruction. Will get on it!
YOU ask! I DELIVER!!! ("BUT, but, buh...", He stammers. "I didn't really ask. It was more of a suggestion perhaps."
They were desperate. Metal. Or the coalmines. So they made metal for the mines. Scrapping together a sound borrowed from whatever was around in underground metal in 1983. Venom. Discharge. And just across the border, Hellhammer. And created a blackened, opaque monstrosity that is rightly championed as a first wave black metal classic. They would later (successfully) jettison this sound for thrash, but their first EP is purely primitive and all the better for it.
One more thing. This is a very artistic, theatrical and even grandiose album. They totally had a flair. Perhaps they couldn't play so well at this point, but like the best punk rock, that doesn't stop them from putting on one hell of a show. Plus, this is one of the first tastes of Blast Beats! On the second track - "Sepulchral Voice." Again. Them just being creative with what they had. Energy & passion!
Another thing. Like a lot of the best hardcore from this period, there's a shitload of emotional pain & frustration. Like being trapped. But Angelripper's trying his damnedest to break out.
I consider this an essential extreme music release, right up there with Hellhammer. And after checking out Hellhammer's Satanic Rites, this is next place to go for underground punk metal!
Ear Goggles
1985: The year the Germans crashed the Thrash Party
No one gave them an invite. They hadn’t washed in weeks. Their fashions were out of date. But they came anyways. Scared most of the rest of us out of the backyard. They threw some horridly mixed cassette tape on the boom box they brought with them. Some Sony knock off. They hit play. What sounded like bastardized thrash versions of Venom and Iron Maiden riffs came forth from the speakers. Everything sounded tinny and distorted so it was kind of hard to make out exactly what was happening. The volume was way too high. All the cute girls left. Hair had to be washed. Jeans had to be pressed.
The few of us that stayed just kept drinking to make the oppressive din somewhat bearable. But you know what? They turned out to be great guys. They had brought this massive cooler of beer. And just started tossing cold ones to those of us who stayed. So we stayed some more. Free beer and all. And then the weirdest thing happened. By the sixth beer or so it started to sound good. Like really, really good. It was like beer goggles. But for your ears. Ear Goggles!!! We started laughing. Someone built a bonfire right on the deck. They were super fun. Easy to talk to. Not some pricks who cared at all about making it in the biz. Just some average blokes who loved the music. Loved it hard. Loved it fast. It was their religion. What they really cared about. Maybe the only thing they cared about. So there was purity to it all. To their vision. To their sound. And we became hooked. Converted. And now I haven’t washed in weeks. If you see my girlfriend, let her know I’m ok. Better than ok, actually. Now excuse me. I've got a party to crash.
@Repo holy shit! Awesome recommendations of 2 albums I’d never heard. I still haven’t heard actually but now I’m aware of em. Will check em out! Great write ups as well. _________________ -Ryan
Ah yes, how I do recall the first time I heard this album. I had already recently heard the debut Paid In Full. My reaction to that, more famous and VERY influential, album was a very lukewarm, soupy, unaffected "mehness". I suppose I thought it was a bit too old school and too, to these ears at least, wooden and awkward. I had much the same opinion at that time of all pre-1993 hip hop. For some reason I just was left feeling nothing. Then I saw this CD at a record store, I bought it as it was used and quite cheap, and I listened. I was blown away. I thought it was EXCELLENT!
My initial enthusiasm for the album was due, probably, to just being in the mood as well as having my expectations lowered so thoroughly. But, yep and without a doubt, I thought this album was GREAT. Then I moved on. I returned to it once or twice over the next decade and, while enjoying it still, I was much less impressed and none of those subsequent listens matched that first impression. And now here we are. This album is the next I wanted to listen to once or twice.
I just finished a second listen today and my thoughts are simply that it is a very cool old school hip hop album. The first track is both MONUMENTALLY badass as well as, at times, kind of cheesy. Rakim's flow and lyricism is very good, but very good - nay, unmatched - by 1988 standards, while being to my ears, not equal to the great rappers of the mid 90s to today that I most like. Relative to hip hop of the time, the beats and the flow of the album are fantastic. And on a few tracks I am legit still impressed mightily by in a modern/present day context, namely The opening title track with its incredibly funky sound and the speedy and unstoppable energy of the bars on "Put Your Hands Together".
One thing I had forgotten is that there are large chunks of this album that are instrumental hip hop, with not a line to be heard from the 18th letter, the genius, the Legend. These tracks, while again being fine, aren't highlights in a modern context for me. Its just a personal taste point. I don't love nor feel any emotional connection to old school hip hop (outside of Public Enemy as you know). Much of my experience with this was detached. As if I was simply trying to send myself back in time to when this was brand new, imagining how mind-blowing this was or must have been. Very little of the album for me was spent lost in the music and really just enjoying myself on a more fundamental level. Some of the lines are great, a lot are, again, super cheesy and awkward and not to my liking stylistically. I enjoyed this much less than It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, but substantially more than By All Means Necessary. If PE's 1988 classic is a solid 9 and Boogie Down Productions' was for me a 5.5/6, then this is a 7-7.5. Its good and much more enjoyable than most pre-90s hip hop, but really not something I see myself putting on for any reason - to be moved, to be wowed, to experience, nothing.
I wish I had more to say specifically about the music, the style, the production, the sounds and the words. I listened twice and anything of note to say about such escapes me.
great album name. cool cover. famous songwriter and musician. he was the member of the smiths, did you know that.
Okay so, hell froze over a few months ago and I became a pretty big fan of the smiths. it was years and years of slow slow wearing down of my resistance. i don't honestly know what made me take so long to enjoy the smiths' brand of brilliant pop and rock. but when i did that 1980s bands deep dive, I found myself at the end of it with 2 studio albums of theirs I love (The Queen Is Dead and Strangeways, Here We Come) as well as one compilation really REALLY love - so much so that the unthinkable happened and I placed it on my overall chart! (that comp is Hatful of Hollow by the way). When I finished that project I was thinking of jumping into Morrissey's post-smiths work. I never did however. and so now with this 1988 deep dive I come to this, the debut solo album by the man.
And... this is stellar stuff. Like, Marr and the smiths are out, and instead of morrissey trying to replicate that smiths sound without Marr (probably a bad idea that would have been doomed to fail) Morrissey instead kept a fair share of that jangly rock, but mostly went in a new direction. Actually, several new directions. The chamber pop and art pop elements on thsi album are incredibly sweet and mesmerizing. The songwriting is sharp as ever. The album has an addictive momentum. Not every song is top top 10/10 stuff, but there is something incredibly relistenable about this album. For me at least there is, evidenced by the fact I am now listening for the fourth straight time in a row!
The first 5 tracks are all excellent in varying ways. The opener is such a strange sounding, dramatic and engaging beast of an opener. The second track keeps the lowkey and yet very dramatic and tragic power going, and of course track 3 "Everyday is Like Sunday" can stand up to the very best smiths tune and melody and its just a perfect track. Track 4 "Bengali in Platforms" is excellent as well (can't think of words to describe WHY i think this, its just so... beautiful.), finally track 5 is this short, very melodramatic and yet poetic and overwhelmingly lush chamber pop gem.
Track 6 is perhaps a bit too long and loses me and the momentum a bit, but outside of its length it is not really a low point. Just wears its welkcome down a bit imo. Suedehead is another classic and maybe this is what I thought the whole album would sound like, - rocking, jangly, essentially a smiths track with some changes but not much. Instead this song stands out as to my ears one of the few songs that I can see is quite smiths-y. Yet still fresh and absolutely brilliant. Not a huge fan of "Break Up the family" or "Dial a cliche" overall, but they are fine. The closer feels like a beautiful relaxed moment of relaxation and rumination. Excellent way to close this.
Overall, yeah this is quite great. I likes it a lot. Morrissey as a singer is starting to, actually no not starting to but rather, HAS become very much liked by me. I used to think he sucked as a singer and I still think his vocal work on The debut album is at times quite terrible. But fast forward 5 years and this guy has become just a fully realized very quirky singer, insanely distinct and familiar and unique and generally quite expressive.
One of my fave albums of 1988 this has become.
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Let's take up another 1988 Sacred Cow, this time TENDER PREY!
Okay, I don't know what is wrong with me. I don't love or even particularly like this. I mean, scratch that, I like it. It's fine. But... anyone who knows me knows I love singer/songwriter stuff and blues stuff and americana-type dark stuff and I like punk stuff... and this album seems made for me. And, what's more is its from one of the most revered songwriters ever as well as one of his most loved albums - almost universally liked. Yet, for me, yet again with a Cave release, I am not vibing with this even after 2 listens.
I suppose I just can't get into the presentation, its all very very theatrical and, to me, feels fake and forced and unconvincing. It's all quite dour, quite wild and woolly and full of death and murder and betrayal oh my! It really is like a more approachable sort of Tom Waits-ish bluesy rock with lots of drama. The songs don't hit like Waits and the vocals aren't remotely as engaging or convincing. I generally don't like Cave's vocals - either here or later when he started really leaning more into crooning. He sounds like the dude from Television sometimes and he kept reminding me of someone else and I can't remember who.
As of now this joins From Her to Eternity, No More Shall We Part, Carnage and Push the Sky Away in the club of quite hyped and loved Cave records I just don't quite click with. The Boatman's Call and Skeleton Tree, i admit, have dug their claws in me and I quite like them.
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Fuck this is so good and yet I have avoided it and mocked it for DECADES!
That's right, fuckin enya. I know, right?! But I will just out and say it, this is some super gorgeous and consistently wonderous stuff. The whole way through there is very little here remotely silly or bad or whatever. I feel I need to say this because I grew up my whole life thinking Enya was pure corn, bad and all that. Hell, mostly New Age as a genre and style was mocked by me and others around me for a long time. Even after I got into some New Age stuff and ambient things, I still kind of avoided the term "new age". Maybe its just a matter of marketing or maybe its who I saw loving this growing up or maybe its just music not made for 15 year old boys...? I am not sure. But after listening to this a couple times and enjoying every second I think I am just ready to jump in with both feet leading and listen to some Loreena and more Enya and others.
So the album starts with 2 pieces, very different in vibe, which don't feature that incredibly stunning and pure Enya lead vocal... they are just incredible instrumentals by-and-large with little chants and cool reoccuring vocal snippets. Especially love track 2, "Cursum Perficio"... fuck this song is amazing and epic as hell. I understand more why enya was asked to do Lord of the Rings soundtrack tracks, this shit sounds like some epic middle earth shit.
After the first 2 songs we get more of what I thought of when I thought of Enya pre-playing this, her most famous album and the record that pushed her into super stardom. Her voice... its so impossibly perfect and soaring and its produced in such a way as to give it like a echo-y, all-encompassing quality, it feels like she is a spirit moving about, leaving a trace of an after image wherever she goes and she is leadig you down this path and lifting you up and making you feel brave enough to throw the ring into mount doom! its awesome. The music, I must say, isn't simplistic shit, there are small details and cool key changes and the compositions are each so logical and right. This vibe is so foreign to 95% of the music I usually hear. Ads a result when I started listening, it took a bit - a few minutes at least - for me to adjust, and once I sort of recalibrated myself to this whole other wavelegth, I started feeling relaxed and I started smiling. I honestly don't know how one can hear "On Your Shore" and not feel like they are being hugged by Mother Nature.
Really not any boring or shitty or subpar tracks here that I recall or noticed. Other standouts are "Storms in Africa", of course "Orinoco Flow" and really the rest of the first 70% of the album. The end tails off a smidge, but that opinion may be due to just not being yet super familiar with the album having only heard it 3 times. The end of the album is by no means bad, just in comparison to the gobsmacking brilliant, shining beauty of track 1-8, it falls off in my opinion.
This album just kicks ass. And I am kind of chagrined to admit that I have avoided this album for so long due to association. I associated this with really REALLY basic people (music wise_ who just kind of buy one CD every 5 months to a year and say stuff like "Bob Dylan has a terrible voice" or "That's just noise" (when listening to things other than Noise) or "I like music that has a beat, y'know?"... those were the sorts I associated this artist and album with. Well, consider me corrected. This is awesome and truly gorgeous. It will look weird as fuck toward the top of my 1988 chart alongside incredibly opposite sounding albums, but whatever, for me right now this is just what I wanted and needed to hear.
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Okay, and that's all for this dump. Takes me to 45 albums and entries in my chart for 1988. You can see that here (in chart form and with all diary comments copy pasted): Top 45 Music Albums of 1988 by Mercury
and as usual here is the list so far. I will probably stop this massive list for each post when we reach 50. But not 100% on that yet.
---TOTALLY BRILLIANT---
Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth
South of Heaven by Slayer
Dimension Hatröss by Voïvod
Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk
Leprosy by Death
Hate In Me EP by Moss Icon
From Enslavement to Obliteration by Napalm Death
It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back by Public Enemy
you made me realise - EP by My Bloody Valentine
Watermark by Enya
---REALLY GOOD/GREAT---
Split Demo Tape by Terrorizer/Nausea
…And Justice For All by Metallica
16 Lovers Lane by The Go-Betweens
If I Should Fall From Grace With God by The Pogues
Viva Hate by Morrissey
Surfer Rosa by The Pixies
Lucinda Williams by Lucinda Williams
How Will I Laugh Tomorrow… by Suicidal Tendencies
Sugarshit Sharp by Pussy Galore
Blood Fire Death by Bathory
Blue Bell Knoll by Cocteau Twins
Miss America by Mary Margaret O'Hara
---QUITE GOOD---
Green by R.E.M.
Tracy Chapman by Tracy Chapman
Slow Turning by John Hiatt
Fugazi EP by Fugazi
In War There Is No Law! By Bolt Thrower
Demo by Blood Spill
Slave by Infest
The New Order by Testament
---GOOD/FAIR---
Cinema Paradiso Score/OST by Ennio Morricone
Reek of Putrefaction by Carcass
Follow the Leader by Eric B. & Rakim
The Trinity Session by Cowboy Junkies
Tender Prey by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Prison Bound by Social Distortion
Superfuzz Bigmuff EP by Mudhoney
---MEH/OR JUST SHORT DEMOS/HARD TO JUDGE---
You Must Be Certain of the Devil by Diamanda Galas
Seventh Son of A Seventh Son by Iron Maiden
Rattle & Hum by U2
By All Means Necessary by Boogie Down Productions
Today by Galaxie 500
1988 Demo by Immolation
Premature Autopsy EP by Nihilist
---BAD/VARYING DEGREES OF DISLIKE---
Down In The Groove by Bob Dylan
You Walk Alone by Jandek
Open Up and Say… Ahh! By Poison _________________ -Ryan
Like, Marr and the smiths are out, and instead of morrissey trying to replicate that smiths sound without Marr (probably a bad idea that would have been doomed to fail) Morrissey instead kept a fair share of that jangly rock, but mostly went in a new direction. Actually, several new directions. The chamber pop and art pop elements on thsi album are incredibly sweet and mesmerizing. The songwriting is sharp as ever. The album has an addictive momentum. Not every song is top top 10/10 stuff, but there is something incredibly relistenable about this album.
Yeah, that's the key to enjoying this album, you summed it up nicely. Most people resort to Viva Hate as a cure for their Smiths addiction - let's be real, 4 albums and a couple of compilations are nowhere near enough - and come away feeling upset or frustrated - and you know how oversentimental and melodramatic the average Smiths fan is. Forget about the past and all the what-ifs, approach it with fresh eyes/ears and you'll get a good taste of Moz's talent in all its glory - and his company ain't half bad either.
I see you have it at #15 as of now, which is 14 spots too low, I'm pleasantly surprised you liked it that much.
Nowadays I avoid listening to The Smiths/Moz - I mean, they make everyone else sound so bad - but right now I feel like making an exception and revisiting this absolute classic, it's been some time. _________________ Bob Dylan Charles Mingus
Like, Marr and the smiths are out, and instead of morrissey trying to replicate that smiths sound without Marr (probably a bad idea that would have been doomed to fail) Morrissey instead kept a fair share of that jangly rock, but mostly went in a new direction. Actually, several new directions. The chamber pop and art pop elements on thsi album are incredibly sweet and mesmerizing. The songwriting is sharp as ever. The album has an addictive momentum. Not every song is top top 10/10 stuff, but there is something incredibly relistenable about this album.
Yeah, that's the key to enjoying this album, you summed it up nicely. Most people resort to Viva Hate as a cure for their Smiths addiction - let's be real, 4 albums and a couple of compilations are nowhere near enough - and come away feeling upset or frustrated - and you know how oversentimental and melodramatic the average Smiths fan is. Forget about the past and all the what-ifs, approach it with fresh eyes/ears and you'll get a good taste of Moz's talent in all its glory - and his company ain't half bad either.
I see you have it at #15 as of now, which is 14 spots too low, I'm pleasantly surprised you liked it that much.
Nowadays I avoid listening to The Smiths/Moz - I mean, they make everyone else sound so bad - but right now I feel like making an exception and revisiting this absolute classic, it's been some time.
hell yeah. I really really like it. Gl;ad I'm over the hump and just finding myself enjoying Moz and the smiths finally.
The way you talk about how you avoid listening to The Smiths and Morrissey these days because its just TOO good and special to you, can cast a shadow upon everything else, it reminds me of an old BEAer and forum regular who I am blanking on his name. He had a similar feeling about Talk Talk and their 2 albums from 1988 and 1991. He said he'd listen to those albums on special occasions. I imagined him getting the candles lit, putting on his best and most elegant and silky comfortable robe and getting the preverbial lube ready and getting the whole scene set just riight to listen to Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock back-to-back. haha. I don't have an artist like that for me right now. In the past perhaps it was The Tallest Man On Earth or Bob Dylan... but nah nothing quite that important to me as of now.
anyway, glad as always to hear from you. If you ever wanna get into metal that you may actually like, South of Heaven may be just right for you. _________________ -Ryan
Yep, I had never heard this before. Can you believe it? I don't know why. I suppose I had some compilations of Leonard Cohen and I loved his early sound and voice. But when the compilation (which was my first intro to this genius) got to his later career highlights I was taken aback and not sure how I felt about the deep baritone vocals and the 80s synth parts. I did think it sounded bad, I will just admit it. I thought "what is the fucking deal with this and why are these tracks and some of these albums loved like at all?". I was 14 and not really a fan of anything of this type at the time. So yeah I will just admit that.
Yesterday I listened to this once and I was kind of blown away. I thought some of the songs were delving into my deepest and most hidden fears and loves and thoughts. I was mesmerized at points and I was itching to call some people at other points. I was in a bit of an explosive state of inspiration. I am having a hard time explaining how some of these tracks (and actually quite a lot of the album) made me feel.
The slick production, the drum machines and the synths and the gaudy back up singers that hit one when you push play and the first track start is audacious and, once I got used to it, kind of amazing. I don't feel that the opener, "First We Take Manhattan", is a highlight here exactly, but it is a very solid opening track at getting you in the mood. It gets your palate ready for the rest of this slick, romantic, broken-up, nocturnal, poetic, alluring, mysterious, journey. By the start of the second track, "Ain't no cure for Love" I am fully in the mood. And that song is where shit gets real and I start feeling some type of way. Even that simple and possibly for some corny line and idea "There ain't no cure for love" fucking wrecked me last night and I am similarly loving it now in the afternoon. Although I will say hearing this album alone christmas night in darkness was maybe a big part of why this whole attitude of tragic romantic something hit me so hard yesterday.)
Track 2 starts a run of songs that sound so luscious and sexy and dark and full of deep wells of feeling and life. Track 3 and and 4 (Everybody Knows, and I'm Your Man) are classics and kick ass. "Everybody Knows" was the song included on that greatest hit compilation years ago that made me think I hated this version of Cohen. But That feeling has flipped and now I just think this song is such a strange and vibrant and seductive masterpiece. His voice! Fuck that is deep and sexy. And that incessant bass groove and those as usual brilliant and evocative lyrics. Etc etc. this song kills, as does "I'm Your Man" and as does "Take This Waltz" actually. That track 2 through 5 run of 4 tracks is nearly perfect.
There is that floating and perfect melody from the keyboard on "I'm Your Man" that I love. As for "Take this Waltz"... it's the cloest to old school late 60s/early 70s cohen on this album I think. It finds Cohen with his classic more nasally vocals, and there are those impossibly sublime and bittersweet poetic words and that refrain and that whole fucking vibe... jesus christ this song is stunning and sublime and it makes me, again and even now with the Bills/Patriots game on in the background during broad daylight, feel that same agitated searching feeling - like I forgot something that I meant to never forget. Something powerful is in this song. Some sort of sorcery. And that female vocalist coming in at the end to harmonize is just toooo much goodness to experience here on earth.
So... track 1 is like a 7.5 or 8, track 2 is an easy 8.5 or 9. Track 3 and 4 and 5 are all 9.5 to 10. And then... Jazz Police. Jazz Police show up... and I honestly don't know even what this is. I don't mean that in a negative or positive way. this is a weird fucking tune. The drum sounds are terrible to my ears. But the synth/keyboard chords are solid. The piano solo, those eerie as fuck female back up singers, and more than anything else the fact that this song manages to create such an alien atmosphere out of nowhere, make this a memorable song. I don't know how I'd rate it. It is either an absolute standout great song or its a bit of a strange and moderately successful but whiplash inducing momentum killing piece of strangeness. The previous 4 tracks all were different but they all put me into a mysterious and emotionally vulnerable and romantic state-of-mind. This song just completely shifts shit out of that mood. Then the fact that the very next song goes RIGHT BACK to that mood makes the whiplash even more close to absolute.
Not gonna lie, last night when I heard the last 2 tracks after the weirdness of "Jazz Police" ("I Can't Forget" and "Tower of Song" that is) I thought it was a bit of a let down of an ending, not bad by any means and actually pretty cool, just not as touching as the first 5 tracks. Now as I listen again,. I am warming up to these 2 songs. "I Can't Forget" is just good ol fashioned vaguely romantic yet deeper Cohen greatness. And "Tower of Song" is weird. Like its an interesting if a bit tooo poetry-reading-ish track. Sometimes the pure literary tendencies of Cohen lose me. Sometimes he will have a very interesting poem idea and yet it just stretches a bit too far into the arena of untraditional to lose me. This may be one of them. The track is a lazy, relaxed and dreamy thing. The words are interesting I guess. But honestly this closer may be my least fave song here. Still quality and certainly interesting and deserving of further listens and dissection. But yeah a bit of a drop in personal enjoyment to close this album out.
In closing, I love this album. I didn't expect I'd love it so much. Damn, this is just soooo good. It has its own sound, its classic Cohen lyrical genius, its got some incredible back up vocal work, some songs that on their own are new favorites but within the album add up to even more. Its... amazing.
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How about the compilation SUBSTANCE by a little known band called JOY DIVISION
Okay, I can't find it in myself to really scratch at this, to think deeply about it, to analyze it and compare it in any way outside of the most bland and trivial way. Maybe its just seasonal sadness or my mood. I don't know. I listened to this twice. The original LP was 10 songs and ended with their most loved song and one of the most adored songs ever. Since then its been bloated and bloated and now its like 19 songs and I didn't realize that and yesterday I heard it and on about track 16 on apple music I was just like "This doesn't feel right" and I saw the actual flow of the substance comp and saw its brilliant ending and it made sense. So today I listened a couple more times in the original intended way. Now, its a compilation so does this matter? probably not but then again I think the original 10 songs and the way they are put together has a definite flow and arc. That is lost when later versions used up all the CD space. like, fuck off motherfuckers and give me the original album.
So... what did I think? I thought this was mostly good. I again am not in a deep mood or in the mood to give much more data. The first track is just about the best early punk song you'll hear. "Warsaw" rips. But it doesn't sound like Joy Division as I know them. Like Boys Don't Cry by the Cure this song just shows that these great post punk innovators started as (very very very great) straight up uk punk dudes. Kind of cool. Then with the following couple tracks you can hear the band morph into what we know em as. I don't love tracks 2 or 3 or certainly 4. Track 4 "Autosuggestion" may be the most innovative of these first 4 tracks, but damn is this just a boring song. I can't get myself into the mood and mostly I just want this dirge of a sad sack emotionless piece of shit to end by the 2 minute mark of this 6 minute(!) "song".
Thankfully different versions of 2 songs I love off their classic debut follow "Autosuggestion" - and both "Transmission" and "She Lost Control" sound fantastic here. I won't say whether they hold up to or match in any way how they feel or sound on their studio album, but in this collection they are fucking awesome. Especially "She's Lost Control" - i love that song and it may be my fave JD track ever. So its other version included here is amazing. (oh and I am listening to this version of She's Lost Control right now, and I can say with certainty that the Unknown Pleasures version is superior markedly so... still this song kicks ass in this version as well, which shows how absolutely towering that debut full length album and that song is).
"Incubation" rocks and I like it. "Dead Souls" is classic and very good here as well. and of course this compilation, this very very loved and classic compilation ends with the 2 most loved songs here - "Atmosphere" and of course "Love Will Tear Us Apart". I don't particularly like atmosphere. I think the vocals are not good, not fun, not good, not emotional, just bad. and lame. BUT the closing track here is deserving of its love. I am finally FINALLY understanding the power of this song. That synth melody is so crystalline and perfect and so goddamn impressive and the drums and the bass groove are so classic and influential and touching in its own cold harsh way. And of course Curtis' vocals and lyrics here are just so fatalistic and savage and gutting. This is the best. This is the song that The Cure had a hard time getting out from under the shadow of for years to come. Perfect tune.
Overall outside of atmosphere and autosuggestion and the substantially weaker version of dead souls here (although i like it a bit, not as good as it is in other places) I really liked this. That is all. I really quite liked it. I don't love this. But maybe i'm just not in the mood for JD right now. Also for their 2 studio albums It took me months to love em and many listens before they each in turn did indeed blow my mind. perhaps this, their 3rd m ost revered release, will follow a similar pattern.
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THE SMITHS!!! The Peel Session EP!!!!
4 songs and 17 minutes, not on BREA... but here is a link to the youtube upload:
and... this is surprisingly solid and excellent! Every song slaps. And the versions of miserable lie and reel around the fountain (despite the former featuring those absolutely trash bad bad not good morissey vocals) are better than the album versions. This was recorded in 1983 before the release of their debut. I am on the record as thinking their debut is their weakest and not even close to the quality of their second to last album in terms of quality. Like, surely even Morrissey vocals-lovers can recognize how absurdly grating his vocals were at times in 1984 and 1983??? anyway, this EP, being from the same era as their debut, is pretty damn good. Maybe I am just warming to their early sound and recordings and songs and that is why I liked this more than I thought. But there is something that was done with these tunes with Peel that in some ways enliven the songs even more than how they appear on official LPs.
The best song is the opener here, "What Difference Does It Make"... that song is basically perfect here and on the LP version too. The middle 2 songs are improved in terms of live wire energy and sappy romanticism here. Peel can't save track 3 "Reel Around the Fountain" from meandering, however... that is baked into the song which overstays its welcome by a minute or 2 and is by no means a show stopping classic. Finally, as for the last of these 4 songs, "Handsome Devil", it is good. A nice jangly rocking tune.
Look this era of early smiths isn't generally my thing. After they recorded the self titled debut something switched and they became one of the best bands of the 80s. They had not ascended or leveled-up when they recorded this obviously. So its not an instant fave, but its cool and its a nice bite size serving of early smiths.
Peak Dinosaur Jr was special. That mix of those fragile and weak sung notes with those incredibly loud and muscular guitar riffs. The way the melodies float and feel like pop gems and the way they meld with some seriously noisy and abrasive guitar screechies. Just glorious. When they were really buzzing this band was special.
This whole album (almost) is a great example of this. There is nary a bad song here. The guitar parts, it must be said again, are so sick. The way the album starts with Freak Scene is glorious. The way the melodies and fist pumping choruses keep on coming is brilliant. And there is an emotional core to this sound and this album that sets it apart. I feel these tunes. There is a sense of sorrow and sadness and lostness that comes through these otherwise exuberantly celebratory guitar-god showcases that just makes me love it. The sound of this album is like an Indie Rock old sweater, one with its own fit and smell with its own myriad of attached memories and associations. When I listen to this (or Green Mind and ESPECIALLY You're Living All Over Me) it feels like coming home, this is the attitude and aesthetic I kind of wanted for so long to give off. Masculine and massive and tough, yet fragile and deep-thinking at my heart. Of course I never was remotely as cool as this sound, and I am sure I never successfully gave off that concept in the way i looked and acted. Still, for a time this was the sound I was trying to embody.
And maybe, just to give more on what I was trying to give off when I was younger, I was actually tryting to give off Built To Spill, Pavement, Sebadoh, Guided By Voices, Grifters, etc vibes. I forgot how much this sound by this band was all over those 90s bands. This despite this and You're Living All Over Me being very definitely 1980s classics, this sound is incredibly present in 1990s indie. And maybe even more than the sound, the whole attitude, that slacker, saddened punk aesthetic that I generally associate with the 1990s Gen X music really seems to be started and perfected to a great degree with this band. It's really awesome what they worked out and created with these Dinosaur Jr LPs.
Back to this album, well it is what I expected from peak Dino Jr despite it being so long since last hearing it that I forgot the specifics. These are pop gems, rock gems, the riffs are so in the red and so overwhelming they can't help but bring a certain bliss. The solos are so biting and emotive and godly. The choruses and the melodies and the 2 lead singers each have their own distinct and beautiful styles and sounds that each work for their respective songs/lines. There is an exuberant freedom that the band seems to find in these MASSIVE tidal waves of noisy rock songs. It puts a smile on my face when they really get down in to a specific rock groove (listening to the rapid fire wah wah excellence of "Yeah We Know" right now and that is a perfect example of what I just mentioned.
This isn't exactly a one note album, actually its really not at all. I mean of course they have a sound and they do it well and often. But after the heavy pounding rock and roll glory of that pristine 1-2-3-4-5(!) hard rock punch that they start with, they slow it and quiet it down a bit with the delicate and quite beautiful "Pond Song". ... before, of course, going back to some ugly/beautiful sheer heaviness with track 7 "Budge".
The album has 2 songs that I don't love. The most noisy song by far "Don't" is just too grating and purely noise rock. Not my fave is all. And the song "The Post" doesn't quite live up to the near-perfect 7 songs that precede it. Still, the album closes with a nice tune with "Keep the Glove.". (although fuck that last 45 seconds is headache-inducing)
Overall I loved listening to this a few times over the last couple weeks. I think I may rank this above even the classic You're Living All Over Me. I'm not sure about that because its been a looooong time since I heard it (i'll listen to it now whilst taking a walk and I will see.) And yeah I love this album. Its just my style and sound and it felt right listening to almost every second. This will be high on my 1988 chart.
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Now for one I've been putting off writing any thoughts on for awhile but is quite cool:
Jesus this is wild. Its utterly rabid and very weird technical thrash/early tech death as well. The bass is recorded so damn weirdly, it sounds terrible, but for some reason I kind of like it. Not sure why. The bassist is solid and the weird way the bass is recorded certainly makes him stand out amidst this otherwise pretty Reign In Blood-style thrash/death album. So that is cool. Not enough of this metal accentuates slappin da bass enough lol.
Overall, I will say in recent weeks (since falling in love with South of Heaven again) I have been listening almost exclusively to Pre-1992 slayer. Especially Reign In Blood. This has been great as I consider Reign In Blood to be ...perfect. I adore that album to such degree that almost all other extreme metal albums, even the coolest and heaviest and most extreme death metal sounds just strangely tame or uninteresting to me. Not sure if any of you have ever had that experience when you hear something so good within a genre that it kind of sours you on everything else for awhile? Anyway, just today I was listening to Reign In Blood and I couldn't put my finger on why its so much more intense than even Death Metal classics of the same decade. Still don't know what makes it so, but anyway, what does this have to do with this Sadus album? Well, I think the utter chaos and intensity of this album comes as close as any album I've heard of matching those aspects of Reign In Blood. The mix is downright destructive and psycho, the delivery of the vocals and these riffs and solos and those ugly crackling bass lines and blast beats is all so utterly FERAL, UNHINGED even.
Now, is this really in any way an equal to that classic slayer album? No, really not at all. BUT I just think this does a better job of matching its intensity from time to time. Hell this album as I listen now seems like a direct descendent of Reign In Blood in a lot of ways. Even the length of the album is almost exactly the same (Reign In Blood is 10 tracks in 28.5 minutes, this album is 29 minutes and 10 tracks as well.). Hands of Fate even sounds like a dollar store version of "Altar of Sacrifice". To me anyway.
Anyway, enough talking about another band, because this album like I said is super cool, insane, heavy as fuck, and one of my fave metal discoveries of 1988. I was going to listen to this along with the megadeth, coroner and other thrash albums all together, but of all those albums I recently heard this one stood out the most by far. Its so mean and evil and meaty and intense. I don't have much else to say really. I am just not in a writing groove right now.
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Now lets end this big post off with an EP and sadly the only album or release or EP ever released by this group:
New York girl group duo, released 1 EP then broke up a bit later in early 90s. One of the members went on and had a relatively successful solo career. This is an EP, 17 minutes or so, 6 songs (all covers I believe, but done nicely and as themselves - they own these songs I mean) and just solid. Its got some cool, unabrasive garage rock-y guitars and production, but mostly this is a sweet and beautiful sort of old school girl group album - amazing harmonies and just an airy and warm and oh-so-sweeeet sound. The production is spot on, it sounds retro mostly with some slight nods to later and more modern garag-y rock stuff (very subtle). Overall... really really like this.
Its a breeze. And it will get more listens I hope. I have heard it twice and just enjoyed myself. NO single aspect really blows me away and no single song stand out. Its just such a solid pop album and it sounds so natural and, again, breezy. Like it a lot.
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Here it is now! A couple new 1988 favorites from this post (Cohen and Dino Jr), as well as 3 really solid and good stuffs (Sadus, Joy Division and The Pussywillows) and one that was also pretty solid (Smiths). Took me forever to get through my holiday downer mood and low energy to make this post.
---TOTALLY BRILLIANT---
Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth
South of Heaven by Slayer
Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk
I'm Your Man by Leonard Cohen
Dimension Hatröss by Voïvod
Hate In Me EP by Moss Icon
Leprosy by Death
From Enslavement to Obliteration by Napalm Death
It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back by Public Enemy
you made me realise - EP by My Bloody Valentine
Bug by Dinosaur Jr.
Watermark by Enya
---REALLY GOOD/GREAT---
Split Demo Tape by Terrorizer/Nausea
…And Justice For All by Metallica
16 Lovers Lane by The Go-Betweens
If I Should Fall From Grace With God by The Pogues
Viva Hate by Morrissey
Surfer Rosa by The Pixies
Lucinda Williams by Lucinda Williams
How Will I Laugh Tomorrow… by Suicidal Tendencies
Sugarshit Sharp by Pussy Galore
Blood Fire Death by Bathory
Blue Bell Knoll by Cocteau Twins
Miss America by Mary Margaret O'Hara
---QUITE GOOD---
Green by R.E.M.
Spring Fever! EP by The Pussywillows Substance by Joy Division
Tracy Chapman by Tracy Chapman
Slow Turning by John Hiatt
Illusions by Sadus
Fugazi EP by Fugazi
In War There Is No Law! By Bolt Thrower
Demo by Blood Spill
Slave by Infest
The New Order by Testament
---GOOD/FAIR---
Cinema Paradiso Score/OST by Ennio Morricone
Reek of Putrefaction by Carcass
Follow the Leader by Eric B. & Rakim
The Peel Session EP by The Smiths
The Trinity Session by Cowboy Junkies
Tender Prey by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Prison Bound by Social Distortion
Superfuzz Bigmuff EP by Mudhoney
---MEH/OR JUST SHORT DEMOS/HARD TO JUDGE---
You Must Be Certain of the Devil by Diamanda Galas
Seventh Son of A Seventh Son by Iron Maiden
Rattle & Hum by U2
By All Means Necessary by Boogie Down Productions
Today by Galaxie 500
1988 Demo by Immolation
Premature Autopsy EP by Nihilist
---BAD/VARYING DEGREES OF DISLIKE---
Down In The Groove by Bob Dylan
You Walk Alone by Jandek
Open Up and Say… Ahh! By Poison
GREAT post, brother! Love me some Testament & Voivod!
And great question!! Personally, I think there is a BIG THREE (SlaYER, METALLICA, MEGADETH) and then a little three (Testament, Overkill, & Anthrax) and then a Teutonic Three (Kreator, Destruction, & Sodom) I actually prefer the Teutonic Three to the little three.
My two cents! lol
And most importantly, my best three:
Flotsam and Jetsam
Death Angel
Metal Church
And you know what I always like: when someone quotes a lot of names i really like and in that list (and coming from someone whose opinion I appreciate as well of course) there’s one I don’t know, then I know I could be in for another great discovery; like here:
“And maybe, just to give more on what I was trying to give off when I was younger, I was actually tryting to give off Built To Spill, Pavement, Sebadoh, Guided By Voices, Grifters, etc vibes. I forgot how much this sound by this band was all over those 90s bands. This despite this and You're Living All Over Me being very definitely 1980s classics, this sound is incredibly present in 1990s indie. And maybe even more than the sound, the whole attitude, that slacker, saddened punk aesthetic that I generally associate with the 1990s Gen X music really seems to be started and perfected to a great degree with this band. It's really awesome what they worked out and created with these Dinosaur Jr LPs. “
I don’t know Grifters at all while all those other bands you quote are absolute faves of mine, so I think I’m in for a treat; what is their best album?
Yeah you’re not alone I’m not knowing the grifters. The others on my list are icons and famous BY FAR more than them. It was a happy accident that in a discount 1 dollar bin I found a copy of one of their albums and had heard of em and bought it and listened and I loved them. So maybe that is the one group that doesn’t quite fit in that list in terms of mark on music history. But they are very very cool and I have a major love for 1 of their albums and like 1 other.
Would start with the one that I miraculously found:
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