Bjork - Vulnicura

Produced by Bjork, Arca, The Haxan Cloak

I’ve always been intrigued by and interested in Bjork, but I’ve struggled to really get into her music. There have been tracks which have grabbed me - "Army of Me", "Where is the Line?", "All is Full of Love" etc. - but I don’t have any of her other albums. I usually find them exhausting. The curiosity which is generated by her strange production and syncopations, and her passionate and somewhat jarring voice has, in the past, worn thin after ten minutes or so.

Vulnicura has rather captivated me however. It is sonically rich, emotionally vulnerable, and musically diverse - partly thanks to Arca’s great co-production on all but the first and last track. For those of you unfamiliar with Arca, he worked on Yeezus (one of my favourite albums of 2013) as well as all of fka Twigs' excellent releases (including 2014's LP1 which made my year end list).

This is a break up album. "Vulnicura" is a portmanteau of the root words for wound and heal (the same from which we get “vulnerable" and “cure") and as the cover art shows, Bjork has a gaping wound in her chest.  Various tracks are subtitled by how many “Months Before” or “Months After” Bjork’s divorce they were written. This gives an emotional context for the whole album as we get to watch Bjork work through the five stages of grief.

The opening track, "Stonemilker (9 months before)", has some gorgeous string arrangements and really sets the tone for the whole album. Hurt, longing for respect, and sensing her husband’s withdrawal, Bjork, her voice at it’s most gorgeous I’ve ever heard, sings about her desire to “find [their] mutual coordinates” and reconnect. 

"Lionsong (5 months before)", finds her switching back and forth between hope and cold indifference as her own frustration begins to come out. This track has more nice strings, but with more dissonant moments (including some interesting vocal layering), and showcases the first of Arca's mercurial beats. Lyrically this track isn’t as powerful as some of the others, but in the stage play of this crumbling relationship, it moves the scene forward well.

"History of Touches (3 months before)" disintegrates the previous tracks lush beauty, almost like a glitchy Tim Hecker track. There is very little beat or melody to speak of, but lyrical poignancy makes up for it.

"Black Lake (2 months after)", may be my favourite track on the album. Its 10 minute run time gives Bjork’s string arrangements and Arca’s beats to really develop and evolve around the main theme. It’s also very raw. Hurt (“I am one wound”) and anger (“Family was always our sacred mutual mission/ which you abandoned”) are very apparent lyrically as well as in the arrangements, but still tempered by the sadness of the strings and Bjork’s vocal. The song is filled with long droning pauses between verses, almost as if Bjork gives her all emotionally and then has to catch her breath before she can continue and deliver and even more biting verse, climaxing with a painfully sustained “No hope in sight of eveeeeeeeeeeeeeer recover.” Dynamically this song builds and breathes so well with the emotional content, and the tension held in some of the droning interludes only adds to the effectiveness.

"Family (6 months after)" features production from The Haxan Cloak and his signature low throbbing squelches really adds a great attitude to this album. Lyrically this is the strongest track on the record, it could stand alone as a poem. She calls her divorce a death of her family, but where can she get closure? There is no grave stone to place flowers and weep. Bjork is now removed enough from her own pain to realize the devastating this experience has been for her daughter as well. The manic interlude, with jagged horror movie strings and pounding chaotic noise, showcases her helplessness and fear in the face of how to protect her daughter. The music then settles into a beautiful hymnic chant of “God save our daughter” as the noise and horror melt into slow soothing swells.

"Notget (11 months after)" begins with a warping staccato of strings and synths which wouldn’t be out of place as the intro to a song by The Knife. This song moves more quickly than any yet, with a martial beat which makes this song almost feel like Bjork is going to war with everything: her ex, her own self pity, and death itself. "If I regret us/ I’m denying my soul to grow/ Don’t remove my pain/ It is my chance to heal.” “Love will keep all of us safe from death.” Almost a year after her divorce Bjork is violently reclaiming what she knows is most important in her life: love. And she’s taking no prisoners.

The last three tracks on Vulnicura have no subtitle, pointing to the fact that life has begun to move on. No longer is everything Bjork experiences directly correlated to her divorce, though it still provides rich context. These last three tracks are definitely more energetic and dance-like, but are still tied strongly to the earlier two acts of the album by the strings and production. 

Love is again the theme of "Atom Dance" (featuring Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons). Dancing pizzicato strings in 6/8 propel this track. Healing has begun. She is “learning by love to open it up/ let this ugly wound breathe.” The arrangement is really wonderful as the strings build and different elements take on main rhythm of the dance, and the movement serves as a good reprieve from the emotional intensity of the “after” tracks. The last part of the song with Antony really takes the energy up and adds a lot of cool character. His voice meshes really well with Bjork’s - If I hadn’t read that he was a feature on this I might have almost thought it was Bjork pitched down and layered.

"Mouth Mantra” has the coolest beat on this whole album, and really reminds me of some of the best parts of Shaking the Habitual. It is a celebration of Bjork “rediscovering” her voice, her creative passion, and her strength.

“Quicksand” is a driving force looking to the future. The beat is relentless and the singing is less disjointed that the rest of the album. Bjork leaves us with a message of the importance of being perseverant in order to provide a lasting legacy. Again she is thinking of her daughter’s future (through the lens of thinking about her own mother).

Vulnicura is a very cohesive and emotionally powerful album. Bjork’s voice is very strong here, as are her string arrangements, and the complementary contributions of Arca and Haxan Cloak’s production styles really enhance the experience. The unifying themes of divorce, heartbreak, and the search for healing after a traumatic event brings a focus as well as an emotional story map for the album to develop along. The more I listen to this album the more I am impressed. It makes me want to go back and see if I missed this same strong vision in previous albums.

8/10
Favourite Track: "Black Lake"
Least Favourite Track: "Lionsong"

The Knife - Shaking the Habitual (2013) Review

Just keep on rolling with these blog posts I guess.

I'm finding music hard to write about. I either feel like I'm being too general about how something sounds or what is good or not about it, or I feel like I get so detailed that it's a pain to read. Let's see if this works.

The Knife, for those of you who don't know, are a brother/sister duo from Sweden who make dark synth driven grooves. They broke through (spawning tons of dark-synth-pop wannabes) with their third album, 2006's Silent Shout. Philosophically, being a big band doesn't seem to jive with these siblings, because after Silent Shout blew up they split up to follow solo paths (one result of which was the awesomely bizarre Fever Ray record). When they did return together as the Knife, instead of making a logical follow up to everything they had done so far, they made a bizarre electro-opera which tied Darwin's life to the evolution of life on Earth. Strange, long, with few driving beats, it was super interesting, and alienating. But now they've made the huge, double disc monstrosity Shaking the Habitual, which both sounds like the proper follow up to Silent Shout/Fever Ray, but also shows that their dabbling in evolution seems to have had an impact.

This is an incredible record, currently my top contender for Album of the Year. The album kicks off with three back to back great tunes over 24 minutes. "A Tooth For An Eye" kicks it off, taking tight rhythms and bright sounds and managing to make them creepy. "Full of Fire" throws out any pretense of normalness with a huge banger of a track which distorts and disintegrates over nearly ten minutes, never slowing it's pace but never feeling too repetitive. Karin (the sister/lead singer) makes her voice distort and crack through both vocal and digital manipulation, sounding like a little girl one moment and an old man the next - climaxing with her yelling "Let's talk about gender baby, let's talk about you and me" in a deep baritone which can barely hold itself together. And then another shift to "Cherry on Top", which begins with 5 minutes of really cool droning noise which wouldn't be out of place on The Seer (one of last year's favourite albums), then morphs into a creepy little nursery rhyme, and then back into creaking drones.

If all this record gave me was these three songs, it would be enough to put this album in my top ten of the year. The intricate rhythms, the amazing sonic manipulations, everything I love about these guys, summed up nicely in 24 exciting minutes. But it doesn't stop there, that's not even half of the first disc!

The rest of the album is in turns exciting, terrifying, meditative, and actively disconcerting. They also get outside of just electronic sounds on this record - it is called Shaking the Habitual after all. Without "You My Life Would Be Boring" has flute playing that reminds me of some of the weirder jazz records Don Cherry and Sun Ra recorded in the early 70s. There are tribal drum jams (closer to what was on Fever Ray) and there are weird chirping noise tracks. The record paces itself well, with tracks ranging from under a minute in length to nearly twenty minutes, and nothing is ever boring, or ever rehashed. Despite the fact that the basic elements are mostly represented in the first three songs, all of those elements take on new faces which themselves take on new masks. You can tell that this album came out of restless creative energy, but the best part is, it not only was born there, but it furthers the cause: of pushing and striving and destroying any and all boxes which might inhibit the minds growth.

Rating: 7.5/10 (Great +)

Return to a form of the former form / Ash Borer - Bloodlands

Well, I am temporarily out of musical projects to be working on. So I will attempt to write some reviews, or just blog posts music related. Briefer ones than usual I think.

First of all, there are three projects I have engineered/produced over the last year which are in that "finished but awaiting official release" phase. I am super proud of them and super stoked for them to come out. I will post about them in greater detail when the time comes.

******************

I want to kick off a new season of blogging by mentioning a band which has been slowly creeping up on me: Ash Borer. They are a Californian Black Metal band signed to Profound Lore. The last 3 years or so has seen an incredible explosion in the American Black Metal scene. There have been a few stand outs in this scene so far: Krallice, Liturgy, some members of the Black Twilight Circle collective, and Wolves in the Throne Room. I must confess that despite my love for these bands, the rest of the music to come out of the ABM scene has mostly bled together into one big blast beat, tremolo picked, incoherent screech.

Ash Borer however has cut through the milieu for me recently. It's not that they are breaking any new ground (the already mentioned bands above have done a lot of that already) and I've been trying to put my finger on why I kept going back to their 2012 release Cold of Ages. I think with the fairly new Bloodlands EP I am finally starting to be able to solve this connundrum. These guys aren't just great players with crazy chops playing as fast as they can, they are intelligent musicians who want to tell stories. Their songs take their time to get to the blast beats, it isn't just madness straight through. They build songs, drawing you in. They make you wait for the pay off and then kick you in the teeth. They're like professional fishermen, reeling you in, then cutting you just enough slack to let you think you've gotten through before hitting you even harder.

The production quality of both Cold of Ages and Bloodlands is better than a lot of black metal too. These are sonically rich albums, everything is crisp. There's no over-trebled hiss, like a lot of black metal has. Everything sounds good, and the songs are good. I don't know whether there has ever been a blast beat that has had a real weighty impact on me as much as the one which appears around the 7-minute mark of the 20 minute behemoth that is "Dirge / Purgation." Check it out below via ashborer.bandcamp.com

Rating: 7/10 (Great)

Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More (2010) CD [5/10]

Mumford & Sons build their music around big builds, banjo flourishes and strained and pained vocals. It kind of sounds like they're trying to be the Frames...but aren't quite as melancholy. They write decently catchy songs and have some hopeful lyrics in amongst the moping which is refreshing. The three singles "Sigh No More", "The Cave" and "Little Lion Man" and the additional "Roll Away Your Stone" are easily the best tracks with the rest of the album sounding like less successful versions of said tracks. That is my biggest complaint. It all sounds cut from the same cloth, but instead of that contributing to and overarching sound it merely leaves me dry and bored. Some decent tracks worth listening to though.

The Best Albums of 2010

Here be my second annual favourite albums of the year list.

Last year's list was dominated by concept albums and the heavier side of the musical spectrum.

By January I had devoured NPR's best of the year/decade lists and had been turned (innoncently enough by my friend Blythe) to Pitchfork's lists. I had said that I thought Arcade Fire's Funeral may have been my favourite album of the decade (though in hindsight...probablyYs by Joanna Newsom) and Blythe had pointed out that Funeral was Pitchfork's #2. Anyway, long story short. I have read Pitchfork pretty much everyday since January and this year's list reflects that...almost painfully. Everyone of my picks for this year are of those that Pitchfork has labeled "Best New Music."

This list, like last year's, is in alphabetical order.

The Best Albums of 2010:

Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot...The Son of Chico Dusty

This may shock some people who know me. A Hip-Hop album? In your top 5? Yes. It's true (There'll be two). Hip-Hop has always had a soft place in my heart; I love the energy, the beats, the syncopation, the SWAGGER. It's electrifying. Unfortunately, like any genre, there is a lot of crap to sort through. And, unlike some genres, I don't want to spend the money/effort to sort through the rap game. There are a few rap artists that I trust though, and Outkast is definitely one of them, so when I heard about Big Boi's solo album, I was excited. Then "Shutterbug" came out as the first single and I was sold. So much originality packed into one song: the thundering acapella bass line alone could make a song worth listening to! Still, I don't just go out and buy hip-hop. But after hearing a couple more tracks and reading Pitchfork's review I went and got it and was not disappointed. There are a few lulls, yes, but none are long or painful enough to disrupt the record (perhaps Hustle Blood...). There are plenty of guest appearances (like any self-respecting rap album) but my favourite is definitely Yelawolf's redneck spiel in "You Ain't No DJ". Every track is brimming with creative ideas, beats and samples - and the skits are actually funny to boot! A fun, and energertic album.

Favourite Track: "General Patton" - so. hardcore. and over a classical loop for the hook!

James Blake - his three 2010 EPs: The Bells Sketch; CMYK; Klavierwerke

I'm lumping 21 year old James Blake's EP together because I just can't pick, and together they'd about make up a full length. This kid. This freaking guy is a classically trained pianist who makes some of the most unique electronic music I've heard. It's dark, it's subdued, its glitchy, it's organic, it's melodic, but most of all, it's beautiful. Like other artists influenced by Burial and the Dubstep scene, he takes vocal tracks - sometimes his own- and screws with them until they speak their own language. Each EP showcases another side of this diverse young artist:The Bells Sketch is glitchy; CMYK is more of a dance oriented EP; and Klavierwerke is (as it's name implies) an album of mostly (haunting) piano tracks. Steeped in classical music, current electronic trends, jazz, and 90s R&B(?!) Blake has created a whole new, and exquisite world. Look for his first LP (out in Feb)to almost definitely show up on my best of 2011 list.

Favourite Track: "I Only Know (What I Know)"

Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me*

Joanna Newsom is easily one of the most creative artists of the new millennium so far. Her pixie like voice, incredibly complex and beautiful harp playing, and her poetic long-form story telling combine to create sometimes whimsical, but always beautiful, worlds. Her first album was light-hearted and filled with short, fun little tunes. Her second (and still her best) albumYs, is, as I said, one of my favourite albums of the last decade and was full of complex arrangements and emotional allegories. Joanna's voice has matured considerably since Ys, and it shows. She has more control and more emotional range than before and she uses it... A lot.Have One On Me is 2 hours worth of music over 18 tracks and 3 LPs. This is intimidating and for the first few listens I had to take an LP at a time. The arrangements are more sparse, but they fit the tunes which are more personal than before. Lyrically Joanna Newsom is as sharp and elusive as ever. You could spend many many hours just pouring over her lyrics quite aside from her music. Have One On Me has her sitting at the piano quite a bit, but my favourite tracks are still harp-centered. Now, almost a year later, when I listen to the album I hear how much the 3 LPs tie together; it is definitely a single unified whole, but like a tapestry you have to stand back to truly see the remarkable achievement that this album is.

Joanna also put on the best show of the year. Live she is charming and funny and plays impeccably. She's also really pretty. A true joy to behold.

Favourite Track: "Baby Birch"

*Best Album of the Year

Robyn - Body Talk Pt. 1

Robyn is my new favourite pop star. If she doesn't quite warrant stardom yet, she should. She has a much better ear for melody than most of the crap on the radio these days and works with interesting producers (Royksopp among others) who help make her dance floor beats stand out from the pack. Robyn released 3 EPs this year in the Body Talk line and each of them was great, but Pt. 1 stands out as the best. It's the most diverse; despite it's dance floor grounding it encompasses elements of reggae and ends with a beautiful traditional tune from her homeland of Sweden. Lyrically, Robyn walks a fine line between being really sweet and really hard. (Swagger is kind of a theme this year...) From being heart broken on "Dancing On My Own" to telling everyone how much they're "killing" her on "Don't F***ing Tell Me What To Do" to warning young girls that "love hurts when you do it right" on "You'll Cry When You Get Older" Robyn covers a large range of emotion in a short EP.

Favourite Track: "Dancing On My Own"

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

The Lords of the Fork have been obsessed with Yeezy all year; Kanye garnered Best Track, Best Album, even best Twitter Feed. All the hype has not been for nothing either. Kanye has always put out great tracks - "Gold Digger"; "Stronger"; "Jesus Walks" - but after the nearly fatal blow of the Taylor Swift debacle he really needed something huge to stop the blood. And he delivered. Free tracks every week for 3 months - some from the album, some not; some great, most good - that's what got my attention: I love free music! But what really woke me up was my favourite track of the year: "Monster." Featuring Jay Z, Nicki Minaj and others, the song blows the doors off. "Best living or dead hands down huh?" Ye raps, then Jay Z claims that his achilles heel is love and then Nicki destroys every other great verse before it with the weirdest rap verse I've ever heard: "First things first I'll eat your brains!" My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is aptly named. It walks the fine line between between delusions of grandeur and self destruction. And it's more musical than any rap album I've heard (lots of Bon Iver contributions help). Great guitar tones, sick beats, creative writing, impeccable rhythmns and interesting structural modulation are on the plate with nearly every track - each could almost be an EP unto itself. Plenty of great moments but some of the more interesting ones include Kanye toasting himself as a "douchebag" and a "jerk off that'll never take work off" on "Runaway" as well as a confession that he was "never much of a romantic" because of intimacy issues. The album is obsessed with rebirth and the final suite of "Lost in the World/Who Will Survive in America?" almost feels like a rite of spring, a crazy dance of rhythmic ecstasy giving way to a sobering end to Ye's fantasy with a long excerpt from Gil Scott-Heron about false freedom in America. Kanye knows it's a fantasy, but can't help indulging. "I gotta have it." But luckily, we get to too.

Favourite Track: "Monster"*

*Favourite of the Year

Honourable Mention:

LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

Favourite Tracks: "I Can Change"

Best Tracks (that aren't on my Best Albums):

Arcade Fire - "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)"

A disco giant filled with Regine's haunting voice.

Girls - "Carolina"

A slow melancholy build that ends with a great jam session.

Janelle Monae - "Tight Rope (feat Big Boi.)"

Swagger and amazing vocals with a dash of James Brown.

Titus Andronicus - "A More Perfect Union"

If a band has ever channeled Springsteen better, I haven't heard it yet.

Wavves - "Post Acid"

Drugs and summer equals a great pop-punk track.

Best Non-2010 purchases:

Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz to Come 1959

Neu! - Neu! 1972

Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady 1963

Van Morrison - Astral Weeks 1968

Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom 1974

Biggest Disappointment:

The Ocean - Heliocentric/Anthropocentric

Bruce Springsteen - The Promise (2010) CD [6/10]

I have a weird relationship with Bruce Springsteen. Everytime I see a video of him performing my jaw drops and I can't stop watching, but the music doesn't have the same spell over me. But I can't even say that. More than a few of his songs get lodged in my soul the instant I hear them, but rarely is there an album that doesn't bore me by the end (Nebraska being the exception along with most of The River) Part of what makes him great is that he can make romance out of depression, but it can be cheesy. The Promise has those great moments and those cheesy moments. It's a collection of songs written and partially recorded in the years between the blow-up success of Born to Run and the hard depression of Darkness on the Edge of Town. In those three years there were legal battles with record labels and a lot of pressure, and Springsteen was struggling to stay true to himself. Thus, although he wrote a lot (a LOT) of material in that time, he was ruthless with what he selected for the next album. These are the songs he skipped, and they definitely show the transitional years well. Darkness has never been an album I've been crazy about (except for "Badlands"), and a lot of this material hits home better, but there are only a few really A-grade tracks. "Because the Night"'s strong battle cry of love could fit right in with Born to Run. That's really the only track I love on disc one, which is mostly inundated with a bawling yell which I never felt was a strong suit for Bruce's voice.

Disc two opens up more. It's fun. It's rock and roll. The softer tracks thankfully croon rather than wail. And it's stronger for it. It's the kind of album I could listen to. Unfortunately disc one often makes me skip the whole album. The gem, the power, that keeps me coming back however is "Fire." It's Springsteen's Elvis tribute and it's everything an Elvis tribute should be: Sexy and Swaggering. I just can't stop listening to it. The bass riff alone is a piece of gold...and it's the same thing the whole song. And Big C's sax solo is gritty, not fluffy lameness. It's one of Bruce's best. The Pointer Sister's did a great version of this song, which I love, but this is a torn out and refit paired-down version which adds a mystery to it.

Disc one bores me and I'd give a 4 or 5, while disc two has sits comfortably up in the 6 range and carries the the rest. Who knows maybe with time the other songs will find they're place in my heart, but so far, disc two has all the Fire.

[6/10]

Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959) Vinyl [9/10]

Another attempt at Jazz discussion.

The Shape of Jazz to Come is a fierce and daring album, which comes as quite a surprise after seeing the relaxed, sweatered and mustached Ornette Coleman looking terrifically nerdy on the cover. When it was released in 1959 the album shocked people; blew the doors off previous jazz conceptions. Coleman nearly single handedly created free jazz by removing the restriction of...CHORDS! Up until this point all Jazz, no matter how complicated or out there, used to chord structures and often hand a piano just in order to keep the chord structures moving. Coleman's quartet had no piano and followed no chord structures. Instead, each piece begins with a melody and then breaks into several minutes of free improvisation, held together -barely!- by the rhythm section which itself was improvising freely. This wasn't quite free jazz without key or any structure at all whatsoever, but it opened the doors!

Chord structure wasn't the only tradition Coleman discarded. Jazz etiquette at the time required a soloist to finish his solo before another player began; The Shape of Jazz has moments in it where multiple musicians solo at the same time. This became one of the building blocks of jazz-fusion (though this album is not a fusion album by any means).

Throwing out traditions is not enough to become the father of a new genre, it needs to be accompanied by artistic mastery, and Coleman is a brilliant saxophone player. Incredibly fast runs swirl and dance around each other as Coleman and Don Cherry (not the Hockey guy) exchange music explosions with each other; Cherry's cornet - a higher trumpet - the soprano to Coleman's alto-sax. And the rhythm section that holds it together is near rabid with frantic galloping drums and nonstop walking bass lines following no clear path, but never seeming to lose it's footing.

And yet. And yet! The album, unlike later free jazz, remains enjoyable to more than the avid jazz nerd. The melodies are catchy, and it is not a hard album to listen to.

A phenomenal undertaking and accomplishment.

Summary: Free Jazz is born.

Best Track: "Peace"

Rating: [9/10]

Robyn - Body Talk Pt. 3 (2010) [6/10]

Swedish pop rebel Robyn released 3 albums this year. Body Talk Pt. 1 is going to appear on my Best of the Year list in a couple weeks. Parts 1 and 2 were 8 songs each and then she released Body Talk which had 5 tracks off each of those plus 5 new tracks. This is a review of those 5 new tracks available on iTunes as Pt. 3. As with Pt. 2, Pt. 3 does not match the first installment of the Body Talk trilogy in either scope or cohesiveness, but it does not disappoint in that it collects another 5 great pop tracks, full of swagger as only Robyn can deliver.

These tracks are the poppiest of the bunch, straight-up tunes with pumped up beats. "Indestructible" is a song of seizing the moment on a dance floor as she says "I'm gunna love you like I've never been hurt before." "Time Machine" is a song of regret. Love songs and songs of confusion and hurt. Classic pop stuff.

And then there's "Call Your Girlfriend," easily the best track of the bunch. The melody and structure catches you up and you feel like Robyn is reassuring a friend that everything will be ok and that she'll move on...and then you realize...Robyn is telling a guy who she is stealing how to break up with his gf. It's vicious. But...so deceptively sweet and catchy. This is why I love Robyn. She screws with your perceptions of what a pop song can be.

And that's just the lyrics.

Musically, yes, fairly straightforward dance floor beats. But it's more alive than most of what's on the radio. Beats oscillate and shimmer with more texture than your run-of-the-mill fist pump music. And, thank goodness, there's a heck of a lot more melody. Lines carry, they build, they resolve. This is music. Not just pop hooks with filler. It's not all mind blowing by any means, but it's certainly refreshing.

"Call Your Girlfriend" really makes Pt. 3, the rest is just solid pop, but sometimes solid pop is what you need right? If you had to pick one part - Pt. 1 is definitely the way to go. And while Pt. 3 doesn't have any disappointing tracks like Pt. 2 did, it lacks some of the swagger as well (Duet with Snoop on "U Should Know Better" anyone?). Regardless, all-in-all it's been an impressive year for Robyn.

Summary: Pop Pop Swagga Pop

Rating: [6/10]

Best Track: Call Your Girlfriend

Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady -1963 mp3 [9/10]

I straight-up do not know how to talk about Jazz.

Mingus is a genius and The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady may be his master piece. He is an exceptional bassist, band leader, and composer/arranger and Black Saint proves it. A jazz ballet in 6 parts (3 crammed into the fourth and final track) this album is an artistic achievement up there with Kind of Blue and A Love Supreme. This is more of a challenge than either of those albums tho, with Mingus' 11-piece band painting the pictures of dancers on the stage. I really can't say much more except go listen. Then listen again. And again. And again.

Best Track: Medley: Trio and Group Dancers / Single Solos and Group Dance / Group and Solo Dance

Rating: [9/10]

Neu! - Neu! 1972 mp3 [9/10]

Neu! came in to existence in the wake of break up of krautrock pioneers Kraftwerk. Neu!'s eponymous 1972 debut retains much of the sleek and mechanical instrumentation that was a staple of Kraftwerk's techno-robot-rock, however this album veers from the any of the techno elements that made Kraftwerk's brilliance slightly cheesy. There are also no vocals on Neu! This is pure instrumentation. The album kick's off with "Hallogallo" who's driving beat and sweeping guitar/keyboard soundscapes evolve over the course of 11 minutes, and although it never strays far from home, it never gets boring. That really could sum up the whole album. Neu! is in some senses a drone album, each track sticking around a certain sonic plateau and just playing around on it. However, it balances it's ambient drone with hard groove. For such a mechanical album, there is a whole lot of soul.

One of the greatest moments on the album is on "Negativland." The 9 minute track drives and grooves on relentlessly before just dropping you, mid-bar into silence. It's testament to Neu!'s compositional skills that I was truly shocked and started when it the groove I had become lost in disappeared.

Neu! has been ridiculously influential on everyone from Radiohead to Iggy Pop (Negativland's bass line could be straight from a Joy Division song too) as well as most electronic music. It's hard to imagine where we'd be with out this album. You shouldn't listen to this album because it's a prototype tho. Rather you should listen to it because it's still fresh and vibrant today.

Summary: Sleek and beautiful, this thing hums along and never tires you out.

Best Track: Negativland

Rating: [9/10]

Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom 1974 mp3 [9/10]

This is the first album after Soft Machine drummer Robert Wyatt fell out of a window and was rendered confined to a wheel chair. Not to be stopped, Wyatt switched (mostly) from drums to focus on songwriting and piano. This is an album of restrained but fully realized emotion. Wyatt's voice has a strained quality but rarely seems to leave the realm of sighing-semifalsetto. The arrangements build in complexity on each side of the record until the madness of Little Red Riding Hood Hit the Road/Little Red Robin Hood Hit the Road which are full out noodling improv sessions with horns, drums, keys, bass, guitar all layering up into an emotional and dynamic climax. Other tracks such as "Sea Song" have a Bowie-esque quality to them with long piano chords and interesting structures which allow the other instruments to dance around Wyatt's voice.

Lyrically, Sea Song is the most straightforward - a song of yearning and mysterious love. Many other tracks seem to be mostly nonsensical, but there is an underlying emotion and lyricism even to the very strange love song, "Alifib."

There are moments on this album that seem to have influenced Radiohead and other more recent experimental groups, but this album stands as a great musical and artistic creation regardless of any later influence.

Summary: A challenging and emotional album, definitely requiring multiple listens to appreciate. Soulful and intense prog/jazz.

Best Track: Alifib

Rating: [9/10]

Frank Zappa "Sheik Yerbouti" 1979 2xLP [7/10]

Sheik Yerbouti, Zappa's 20th album, remains his best selling out of 62(!) albums.

"Some of you might not agree

'Cause you probably likes a lot of misery

But think a while and you will see...

Broken hearts are for assholes"

First listen:

Zappa in any era was experimental and goofy, but this album is hilarious. He somehow touches on pretty much every genre of music you can think of, but this is probably the most punk rock I've ever heard his meanderings. It's definitely not for everybody, and any album requires some concentration to really appreciate. A lot of people pass him off as random, and at some point it seems so, but Zappa is a master craftsman of the mad scientist variety, and also a very talented guitar player.

My pressing interestingly has Side 1 and 4 on one LP and 2 and 3 on another... each side ringing in at around 18 minutes of madness.

Side one has a whole lot of stuff on it (as does any one side of Zappa's collection) including Bob Dylan impressions, Peter Frampton "covers" and the above quoted "Broken Hearts are for Assholes" which is pretty self explanatory. 2 delves more into the unconventional with short spoken word quips between tracks (though nothing like on his early material like 1966's Freak Out!) Zappa has got himself a solid jam band which is well exemplified on the instrumental "Rat Tomago" and "The Sheik Yerbouti Tango." "Bobby Brown" is a brutally funny commentary on the hypersexuality of America which was banned in a few countries because of it's lyrics which I will not quote here...

"Tiny is as Tiny Does"

Side 3's "Dancin' Fool" hates on Disco, which, let's be honest, is totally ok.

Side 4's "Yo' Mama" is a 12 minute diss with a whole lotta guitar noodling.

There's a lot to absorb and I've been doing reviews of a lot of albums today so I obviously haven't done this album justice. But it's pretty awesome and I'm excited for more delving into it.

First listen:

Summary: Zappa mad hilarity

Best Track: Broken Hearts are for Assholes

Rating: [7/10]

Led Zeppelin "4" 1971 vinyl [8/10]

"You JUST got Zeppelin 4?"

yes. i know. i'm sorry. and I've never listened to it before this either.

"WHAAAAT?!"

i know. i know. i have heard tracks of course, "Stairway" of course (though only 3 times probably) and "When the Levee Breaks" and I think "Black Dog."

There is obviously very little to say about his album. Everything has been said. Though I must admit that I now understand. I now believe. Here's a play by play of my first listen of one of the greatest rock records ever made. From "Black Dog"'s first howl of "Hey, hey, mama, said the way you move, gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove" I'm sold. "Rock and Roll" just keeps me moving. Which is good, because honestly "The Battle of Evermore" is kind of goofy. It someone never quite hits "Cheesy" territory tho, and for that it gets some kudos. "Stairway" is, well, "Stairway." Though that guitar solo had more punch than I remember.

Side Two: The stoned monotone of "Misty Mountain Hop" broken up with Robert Plant's squeals is just freaking rad and groovy. Is Bonham using "Four Sticks" to play this song? coz it's thumpin'! "Going to California" is really gorgeous. I like the mellower side of Plant's voice - see his collab with Alison Krause.

"Levee" is just a great freaking song. That beat, the howling harmonica, the moan. It's the track I'm most familiar with on the album and the track that made me start liking Zeppelin in the first place.

What an enjoyable listening experience. "Evermore" was the single lull for me. I haven't said a thing about Jimmy Page's guitar work because it's a given. However, for the record, it's amazing.

Summary: Legendary Rock 'n' Roll

Best Track: When the Levee Breaks

Rating: [8/10]

Phil Ochs - Gunfight at Carnegie Hall 1970 [7/10]/Pleasures of the Harbour 1967 [8/10]/All the News That's Fit to Sing 1964 [7/10]

"I could never strip, that would be cheap."

Phil Ochs is just amazing - I bought 3 of his LPs today haha two of which I've loved for a while but never owned and the infamous Gunfight. Ochs is a first class protest folker. Maybe (dare I say it?!) better than Dylan. His biting wit and heartfelt concern for social issues in America and second to none. That combined with one of the richest voices, and that tell-tale vibrato, not to mention impressive arrangements, set him apart. All The News..., his first album, established him as a singer-songwriter of depth with songs about totalitarian gov't, Vietnam, and the Black Civil Rights movement.

Pleasures of the Harbour is a master work. It's one of my favourite albums and I'm pleased to have it on vinyl. Complex arrangements depart from Ochs' classic guitar and voice, but at no expense to the heart. "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends" is probably the most famous track from Pleasures and the first verse is worth quoting in full as an example of his sharp irony.

Look outside the window, there's a woman being grabbed

They've dragged her to the bushes and now she's being stabbed

Maybe we should call the cops and try to stop the pain

But monopoly is so much fun, i'd hate to blow the game

And i'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody

Outside of a small circle of friends

There is not a single track on Pleasures that is not amazingly rich and beautiful.

Gunfight at Carnegie Hall was released in the wake of the 1968 Chicago Police Riots and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.. Depressed and disillusioned, Ochs, ever one to challenge any status quo, even those of his leftist hard-core protestor fans, Ochs decided to put on a show...a ROCK show. He came out on stage in a gold Elvis suit and played a mixture Buddy Holly and Elvis and other rock and roll mixed in with his classic folk songs. The shock was nearly as great as Dylan's plugging in at Newport. Ochs' antics brought on audible "Boo's" and shouts of "Bring on Phil Ochs," which he answered sarcastic with "Let's not be closed minded Americans" and other witty remarks. By the end of the concert the "Boo's" were replaced with cheers and an encore. Amazing. He spits in his fan's face to show their hypocrisy and comes out head high.

One of the best moments is when he gets the power shut off on him for playing to long and he get's everyone to chant "This is bullshit, we want power!" until the staff are forced to turn the power back on and he keeps playing. Punk. Rock.

One of the great American songwriters.

Summary: Folk Rock Protestor Extraordinaire

Best Tracks: All the News That's Fit to Sing - "Power and Glory"

Pleasures of the Harbour - "The Party"

Gunfight at Carnegie Hall - "Buddy Holly medley"

Rating: ATN [7/10]

POTH [8/10]

GFCH [7/10]

Music: Dillinger - Dillinger (1974) - vinyl - [6/10]

First Listen:

This is a pretty obscure Canadian prog record. No wikipedia for the band (except a later manifestation called The Hunt), no lyrics found. Side A has three tracks: "People," "City Man" and "Nature's Way" totally 14:30 and Side B is one 17 minute track called "Live and Return"

It's pretty classic prog music: synths, solos, and constant tempo and time changes. "Nature's Way" is pretty Pink Floyd-y. Actually a lot of the palette is reminiscent of Floyd, but the playing is more frantic which lends some really good energy to the album, especially "City Man".

"Live and Return" starts out kicking with some pretty frenetic drums and bass and which works itself into a slow jam with some pretty cool vocal harmonies (all 4 members contribute vocals to the album). Half way through it picks up again into a sweet jam session and multi-minute drum solo which shows off drummer Robert Harrison's impressive chops. Not a huge fan of his tone, but he keeps it interesting.

Chops is definitely one thing this band is about, and they've all got them, except maybe in the vocal department, but it's more about the music here.

On first listen this album is all about "Live and Return" which was really enjoyable. I'll try and listen to the lyrics more in subsequent takes and want to pay more attention to the sax solo on "City People."

Summary: Canadian Prog Rock

Best Track: Live and Return

Rating: [6/10]