tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79708908804551880232024-03-22T00:15:32.709+01:00My Case For...This is a collection of writings on popular music, past and present. The featured artists and albums are selected purely on their interest to me personally, particularly if they provoke strong opinions or emotions. Hopefully, these "reviews" can sufficiently interest and persuade the reader to give them a listen, and form an opinion for him or herself.LWKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06215740365751447129noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7970890880455188023.post-23757843273938281552013-11-20T08:54:00.000+01:002013-11-20T09:13:02.575+01:00Reflektor by Arcade Fire (2013)
The facepalm is somewhat appropriate.
Three and something years ago, I came to the conclusion that Arcade fire was retreading old ground on The Suburbs, giving its fans more of the same with some interesting sonic experiments (Month of May, Sprawl). The album was very much on the long side, prone to slowing down in the second half.
This time, everything is right, sonically and culturally LWKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06215740365751447129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7970890880455188023.post-75618898041975253072011-02-26T16:05:00.000+01:002011-02-27T11:29:16.296+01:00The King of Limbs by Radiohead (2011)Whatever you make of it, Radiohead has not compromised, “filled” or dumbed down with The King of Limbs, their eighth album in some twenty years. Announced on the 14th of February, 2011 more or less out of the blue for universal internet release on the 19th, it was finally delivered one day prematurely. Presumably the band was giddy with excitement and saw little point in withholding it from theirLWKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06215740365751447129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7970890880455188023.post-50229936448509987042010-12-17T23:37:00.000+01:002011-01-02T23:36:08.048+01:00Three Albums by The Kinks (1969-71)<!--StartFragment--> For a band mostly remembered for their novelty songs, and for not being quite as good and influential as their contemporaries, the Kinks were remarkably prolific and consistent from the mid 1960s to the early 1970s. Managing to escape from early hits like “You Really Got Me” and “Sunny Afternoon”, songs like “Waterloo Sunset” showed a true depth and artistic clout. By the LWKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06215740365751447129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7970890880455188023.post-3053923347983876892010-12-11T23:48:00.000+01:002010-12-12T10:47:53.288+01:00A Grand Don't Come For Free by The Streets (2004)<!--StartFragment--> It’s difficult to imagine a hip-hop album that covers such mundane subject matter as A Grand Don’t Come For Free. At the same time, its narrative drive and “concept album” credentials make it stand out from other albums in that genre, in the mid 2000s. Mike Skinner’s sophomore album was almost universally acclaimed upon release, ending up in many “Best Of” lists, LWKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06215740365751447129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7970890880455188023.post-24442371757958424252010-11-20T01:14:00.000+01:002010-12-01T02:48:40.812+01:00Nebraska by Bruce Springsteen (1982)Forget the fist-pumping, flag-saluting, blue jean-wearing, stadium-rocking, truck-driving, Bud-swigging and wife-beating connotations usually associated with the man known as “The Boss”. Yes, he wore bandanas without a glimpse of irony, but Mr. Springsteen deserves some credit for more than a few bits of his career. The grand Born to Run (1975), for instance, with its iconic cover and dramatic LWKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06215740365751447129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7970890880455188023.post-42115562357745213392010-10-26T16:35:00.000+02:002010-11-04T15:28:14.035+01:00Amnesiac by Radiohead (2001)With the tenth anniversary of Kid A occurring this month, a lot of reflection is happening around the web, analysing what has been voted the best album of the last decade in several critics’ lists. Kid A was a drastic departure for Radiohead, coming three years after OK Computer, then already their definitive album and one of the best of the 1990s. It stripped away the band’s three-guitar sound, LWKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06215740365751447129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7970890880455188023.post-2518739429240123632010-10-11T21:46:00.001+02:002010-11-20T13:21:29.800+01:00Animals by Pink Floyd (1977) <!--StartFragment-->Every artist’s back catalogue has one or two “overlooked” albums; albums that fall between bigger hits, or albums that were the result of an ill-fated side path in a new direction. Radiohead has its drawn-out, “organic” Hail to the Thief (2003), the Chili Peppers went dark on One Hot Minute (1995), even the exact worth of Lodger (1979) is still hotly debated. The fact that LWKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06215740365751447129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7970890880455188023.post-80224687090370599572010-10-08T00:30:00.000+02:002010-11-10T19:07:00.371+01:00The Blue Mask by Lou Reed (1982)Since the 1960s, rock music was reliant on an air of danger, youth and glamour. Can “dangerous” artists still deliver at forty? Lou Reed was part of the first generation of rock musicians crossing that barrier. John Lennon’s life was cut short at forty, but Dylan, assorted Stones and their contemporaries were reaching uncharted territories in the early 1980s. Does maturity end interesting rock? LWKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06215740365751447129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7970890880455188023.post-14691430241323755462010-09-12T22:51:00.000+02:002010-09-13T00:54:57.072+02:00New Values by Iggy Pop (1979)<!--StartFragment--> In 1979, Jim Osterberg had something to prove. He had just released two of the most critically acclaimed albums of his solo career, but they were overshadowed by his creative collaborator, a certain D. Bowie. Keen to ditch the training wheels that his celebrity pal had provided, New Values was to showcase Iggy’s ability to make his own luck in life. The cover alone shows offLWKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06215740365751447129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7970890880455188023.post-67806554750109539112010-09-06T00:06:00.000+02:002010-11-20T03:04:53.671+01:00Don’t Believe the Truth by Oasis (2005) <!--StartFragment--> By 2005, Oasis’ glory days were over. In fact, they had been over for almost ten years. A sensational first album, a single-filled “classic” second album and a giant concert at Knebworth in 1996 had fuelled the Gallagher brothers’ braggadocio into the realms of parody. Truckloads of Columbia’s finest hadn’t helped their creativity or artistic subtlety either, culminating inLWKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06215740365751447129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7970890880455188023.post-29711934598367607182010-08-31T22:53:00.001+02:002010-09-03T17:30:40.143+02:00Heathen by David Bowie (2002)Not many artists have experienced such a commercial and critical nosedive as David Bowie. From a near-infallible and extremely prolific output in the 1970s, culminating in 1983’s lap of honour Let’s Dance, its follow-ups Tonight (1984) and Never Let Me Down (1987) are such unspeakable duds that they deserve to remain sealed. In fact, these two albums are the most readily available from Bowie’s LWKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06215740365751447129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7970890880455188023.post-4617149819871636362010-08-19T17:57:00.000+02:002010-08-19T18:36:44.633+02:00The Suburbs by Arcade Fire (2010)<!--StartFragment--> On the one hand, The Suburbs is a commendable album. On the other hand, it has several critical flaws that undercut its brilliance. Coming a generous three years after their sophomore album Neon Bible (2007), it certainly sounds like what we’d like Arcade Fire to sound like. Pop the CD in your player (if you’re old-fashioned like yours truly), and there’s no mistaking: that LWKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06215740365751447129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7970890880455188023.post-39443137270287311772010-07-21T23:14:00.000+02:002010-09-14T16:14:03.076+02:00Berlin by Lou Reed (1973/2008)Not many musicals end with a sing-a-long “I’m going to stop wasting my time/somebody else would have broken both of her arms”, but then again no one can accuse Lou Reed of being like Andrew Lloyd Webber. Berlin is one of those albums that is criminally underappreciated upon release, and only slowly gains its status after many decades of critical revisionism. Berlin was a slap in the face, coming LWKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06215740365751447129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7970890880455188023.post-51852595062014941842010-06-29T00:38:00.001+02:002010-06-29T14:41:21.214+02:00Hawks & Doves by Neil Young (1980)<!--StartFragment--> “ ‘Country and Western’? Wanna hear a country song? I’ll do this song, it’s a little novelty tune.” Responding to a drunken audience request during an impromptu gig at the Bottom Line club in New York, May 16th, 1974, Neil Young launches into “Roll Another Number (For The Road)” from the yet-to-be-released Tonight’s The Night (1975). A full-band rendition of “Roll LWKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06215740365751447129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7970890880455188023.post-33692237186854104122010-06-18T00:22:00.000+02:002010-09-14T21:56:51.228+02:00Think Tank by Blur (2003)<!--StartFragment--> Blur had something to prove with this, their “last” album. Having had a commendably stable four-man line-up for all of their 13-year career, guitarist Graham Coxon was more-or-less forced out of the band in 2002. Recordings proceeded, however, as did a tour. How would the band fare without the man who defined much of their sound through his distinct guitar-playing, backing LWKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06215740365751447129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7970890880455188023.post-11501443066142145902010-06-08T18:47:00.000+02:002010-06-08T23:06:45.038+02:00The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips (1999)A reshuffle of a band’s line-up has often taken bands into new directions. Members who were more in the background step in to fill a creative void (think Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters after the departure of Syd Barrett), new members are brought in and either faultlessly emulate their predecessor or add their own spin. When Ronald Jones, the Flaming Lips’ lead guitarist left in 1996, the remaining LWKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06215740365751447129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7970890880455188023.post-16576948212762033672010-05-26T17:56:00.001+02:002010-05-26T17:59:56.423+02:00Congratulations by MGMT (2010)After the last article’s exploration of the “return to form”, this review tackles another peculiarity in the music industry: the “difficult second album”. Especially in recent years, where artists are expected to produce saleable albums and less commercial work is discouraged or even blocked by record companies, an artist’s second album is often make-or-break. The albatross around the artists’ LWKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06215740365751447129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7970890880455188023.post-19378756308271414442010-05-04T15:16:00.000+02:002010-09-07T15:10:48.794+02:00Zuma by Neil Young (1975)A very specific genre of albums invariably exists in every recording artist’s back catalogue: the “return to form”. Clichéd as it is, the label is often appended by record companies hoping to recover sales figures after an artist’s (less commercial) experimental whims. By this logic, Zuma breaks the downward trend that Neil Young’s career had taken after the success of 1972’s soft-country rock LWKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06215740365751447129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7970890880455188023.post-2915898274571696502010-04-27T17:17:00.000+02:002010-10-24T03:30:16.308+02:00The Velvet Underground by The Velvet Underground (1969)In their brief career, New York’s Velvets created four albums, each with its own distinct character. Their iconic 1967 debut The Velvet Underground and Nico, with its classic Warhol “peel the banana” cover, has been widely canonized as the origin of anything to do with alternative music. Its groundbreaking cacophonous experimentation was layered with the wailings of the thickly-accented German LWKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06215740365751447129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7970890880455188023.post-40747414212406789282010-04-21T15:32:00.000+02:002010-04-21T15:41:10.334+02:00Sticky Fingers by The Rolling Stones (1971)Sticky Fingers is the quintessential rock album, a lesson in album dynamics and pacing. It is a perfect blueprint of ten varied songs, every single one essential to the album united by its moody, narcotic theme. Rockers are overtaken by even more intense songs, that give way to ballads, all the while drenched in overdriven guitars. The album was the first the band made entirely without LWKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06215740365751447129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7970890880455188023.post-73121381922220843662010-04-18T23:10:00.000+02:002010-04-19T12:20:20.734+02:00Hunky Dory by David Bowie (1971)The first of David Bowie’s ‘classic’ albums, Hunky Dory provides an early highpoint in his career. It followed two interesting, if unremarkable albums, and came just before his career-defining and widely popular Ziggy Stardust phase. The songwriting is remarkably mature, the arrangements are varied and the album is as complete a package as a Bowie album would ever be. The album’s songs can beLWKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06215740365751447129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7970890880455188023.post-4528266968771581132010-04-04T16:31:00.000+02:002010-04-04T16:34:19.733+02:00In Rainbows by Radiohead (2007)<!--StartFragment--> Never has Radiohead shied away from surprising its audience. When In Rainbows was released in the autumn of 2007, the biggest, and even headline-grabbing news was the format it was released in. For the first time in the history of the music industry, a major band had decided to release an album itself, without a record deal, at a price to be determined by the buyer. The LWKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06215740365751447129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7970890880455188023.post-67906631791224244732010-03-31T01:59:00.000+02:002010-03-31T02:08:54.323+02:00Hombre Lobo/End Times by Eels (2009/10)Mark Everett has a remarkably rough life, and he chooses to deal with it through song writing. This produces the inevitable bleak, heartbreaking material that fills many of his albums, but he is also capable of pulling himself up by his bootstraps with more optimistic and at times downright funny songs. Considering the brief window between the release of these two albums, a direct comparison is LWKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06215740365751447129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7970890880455188023.post-706232622441646442010-03-31T01:52:00.000+02:002010-10-08T14:55:25.241+02:00Modern Life is Rubbish by Blur (1993)<!--StartFragment--> In 1993, the Soviet Union had recently fallen, Germany was reunited, economies were booming and Nirvana ruled the charts. Blur made a plain, almost childish statement with the title of their album of that year. It was their second, following hot on the heels of an American tour promoting new single Popscene, although largely designed to recoup losses from mismanagement. LWKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06215740365751447129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7970890880455188023.post-35877039375898535762010-03-31T01:49:00.000+02:002010-10-08T14:59:12.841+02:00Embryonic by The Flaming Lips (2009)<!--StartFragment--> Releasing a double album in the days of YouTube, the iTunes Music Store, dwindling sales, mass piracy, and a return to the singles-oriented market the likes of which we haven’t seen since the early 1960’s is no mean feat. When one realizes that the contents of both CDs actually fit on a single disc, it becomes apparent that we’re dealing with something special. The LWKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06215740365751447129noreply@blogger.com