THE VELVET UNDERGROUND by THE VELVET UNDERGROUND (1969, MGM Records)

Their eponymous third album was the first the Velvets made without Welshman John Cale. The frictions between Cale and Lou Reed that had driven the creative experimentation of the their first two albums had boiled over. Cale was eased out of the group and replaced by musician Doug Yule who was a friend of the band. 

Following Cale's departure chief songwriting duties fell to Lou Reed and the brave experimentalism of the first two Velvets records disappeared out the door. 

That's not to say THE VELVET UNDERGROUND isn't a great record, but it is much more conventional and consciously so. Reed felt that the band couldn't release another harsh experimental album like 'White Light / White Heat' and was keen to show another side to the band, so not be seen as "one dimensional" which sea like an incredible statement to make when you think how diverse the two previous albums are. Subsequently the record has a more mellow rock sound. The softer approach was also due in part to the fact that the band had had all their amps and fuzzboxes stolen whilst on tour.

The album features several slow ballads. Starting with the sad 'Candy Says' is about Warhol superstar and transvestite Candy Darling. She's the same Candy Reed sings about in Walk On The Wild Side, "in the back room she was every-bodies darlin'". There's also Lou Reed's druggy spiritual 'Jesus' and 'Pale Blue Eyes' which is probably the albums standout track and has since been covered by the likes of REM, Patti Smith, Counting Crows, Hole and The Kills. Lou Reed revealed in his autobiography that is was actually written about someone with hazel coloured eyes.

'What Goes On' and 'Beginning to See the Light' are groovy 60s rock n roll.  'Some Kinda Love' is nicely country inflected and even drummer Mo Tucker sings sweetly on the final track 'After Hours' which incidentally fellow lady drummer, Meg White has sung live for The White Stripes.

As Velvet's records go, it's their third best, but that's genuinely no bad thing. 

CANDY SAYS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPgGjUSEWss

PALE BLUE EYES

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KisHhIRihMY

WHAT GOES ON

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8REIw0amb8

DIAMOND MINE by KING CREOSOTE & JON HOPKINS (2011, Domino)

Probably my most played album of last year. And quite possibly because I'd rather imagine myself on a boat off the coast of Scotland rather than the train outside of London Bridge every morning.

DIAMOND MINE is Mercury Prize nominated collaboration album by Scottish independent folk artist King Creosote (aka Kenny Anderson) and electronic producer and Eno collaborator Jon Hopkins. 

It's a seven track of Creosote's lilting folk interwoven with Hopkins field recording made in and around the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland. What DIAMOND MINE gives you is a romanticised view of the life of a small fishing villages in this little nook of Scotland. Starting with the sound of the village shop, the sound of sea and wind. Hopkins said: "It's a bit like my dream version of life... like the way Paris appears in Amélie."

As on his own excellent solo album Hopkins makes extensive use of 'Musique Concrete' the technique of capturing real sounds, voices and abstracting them to create something altogether more hazy and atmospheric. Added to this backdrop Creosote's delicate vocals and understated lyrics about the joys and sadness of a small town and the record conveys a quietly powerful sense of time and place.

'John Taylor's Month Away' is a delicately told tale of the melancholy of men away at sea. You can almost smell the sea salt and sense of quiet despair: "A dozen men, thirty days, with 24 hours in each / of shattered boyhood dreams and not much sleep".

The last track 'Your Young Voice' is a beautifully sung acoustic lullaby where Creosote sings repeatedly "It's your young voice, thats keeping me holding on, to my dull life, to my dull life". Granted when written it sounds miserable, but it's beautiful to listen to. The other five tracks I'll let you discover for yourself. To quote some fellow on iTunes who I wholeheartedly agree with, this album is "about the most beautiful thing i have ever, ever heard. Amazing".

Creosote has released over forty albums in the last eighteen years, mostly on his own Fence Records label, so it's gratifying for him to have had some success with DIAMOND MINE. He said "It feels like this is the beginning of something. And to feel that so far down the line, after putting out forty effing albums... oh my God! It means, I can still do this, it's not over."

Though somehow I think that of you've already put out forty albums, there's nothing that could stop you. And thank goodness for that.

JOHN TAYLOR'S MONTH AWAY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPVmAHdy5ZI

BUBBLE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-Lr0igwLIY

YOUR YOUNG VOICE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0Woa6p4xkw

CROSS by JUSTICE (2007, Because)

The phenomenal debut album by Parisian duo Justice is a mixture of deep rumbling house and disco baselines, broken breakbeats and epic Wagnerian samples. They've created a Gallic house record that is at times frivolous and light whilst at others intense, gothic and vicious.

The concept for the album was "Opera Disco".  Xavier de Rosnay said: "We stuck to our original idea to make a 2007 opera-disco album, even if we are conscious that some tracks don't sound like proper disco at first listen. The best example is the song "Waters of Nazareth," which does not sound like disco when you listen to it for the first time. But if you forget that everything is distorted, the bass lines are just really basic disco patterns."

There are a few feel-good party tracks ('D.A.N.C.E.' and swaggering 'The Party' in particular) but mostly the atmosphere is deep and dark, especially on 'Genesis', 'Phantom', 'Let There Be Light'. 

Much of the record is their own composition typically using distorted and broken funk baselines and 80s inspired synths. Big portions of it sound like John Carpenters classic soundtracks. 

There are a lot of samples are used but mostly unobtrusively and rarely are they obvious steals. You'd never know that opening track 'Genesis' contains lifts from 50 Cent, Slipknot and Queen. 

One of the most apparent is on the epic 'Stress'; an intense and disturbing disco nightmare. It samples David Shire's brilliant disco version of Mussorgsky's 'Night on Bare Mountain' from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack and turns it into the an inner city urban horror story. The tracks accompanying promo by Romain Gravrais features an urban gang of youths terrorising the residents of a Parisian suburb. It's like a scene from La Haine and provoked both ire and acclaim depending upon whether you viewed its depiction the gang members who were all of North African descent as racist or not. Personally i think it's not made with any racist intent and as many people have stated, it's over the top nature is more of a comment on how these kids are viewed and expected to behave by the media.

On CROSS Justice have taken the best of Daft Punk but delivered something altogether more inventive which evokes a deeper emotional reaction. Yes they can do uplifting hands in the air club classics but the also do nasty fucked up horror-tronica too. 

STRESS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU7bFpPJiww

THE PARTY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbN5B93mpFE

GENESIS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2og3IZV4g0

NEVERMIND by NIRVANA (1991, DGR)

What can you say about this album other than to say, it's ten out of ten perfect. I'm not even going to try and critique it. What's the point. Instead I'll tell you that my personal favpurite track is number seven, 'Territorial Pissings', and just enlighten you with some geeky Nevermind triv...

15 facts about NEVERMIND that you might not have known:

1. It knocked Michael Jackson's Dangerous off the top of the billboard album charts. Hooray!

2. The working title for their album was originally 'Sheep'

3. Track 'Breed' was originally named Imodium.

4. Cobain was embarrassed by the final album mix saying that it sounded "closer to Mötley Crüe record than it is a punk rock record."

5. The first 20,000 copies of the album didn't feature the hidden track 'Endless, Nameless' because of cock up at mastering.

6. The album cover features an image of three-month-old boy Spencer Elden. However, there was some concern because Elden's penis was visible in the image. Geffen Records prepared an alternate cover without the penis, as they were afraid that it would offend people. They relented when Cobain made it clear that the only compromise he would accept was a sticker covering the penis that would say, "If you're offended by this, you must be a closet pedophile."

7. Now defunct UK music magazine Select gave the album four stars, but made Blur's debut album Leisure album of the month. Rolling Stone only gave it 3 stars. Idiots.

8. Geffen records expected it to sell at best 250,000 copies. It's now sold 30 million.

9. Being a proper geeky Nirvana knob is sometimes quite useful. I won a holiday for six people on tie breaker question which was which was "what was the highest position Smells Like Teen Spirit reached in UK charts...

10. ...the answer was No. 7. Though Smells Like Teen Spirit never reached No. 1 in the US either (best position was no 6) it did reach the top spot in Belgium! Well done the Belgians

11. Although he's not credited, Chad Channing, Nirvana's drummer before Dave Grohl, does actually appear on the album. He plays cymbals on the track Polly.

12. Kurt didn't want 'Come As You Are' released as a single because he was concerned about possible legal action by Killing Joke whose track 'Eighties' it bears a very close resemblance to. Check it out here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1U1Ue_5kq8

13. Based upon the aggregated reviews of 2,700 different charts across magazine, websites and radio stations, NEVERMIND is rated the 6th best album of all time beaten only by Sgt. Peppers (5), Abbey Road (4) Revolver (3), Dark Side Of The Moon (2) and, yawn, O.K. Computer (1).

15. In memorial tribute to Cobain his home town of Aberdeen have added the name of one of NEVERMIND's songs to its city limits sign. They read "Welcome to Aberdeen: Come as you are"

TERRITORIAL PISSINGS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fdYjlAviT8

COME AS YOU ARE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vabnZ9-ex7o

BREED

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teetvAUcG_E

BABEL by MUMFORD & SONS (2012, Island)

The West London Wurzels return with their long-awaited (by some) second album of badass banjoing, twanged double bassage and foot stomping guitars.

And thank the Lord because if I had to listen to Xfm and Absolute Radio play 'The Cave' or 'Little Lion Man one more time I might have tossed my tweedy waistcoat and cravat assunder and exclaimed "gosh, I shall never again listen to this moderate folk rock".

BABEL is business as usual for Marcus Mumford and his merry men. Like Sigh No More, it is again a mixture of British folk, American Bluegrass and anthemic uplifting indie. It follows the template laid down on their debut exactly: close male vocal harmonies, climactic builds, lyrics with vague religious and literary references, plus the occasional use of fruity swear-word to spice things up. 

It does have a slightly looser feel than its predecessor, apparently the band wanted to capture the sound of the Mumford live experience. Producer Markus Dravs (Arcade Fire, Coldplay) has certainly done that - 'Babel' and 'Whispers in the Dark' are a couple of stompers to open the album. They'll have you tapping your foot, slapping your thigh and yellin "yeehaw".

Being a little mean, Mumford & Sons are the kind of band that readers of both the Daily Mail and The Guardian can agree are "really, rather good aren't they". They are the most middle class, middle England, middle of the road band going. The musical equivalent of Farrow & Ball paint. They run a book club on their website (Marcus is currently reading '50 Shades of Grey'. Maybe). Their name even abbreviates to M&S! But as easy as it is to deride these earnest young men who sing with their eyes closed, they do know how to duel banjos, write a belter of a tune and can get their audiences jumping without the use of pyrotechnics. All of which are rare things these days. 

If you enjoyed the first album (before it became hideously overplayed) then you'll enjoy this. You can imagine the crowds roaring along to the foot stomping 'I Will Wait' and 'Holland Road' before swooning to the sweetly tender 'Ghosts That We Knew' and 'Lovers Eyes'. 

HOLLAND ROAD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UDWCScrWeo

I WILL WAIT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGKfrgqWcv0

BROKEN CROWN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5hx9HChDGk&list=PL6D82MFD_M-GSUvmCQbDZWbQtTyp9qrYh&index=6&feature=plcp

WE’LL NEVER TURN BACK by MAVIS STAPLES (2007, Anti-)

Part gospel, part soul, part blues and all social history WE’LL NEVER TURN BACK is a concept album that relates to the African-American Civil Rights Movement from the period of Mavis Staple’s youth, in the '50s and '60s.

Staples is a veteran soul singer and once part of the legendary Staple Singers that were signed to Stax Records and released a series of classic soul singles like ‘I’ll Take You There’ as well as great covers of Dylan’s ‘A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall’ and Buffalo Springfield’s ‘For What It’s Worth’.

Now in her seventies Staples has a deep, raw and weathered voice, rich in soul and southern warmth. The lived in raggedness that perfectly suits an album of inspired by the struggle for racial equality. Made up of personal reminiscences, new compositions and old traditional standards like ‘Eye’s on the Prize’, ‘We Shall Not Be Moved’ and ‘This Little Light of Mine’ the record is document to that time. She knew Martin Luther King Jr. personally and Staples gutsy and righteous delivery is in part a tribute to that inspirational man.

Ry Cooder’s production gives the record a, deep and dusty feel. You can feel the heat of Mississippi delta, the smell of sweat and rising tensions.  

Though inspired by history, this is a great modern blues and gospel album.

DOWN IN MISSISSIPPI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeZmZ1Pt6C0 

EYES ON THE PRIZE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZWdDI_fkns&feature=related

WE'LL NEVER TURN BACK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27XLZwbA2qQ

TEMPEST by BOB DYLAN (2012, Columbia)

There's a great line in season three of BBC's 'The Thick Of It' when Glen and Ollie are describing the political demise of foul mouther spin master Malcolm Tucker. "He won't die" Glen says. "he's got to keep moving. He's like a shark. Or Bob Dylan"

The endless tours, albums every few year, it seems impossible to imagine a time when there is no Dylan and after a barren spell throughout the eighties and early nineties Dylan continues his run of great albums that started fifteen years ago with Time Out Of Mind.

TEMPEST is Dylan's thirty-fifth and it is yet another goody. As Dylan records go its thematically quite morbid. There's a lot of death here whether a fictional bloodbath ('Tin Angel'), his emotional retelling of the Titanic tragedy ('Tempest') or ruminating on the loss of his friend John Lennon ('Roll on John'). 

Musically its a well executed mixture of country, swing and blues rock n roll, its not especially unique in itself, but the star of the show is Bob's grizzled delivery and some master songwriting. 'Duquesne Whistle' is a breezy start and one which I must admit I've become completely addicted to. It's one of very best songs that Dylan's released in his long career. It reminds me of Changing Of The Guard in that its a Dylan song you can whistle the along too in cheery fashion. Love it. The video is brilliant too. What's starts as a cheeky romance takes a nasty and vicious turn. Meanwhile Bob who's looking increasingly like the spiv from Dad's Army, cruises about town with his gang of hoods in tow. 

'Soon After Midnight' is a sweet romantic love song which opens with an effortlessly perfect rhyming couplet: "I'm searching for phrases, to sing your praises". Its the way Dylan tosses lines away like that makes songwriting look so easy. 'Narrow Way' is a jaunty bar room blues

From here on in things take a darker turn with the bitter 'Long and Wasted Years', a snarling 'Paid in Blood' and decadent tales from a wild west Gomorrah, 'Scarlet Town'. Then things get really black with the murder ballad 'Tin Angel' a violent tale of murder and suicide similar to The Raconteurs' 'Carolina Drama' and ends in similar blood splattered fashion with three interwoven lovers dead in a heap.

The song 'Tempest' is the centrepiece of the album. A 45 verse gaelic inflected retelling of the Titanic sinking. It manages to be infinitely more touching in 14 minutes than the 194 minute James Cameron movie and still manages to sneak in a reference to Leo and his sketchbook. Just like Dylan's brilliant 'Hurricane' it's a masterful exercise in historic storytelling, powerful and evocative.

The album ends with 'Roll on John', his tribute to Lennon. Sure the lyrics are at times are a little clunky. Dylan manhandles the Beatle's lyric into his own, re-contextualising his friends famous words with the story of his life and death for dramatic effect. Mostly it works, ("I heard the news today, oh boy"), other times less so ("come together right now over me"). It's Bob in reflective mood and genuinely very touching. It is as if he's contemplating his own mortality whilst mourning that if his friend. In many way Lennon being his closest peer, not necessarily as a musician, but as the articulate icon and spokesperson for that generation. There's a sense that perhaps Dylan feels, it could have been him. 

TEMPEST is a remarkable record and to think it's now fifty years since Dylan released his first in 1962. When many musicians run out of steam after even two or three records Bob is still rolling out records that are genuine Album of the Year contenders. Incredible.

DUQUESNE WHISTLE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZRvlitbabk

EARLY ROMAN KINGS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AxIMPbR5QA

THE SPECIALS by THE SPECIALS (1979, 2Tone)

When The Specials reformed for live gigs in 2009 it was greated with much rejoicing! But great as it was to hear some of these songs played live again it does seem like a bit of a sham.

Despite singer Terry Hall's involvement and a number of the original musicians being included, one key person was not present, Jerry Dammers.

Dammers was the founder and driving force musically and politically for the band from their inception in 1977. He personally interviewed all members of the group. The political ethos of black and white integration that underlined the bands socially conscious position was lead by Dammers. The big songs that are the bands best known ('Ghost Town', 'Nite Klub', 'Free Nelson Mandela', 'Too Much Too Young') were written by him and those that were not Specials originals ('A Message To You Rudy', 'Gangsters') are his reworkings of old '60s Jamaican ska tracks. The iconic 2Tone record label that was home to The Specials, Madness, The Selector, Bad Manners and the cream of new wave ska bands was his label, his creation. He even designed the logo. 2Tone Ska and The Specials is Jerry Dammers and fairly the idea of him not being in a reformed line-up is as inconceivable as the Sex Pistols without John Lydon or Dexys without Kevin Rowland.

Produced by Elvis Costello this first their first album is a post punk essential with Jamaican ska re-imagined by dispossessed and pissed-off 1970s inner city Coventry boys. Unlike Jamaican ska, the guitar is to the forefront and the overall sound is much more energetic. 

The album features several covers or reworkings: 'Monkey Man' (originally by Toots & The Maytals), 'Too Hot' (by Prince Buster) and 'A Message To You Rudy' (by Dandy Livingstone). 'Too Much Too Young' is a re-working of Lloyd Charmers 'Birth Control' and 'Stupid Marriage' draws heavily on a Prince Buster hit 'Judge Dread'.

Adding to the sense of continuity from the original Ska artists of the 60s is the presence of trombonist and member of the Skatalites, Rico Rodriguez who appeared on many of the old Jamaican recordings of the '50s and '60s including the original version of '...Rudy'

CONCRETE JUNGLE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHFQ9zH36JI

MONKEY MAN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi4MOA_1MYA

TOO MUCH TOO YOUNG

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxHcx7FO8nI

DEATH MAGNETIC by METALLICA (2008, Warner Bros.)

The only word I can think of to describe this is 'ordeal'. 

This for me was the big one. I've never managed to listen to an entire Metallica album before. I gave The Black Album a go and I quite like 'Enter Sandman' but the music and lyrics I find to be utterly ridiculous. It can't be listened to with a straight face. For me the worse thing about these lumbering behemoths of metal are the affected growling of singer James Hetfield. The guttural noises  that come from this redneck's goaty bearded ginger-chops just make me laugh. Do you remember when Vic & Bob used to sing in 'a pub singer style' on Shooting Stars? Well Hetfield has clearly based his delivery of his angsty GCSE level lyrics on them.

The signs for DEATH MAGNETIC were good though. Great reviews. Produced by Rick Rubin. Excellent album artwork. Now is surely the time to pop my Metallica cherry. 

The opening bars of first track 'That Was Just Your Life' are epic and it builds quite excitingly. Maybe this could work out. 

But then it just doesn't stop for seven long minutes. Next track, 'The End of the Line' eight dull minutes. And so on and so on and so on. Seventy-five torturous minutes of painful metallic diahorrea later and the technically brilliant but utterly dull guitar solos, drum solos and silly growling come to an end. Thankfully. 

The music isn't totally awful. They are incredible musicians. But they are so belligerent and oafish in their delivery that I just turn off. With every singe track Metallica bash you around the head with an endless barrage of dumb heavy metal riffs. Every track bar one around seven minute mark or longer. Someone really needs to explain to them that brevity is not a bad thing and that the contrast of heavy/light could actually make for a more diverse and interesting record. I don't know, maybe I'm missing the point of Metallica. Maybe they realise want a bunch of lumpen stodge this all is and I'm just not in on the Spinal Tap  joke. 

The best two tracks are 'Cyanide' and 'All Nightmare Long'. 

Ultimately I have to come to the realisation that I HATE METALLICA. It's stupid lumbering meathead music that we all should have grown out of around the time we stopped getting zits and put away our Games Workshop lead miniatures. It's humourless, poo-faced and tedious with lead singer with the most absurdly affected voice. And a stupid beard.

Trust your first impressions.

CYANIDE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUMqqVOlJBs

ALL NIGHTMARE LONG

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmCYd9lpxlE

COLES CORNER by RICHARD HAWLEY (2005, Mute)

Richard Hawley's latest album Standing At The Sky's Edge has just been nominated for the Mercury Prize and as a little celebration I thought I'd go back and re-listen to COLES CORNER his second album, also nominated for the Mercury back in 2005. Back then he lost out to his fellow Sheffield rascals Arctic Monkeys. Though the hot tip this time around is Alt-J it would be great to see Mr Hawley pick up the award. 

COLES CORNER takes it's names from a street corner in Hawley's hometown of Sheffield. It was the junction of two roads, Fargate and Church Street, outside the old Coles Brothers department store where courting couples would meet each other back in more proper times. The album artwork features Hawley stood there, flowers in hand, expectant and hopeful like so many others before him. 

Musically rooted in the 1950s and 1960s. Hawley's silky smooth crooned vocals capture a similar tenderness to the master heartbreak, Roy Orbison. His lyrics and voice manages to simultaneous convey the joy of love, and also the heartbreak. Incrediblly the album can sound both optistic and terribly sad deepening upon your emotion. today I'm going on holiday so I thankfully feel the former.

It is unashamedly romantic and full of aching hearts, lost loves and lonely souls. For me it's the first half that has all the real standouts: the song 'Coles Corner', 'Just Like the Rain', 'Hotel Room' (which always reminds me of Johnny Nash's 'Tears On My Pillow' and the achingly lovely Darlin' Wait For Me' which can bring you to tears. It's so perfect. The guitar notes barely touched, the drums just lightly brushed and Hawley's vocals are delicate and tender. He wears his heart openly on his sleeve.

Musically the first half of the album tips it's hat to a pre-Beatles British musical heritage. The reverberating guitars sound like British pre-Beatles guitar music, the notes played perfectly with absolute clarity. For the second half though there is a noticeable jump across the Atlantic for inspiration. Again it's the 50s (and earlier) that inspire Hawley, in particular the early sad ballads of Cash, Hank Williams and Ricky Nelson, in particular 'Lonesome Town'.

COLE'S CORNER

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR-MTZVppkA

DARLIN' WAIT FOR ME

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cl3CjL5Pn0

HOTEL ROOM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYk83xz3dQ

ZOOROPA by U2 (1993, Island)

It's not the "best" U2 album for sure but it is my favourite. Probably because the Zooropa tour was the first stadium gig I went to. ZOOROPA was the first U2 album I got into for myself, rather than hearing second-hand through my older sisters. 

At the time of its release many felt it was a bit of a stopgap. It came hot on the heels of 'Achtung Baby!' (well 2 years!) but didn't have the all conquering radio-friendly singles. Neither does it have the brash synthetic confidence of the ultimately disposable 'Pop' that followed it (surely the most irritating of all their albums). 

ZOOROPA seems like the experimental U2 album that's been largely forgotten, much  like their Passengers collaboration album. It's a shame because for me, it's their bravest and most interesting record. Not usually words you associate with U2. It's also one their least pompous.

Compared to Achtung Baby! it was a flop. The promotion probably didn't help. 'Numb' was a bad choice for the lead single. It features lead vocals from guitarist The Hedge and backing vocals from Bongo.  It's a cold, soulless track, closer to Kraftwerk than the Joshua Tree. Lyrically its not dissimilar to Radiohead's robotic 'Fitter Happier'. U2 eschewed  the usual CD / vinyl / cassette release they put it out as a three track VHS. Commercial suicide. 

The album does still sound U2 but its also on trend for 1993. The chiming guitars are mostly drowned out with synths, samples and percussive loops. It's definitely an album to keep the rhythm section happy. Maybe that's why the The Hedge got his own song. It's very Jesus Jones, Neds, NIN - that early nineties mix of guitars and electronica, particularly on the likes of 'Lemon', 'Some Days are Better Than Others' and 'Daddy's, Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car'.

Favourite tracks include 'Babyface'. A twinkling electro tinged love song which suddenly seems less sweet when you realise Bongo is singing to pornography like some dirty old perv: "watching your bright blue eyes in the freeze frame / I've seen them so many times / I feel like I must your best friend".

The standout track on the whole album though is the majestic 'Stay (Faraway So Close)' a sweeping stadium ballad of the type only U2 can write. It's the only song off the album that regularly gets a live outing (though I've heard 'Lemon' a few time too).

The album closes with Johnny Cash singing on 'The Wanderer' as he mooches through a post apocalyptic world "under an atomic sky" much like that if Cormac McCarthey's The Road. It's a a great end to the album.

THE WANDERER

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov0BsOYoRrc

NUMB

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWHwI-Hvpzo

STAY (FARAWAY, SO CLOSE)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3178rqDthc

ACTUALLY by PET SHOP BOYS (1987, Parlophone)

PSBs are the UKs biggest ever selling duo. They've sold over 110 million records. How the hell did thy happen! ACTUALLY, their second album contains some classic electro pop and is regarded as their finest record.

First up the singles. 'Heart' was the fourth one released from the album and is treated dismissively by Tennant and Lowe. It's fun but throwaway and was originally intended as a potential single for Madonna. 'What Have I Done To Deserve This?' is a poppy duet with Dusty Springfield though her vocals are so heavily treated it hardly makes best use of her awesome vocal talents. 

'Rent' is a great track. Not about a rent boy as had often been assumed but about a kept woman. Neil Tennant says in the album notes: "I've always imagined it's about a kept woman, and I always imagined it set in America. I vaguely thought of one of the Kennedys, for some reason, and imagined that this politician keeps this woman in a smart flat in Manhattan, and he's still got this family, and the two of them have some sort of relationship and they do love each other but it's all kind of secret..." It's a brilliant track with smart knowing lyrics but if I'm honest I prefer the Carter USMs cover version.

'It's A Sin!' is electro perfection. What a tune. About Tennant's religious schooling, it's dramatic, theatrical and overblown and lyrics loaded with Catholic guilt. Heavy on the synths, choristers and a synth orchestra it has to be one if the few number 1 records that feature Latin. Towards the close of the song there's a passage that translates as, "I confess to almighty God, and to you my brothers, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word, act, and omission, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault". Intense!

The last highlight is final song 'King's Cross'. A melancholic end to a largely upbeat album. It's worth seeking out Tracy Thorn's version of this, especially the excellent Hot Chip version. 

Beyond these five tracks I'm mot totally convinvced that the album holds up other than as a nostalgic eighties curio. Much of it sounds very dated. I think the problem is that a lot of electro pop from that decade is quite thin, there's not much weight or heft, not enough bass. Also Tennant's semi-spoken vocals and lyrics always are so intrinsically linked as the soundtrack of decade (especially tracks like 'Opportunities' or 'West End Girls') that it's hard to feel the relevance twenty five years later. The PSB have never enjoyed the same sort of credibility as the likes of New Order and though fondly thought of as a pop act they've become too cliched and easy to mock. Its impossible to listen to tracks like the hokey 

'Shopping' and not think of the note perfect Flight of The Concords pastiche 'Inner City Pressure' (link below). 

KINGS CROSS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fv8YiZXlOQ

IT'S A SIN!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRHetRTOD1Q

RENT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d0GARTk_Nk

COLLISION COURSE by LINKIN PARK & JAY-Z (2004, Warner Bros.)

When two brilliant and talented musicians get together to collaborate the resultant albums can be utterly magical, a match made in musical heaven. We the lucky music listening public are lucky to be bestowed with a joyful new combination of sounds that are  exciting and wonderful and bring out the best of both artists. That's the intention anyway.

Most of the time they suck. Think about the musical car wreck that was Metallica and Lou Reed's 'Lulu' album. Marvin & Diana's vomit inducing Motown monstrosity. And shudder at the sheer horror that is Tom Jones and Jools Holland's boogie woogie opus.

Whilst collaborations work for a single song it's rare to sustain it over an entire album. COLLISION COURSE grew out of a session planned for the MTV Mash Up series. Jay-Z chose angsty metallers Linkin Park as his musical partners.

The six tracks are mash ups of some of the best known tracks of both artists and at only 22 minutes it's an EP rather than a full album. 

It's a collaboration that really works. Key has been that rather than just remix the tracks though, both artists went back into the studio for four days to re-record all their parts to make them fit properly. Jay's anthem 99 Problems which gets a thrashier treatment and morphs with Linkin Park's 'One Step Closer' and 'Points of Authority'. 'Dirt Off Your Shoulder / Lying From You' and 'Numb / Encore' are the perfect hybrid of both tracks, fusing Jay's and Chester's vocals with heavy beats and guitars. The only slightly duff track is 'Izzo / In The End' which feels a little throwaway, but still fun. Five out of six is a pretty good hit rate though.

99 PROBLEMS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5FkJa4BfeU

NUMB/ENCORE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylAUPACSfGY&feature=related

DIRT OFF YOUR SHOULDER

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdiBywSJAp8&feature=related

BORN TO DIE by LANA DEL REY (2012, Polydor)

She's so fake. She's acting. It's not even her real name.

Since when has authenticity been integral to pop music? Bowie wasn't actually an alien, Johnny Cash never shot a man in Reno. Justin Beiber isn't human. Possibly. 

But who cares. Artifice is what makes pop music rather exciting whether you want a fix of martian weirdness, badass cowboys or a creepy boy robot manufactured American Fundamentalist Christians. And give me Lana's dreamy noir fantasy over Adele's kitchen sink reality any day. 

I guess whether people like Lana Del Ray comes down to whether you're drawn to the character she portrays which is ultimately a male fantasy figure. From the blogs online thus is something that many people find hugely problematic, especially from a feminist perspective.

She's not playing Lizzie Grant, the normal girl from Lake Placid and NY, the girl dropped by two record labels. She's performing Lana Del Rey the sexually charged but ultimately shallow ingenue from a David Lynch movie. An overly needy Gangster moll, beautiful, high maintenance and eager to please her man if he has the right address and wallet contents. As she purrrs in 'National Anthem' "money is the reason". Her characters are compelled towards a luxurious life like moths to a flame, even though it brings them sadness or death. Her characters she plays are sad, unhinged and consumed by the fragments of love that men toss at her, along with their money. The dreamy and muffled sound the record has is like a life of luxury viewed through a haze of champagne and valium. 

Perhaps part of the reason Lana Del Rey is so contentious is that we've become so used to strong assertive female role models in pop. Madonna, or the Spice Girls cartoon "Girl Power!" to Rihanna, Lady Gaga  the extreme where kiddy pop artists like Katy Perry sing about demanding to see her man's "peacock". Thrown into this mix, Lana Del Rey appears very old fashioned and uncomfortable throwback to a less gender equal age. The fact that he does this willingly seems to infuriate a lot of writers.

Gender politics aside BORN TO DIE is a great record. Cinematic sound, lush orchestration, slow hip hop beats, sad melancholic lyrics, it's a rich production, and I mean that musically and theatrically. A mixture of 50s glamour and 21st century hip-hop.

Lana's Nancy Sinatra-esque vocals are feminine, breathless but laconic. The poor darling sounds like she could faint at any moment, if she could be bothered! It's heavily produced as she clearly has a weak voice when performing live. But these are undeniably great recorded pop songs and on record they sound great. The lyrics are LA Noir gangster fantasy with a hint of faux fifties nostalgia there's plenty of name-dropping to more glamourous times whether it be a namecheck of James Dean in the excellent 'Blue Jeans' or aspiring to be both Marilyn Monroe and Jackie O in the video to National Anthem. 

This is one if those rare albums where pretty much every track could be a single, there's already been four of them: Videogames, Born to Die, Blue Jeans, National Anthem. Sure they've suffered from being overplayed but that's the sign of a great pop record and I think this is one that will listened to or years. Sure Lana Del Rey may be fake but she's a hell of a lot more interesting than any of her peers both as an recording artist and icon. Born to be a star.

BLUE JEANS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-6cCmxaGoQ

SUMMERTIME SADNESS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVjsGKrE6E8

NATIONAL ANTHEM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxDdEPED0h8

PRIMAL SCREAM by PRIMAL SCREAM (1989, Creation Records)

Primal Scream’s first album ‘Sonic Flower Groove’ received pretty negative reviews and caused tensions within the band that led to a reshuffle and new band members joined. For their second album they ditched the C86 jangly guitars for a harder rock n roll edge. Their early fans didn’t respond well to the rock re-birth and the critics were similarly negative. The NME called it ‘confused and lacking in cohesion’.

Whilst the Scream have certainly made better records, PRIMAL SCREAM is far from their worst and has some great tracks on it. It makes a lot more sense when viewed with hindsight. They’ve had a tendency to intersperse their braver, more experimental releases with more traditional rock albums – I’m thinking ‘Give Out But Don’t Give Up’ after ‘Screamadelica’ or ‘Riot City Blues’ after ‘Beautiful Future’. PRIMAL SCREAM could be viewed as part this tradition.

‘Ivy, Ivy, Ivy’ and ‘Gimme, Gimme Teenage Head’ are rock ‘n’ roll will a Stooges garage feel. ‘You’re Just Dead Skin to Me’ is slow ballad in the ‘Damaged’ mold but with some brilliantly vicious lyrics set to a gorgeous string section and harmonica. The real standout though is ‘I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have’ which was remixed by Andrew Wetherall as the Scream classic ‘Loaded’ from Screamadelica.

I’M LOSING MORE THAN I EVER HAVE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tke9QD1si1w

GIMME, GIMME TEENAGE HEAD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6X2f67kClY

IVY, IVY, IVY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTUU1H-0F34

COEXIST by THE XX (2012, Young Turks)

Some bands take giant leaps between albums. The xx have taken baby steps. You have to assume COEXIST was called that because it can sit alongside their debut. The lack of any progression is dissappointing. If anything it sounds like they've gone backwards. 

It's a sparse record but with less instrumentation, comes less melody. Their first album was fresh and distinctive containing memorable, haunting and addictive songs. It's sad to report that COEXIST lacks that. It feels like The xx have used up all their ideas and all they're left with is atmospherics.

Oliver Sim and Romy Madley-Croft's breathy vocals are beginning to get a but tiresome and the endless heartfelt and needy lyrics are starting to make The xx sound like a pastiche of themselves, or worse The flight of The Conchords doing a tribute. It's all getting a bit xx-y!

That probably seems a little unfair, after all if something's not broke why fix it. But with music this spare and slight, if things don't move on it all becomes a little, well, boring. 

Thats not to say there aren't some okay tracks. 'Chained' is alright,  'Reunion' is great as the addition of steel drums and thumping beats makes an interesting diversion and the deep house of 'Swept Away'. But if I'm honest I'm clutching at straws. Theres nothing here as good as 'VCR', 'Crystalised' or 'Islands'. 

I'm going to have to steal the words of some chap on iTunes: "A great album to have as background music or to fall asleep to". If that's not damning with faint praise I don't know what is.

ANGELS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nW5AF0m9Zw

CHAINED

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD7IwXWfDW4

THE PASSING OF THE NIGHT by THE LOST BROTHERS (2012, Lojinx Records)

Third album by Ireland's The Lost Brothers. Following their last record the 1950s inflected 'So Long John Fante' which the boys recorded with Richard Hawley's band, they return with an album that's similarly steeped in nostalgia, but this time for early twentieth century rural Americana. It was produced by Raconteur and solo artist Brendan Benson, who's also releasing it on his Readymade Records label in the U.S. 

Following a short tour in Ireland where The Lost Brothers were Benson's live support he invited them to record at his studio in Nashville, Tennessee. Inevitably there's a real country twang to the majority of the songs.  The arrangements are simple; mainly guitar and ukelele, the occasional violin,  simple percussion (if any) and their close vocal harmonies. A couple of the tracks feature Ryan Adam's backing band, The Cardinals. The music's a mixture of country, Appalachian folk, pop, and the good-time '50s rock and roll.

As you might suspect from the name of the album there's a real feeling that his is a night-time album whether it be the lonely laments of sad prison inmates or the late night jumping gin-joint swing of 'Hey Miss Fannie'. 

Standout tracks are prison heartbreak song 'Not Now Warden', the breezy 'Tumbling Line' that comes complete with whistled melody (there's not enough whistling in songs these days is there!?) and the lovely 'Blinding Glow' where their voices sound like Simon & Garfunkel. 'Widowmaker' and 'Blue Moon in September' also contain some of the best uses of a theremin since Mercury Rev's Deserter Songs, and to similar sadly nostalgic effect.

It's a short but enjoyable album rich with memorable songs, beautifully crafted in a classic American way. Not bad for a couple of Irish lads.

Afraid there's no links yet... you'll just have to check it out when the albums out on September 25th...

I AM KURIOUS, ORANJ by THE FALL (1988, Beggars Banquet)

Vocalist, songwriter Mark E. Smith is The Fall. In their 36 year history they've gone through 66 band members with over a third of them lasting less than a year. Smith has said "If it's me and your granny on bongos, then it's The Fall". 

To date they've released 29 albums and according to John Peel, they always sound the same, but always different. Angular, awkward and abrasive guitars lots of droning, repetition and with Smith's thick Manc voice not singing, but berating you with a stream of surreal and smart wordplay. 

I AM KURIOUS, ORANJ was written as a collaboration project with a dance troop; an accompaniment to a ballet which celebrating the 300 year anniversary of the accession of William of Orange to the UK throne. As albums by The Fall go its supposed to be quite accessible and seems like a pretty good place to start for a Fall novice like me. 

There's nothing that any other band would consider a 'song' in the structured sense but musically it's not un-melodic. The album was produced by Lightening Seed Ian Brodie who always had a deft way of constructing inoffensive indie pop. He does a good job of smoothing off some of The Fall's rougher edges. 'Overture' is musically closest to a pop track with Marr-esque guitars. Similarly enjoyable is the repetitive ska-lite 'Kurious Oranj'.

The most notable track though and the one that many Smith fans seem to think is one of his finest moments is the reworking of William Blake's 'Jerusalem' in which he mashes the famous words with his own deadpan views on dogs, dog walkers and Margaret Thatcher's Tory government 

The now sadly deceased Stephen Wells, one of NMEs most acerbic, blunt and finest writers, described The Fall's records as "pop without perimeters. Rock without rules. Art without the wank." He's right. This is possibly the most unwanky music to accompany a ballet, ever.

KURIOUS ORANJ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Giat1MIFYk

OVERTURE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6T6yO-fwz4

DOG IS LIFE / JERUSALEM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2vnioRqsSQ