Tag: Alternative Rock

Categories
Albums

Best albums of 1997: #4 James “Whiplash”

This album might come as a surprise on this list (for the rest of the list so far, scroll to the bottom) to all but those who know me a bit. For those who don’t, I’ll catch you up.

By the mid 90s, I had gotten into James in a very serious way. First with 1993’s “Laid” and shortly thereafter, with the companion album, 1994’s “Wah wah”. I was truly in love with both of those albums and their big, atmospheric sound, and I was just starting to explore a bit more of their back catalogue when I first laid ears on “Whiplash”.

It happened one night in early 1997 when I was downtown with one of my fellow Creative Writing majors, a real scenester named Darryl (I might have the spelling wrong). We went to a cool British rock influenced night at the Lion’s bar, deejayed by one of Darryl’s friends, and had a blast dancing the night away, fuelled by way too many beers. We got a ride home, all the back up to York University from downtown, with the DJ, and almost immediately, I recognized “Tomorrow” from “Wah wah” being played over the car’s speakers but noted it sounded somewhat different. The DJ, whose name I’ll never remember now, though we became passing acquaintances afterwards, explained that we were listening to an advanced copy of the new James album. From there, it had my attention for the whole way home and I couldn’t wait to get my grubby hands on it for myself.

In my opinion, James is super underrated and unjustly dismissed as a pop band in some circles and a one-hit wonder in others. Their music is beautiful and incredible to dissect but what makes them a cut above is the vocals of Tim Booth and the lyrics he writes for these compositions. “Whiplash” sees the band add some electronic elements to their already full and multi-layered palette and they incorporate it rather successfully.

For me, this album is solid from front to back, much like the rest of the albums coming up in this list, so I made it easy and selected the singles as my three picks for you. Give them a chance and you might just enjoy them.

“She’s a star”: “She’s been in disguise forever. She’s tried to disguise her stellar views.” The first single released off “Whiplash”, “She’s a star” saw James’s return to the UK top ten and even saw some them receive some airplay on alternative radio stations in North America. It is instantly recognizable as James with the big, layered sound and Tim Booth’s inimitable voice, lovely even in falsetto. Which reminds me of when the song was originally released and my friend Sam and I would halfheartedly try our own hands at falsetto whenever it came and hurting everyone else’s ears in the process. It’s a great pop song with sliding guitars and a hinting that nothing is what it seems. Stars have a feelings too.

“Tomorrow”: “I see you falling. How long to go before you hit the ground?” As I mentioned above, it was originally recorded during the “Laid”/“Wah wah” sessions with Brian Eno. The production was cleaned up a ton, the song lovingly lengthened by a minute or so, and released as this album’s second single. It’s a driving and relentless number, frenetic drumming layered with jangly and racing guitars, all held in check by Booth’s close your eyes and sing into the mic with you hands clenched behind your back vocals. But you can tell by his insistence that what he really wants to do is join you and let loose on the dance floor with his usual reckless abandon. You know, that dance of his that actually caused him injury on tour, the one that some say was foreshadowed by this album’s name.

“Waltzing along”: “May your mind let you be. May your heart lead you on.” The interesting thing I found about their singles from “Whiplash” is that the single versions were all quite different than the ones that appeared on the album. I’ve asked my wife Victoria many times, which version she preferred, since this is her favourite on “Whiplash”, perhaps even one of her favourites all time by the band. I’ve even asked her why she likes it so much but I’m not sure she knows. I think it’s the lyrics, which include the phrase at the beginning and this gem: “Help comes when you need it most. I’m cured by laughter.” The whole song is a waltz and the dancer’s partner appears to be his or her depression.

Check back next Thursday for album #3. In the meantime, here are the previous albums in this list:

10. Cornershop “When I was born for the 7th time”
9. The Dandy Warhols “The Dandy Warhols come down”
8. Teenage Fanclub “Songs from Northern Britain”
7. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones “Let’s face it”
6. Ocean Colour Scene “Marchin’ already”
5. Blur “Blur”

You can also check out my Best Albums page here if you’re interested in my other favourite albums lists.

Categories
Albums

Best albums of 1997: #5 Blur “Blur”

Blur practically invented Britpop.

It was the media that invented the term, of course, but the impetus lay in albums like Blur’s sophomore album, 1993’s “Modern life is rubbish”. Written in part as a reaction the Grunge scene and the alternative explosion in North America, frontman and principal songwriter Damon Albarn wrote a poppier rock record influenced by British artists with songs satirizing British life. These British-centric themes and ideas carried forward into 1994’s “Parklife” and then, released during the height of Britpop mania in 1995, “The great escape” saw Blur almost parodying themselves in technicolour cartoons.

When it came time to record album number five, the four members of Blur had become disenchanted with the scene and really, with themselves. Albarn finally bought into the lo-fi influenced rock (think Pavement) that guitarist Graham Coxon was becoming more and more enamoured with. Coxon convinced Damon that it was time to write ‘music that scared people again’. The band convened to Reykjavik, Iceland and “Blur” was born.

Many of you who read these pages frequently will know by now that I have been a fan from the beginning so it may not surprise you to see this album in my top five for 1997. However, when I first heard the lead off single “Beetlebum” and then the rest of “Blur” later on, I didn’t recognize it as the band I loved and was initially unsure of the change. It was so jarring, so different from the zaniness of “The great escape”. Of course, it didn’t take super long for me to buy in, maybe a few go rounds in my CD player, and I didn’t look back. “Blur” is crunchy, noisy, and aggressive and it’s not surprising that it finally gave the band their first hit single in the US.

I imagine most of you already know “Song 2” (often misnamed “The Woo hoo song”) so I didn’t include it as part of my three picks for you below.

”M.O.R.”: David Bowie and Brian Eno get songwriting credits since Damon and company lifted the chord progression from two songs on “Lodger”, which themselves shared the same progression as an experiment of sorts. “M.O.R.” is a song that builds through each verse structure to the explosive chorus. The call and response vocals are fun, each taking turns under distortion effects. The drums are punchy and the guitars wailing. It’s most certainly constructed for pogoing and shouting along with and just having a blast.

”Beetlebum”: As mentioned above, this was my first exposure to the new album, being the first single released and also the opening number on the playlist. Writers have called it a tribute to The Beatles and you certainly can hear their influence buried deep within all the crunchy guitars and feedback but it could just be laziness on the writers’ parts, making assumptions based on the name. Damon Albarn has admitted that it was influenced by his own experiences with heroin and other drugs and that definitely sounds spot on. It is droning and flailing and free falling. It would have easily fit on the “Trainspotting” soundtrack had it been recorded a year or so sooner.

”On your own”: Yes! This is actually my favourite song on the album. It’s a singalong, for sure, but not in the traditional sense. It becomes one in the way the thumping drums and Coxon’s wailing guitars frame the vocals so wonderfully. And Albarn’s singing is so personal and lazy, like he doesn’t care who’s listening but knows we all are. The backing vocals join in midway through the verse and the chorus becomes a defiant shout. You just want to pump your fist in support. This is the new Blur. They don’t give a fig if you don’t like it but somehow know you will. Wicked.

Check back next Thursday for album #4. In the meantime, here are the previous albums in this list:

10. Cornershop “When I was born for the 7th time”
9. The Dandy Warhols “The Dandy Warhols come down”
8. Teenage Fanclub “Songs from Northern Britain”
7. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones “Let’s face it”
6. Ocean Colour Scene “Marchin’ already”

You can also check out my Best Albums page here if you’re interested in my other favourite albums lists.

Categories
Tunes

Best tunes of 1991: #25 Pearl Jam “Jeremy”

<< #26    |    #24 >>

I started off this Best tunes of 1991 series with an honourable mention post on Nirvana’s “Smells like teen spirit”, ruling it out from my top 30 from the outset. In that post, I touched on how I quickly grew to dislike the Seattle scene and any of the bands associated with that sound, whether or not they actually came from that particular geographical area. And it was completely irrational, being less to do with the bands themselves or their music than it was the industry machine and the music press. It was these bands that brought ‘alternative’ to the mainstream and the focus on them effectively narrowed the scope and sound of the genre in North America for way too many years. But before I start ranting again, let me just say that Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy” was one of the songs that somehow transcended all of this for me and I couldn’t help but like it.

It was definitely the music video that caught my attention. Considered one of the most controversial of all time, it has been rarely seen on television in recent years. It’s a touchy subject for sure. Teenager brings gun to school. The video, of course, is an extension of the song lyrics which Eddie Vedder wrote based on an article he had read about real events. It was just a short paragraph in a newspaper that he expanded, imagining a back story for the troubled Jeremy that hinted at the not uncommon stories of neglect and bullying.

The song was the third single off Pearl Jam’s debut album, “Ten”, and due to heavy rotation of the video, became a hit for the band, selling tons of copies of their album and kickstarting their career as one of the more important bands in alternative rock. And yeah, their music sounds commonplace enough nowadays but it was just that much different back in 1991. It’s aggression matches the subject perfectly and Vedder’s soulful moan is now iconic and all the more harrowing when he sings lines like: “Daddy didn’t give affection and the boy was something mommy wouldn’t wear.”

But the beauty of it all is that Pearl Jam does not distance themselves from Jeremy, Vedder admitting that he remembered picking on the boy and acknowledging that “we unleashed a lion”. We are all the bullies and the bullied and I think that universality haunted a lot of people. It certainly did me.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 1991 list, click here.