Tag: Alternative Rock

Tunes

Eighties’ best 100 redux: #89 Frankie Goes to Hollywood “The power of love” (1984)

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date January 18, 2024
4 Comments on Eighties’ best 100 redux: #89 Frankie Goes to Hollywood “The power of love” (1984)

I’ve written a few times already on these pages* about how Toronto’s alternative rock radio station EDGE 102 (aka CFNY 102.1) did a countdown on the air in the dying days of the 20th century, ranking their top 1002 songs of all time. It was, for me, some of the best commercial radio I’d ever heard, making for great conversation and prognosticating between alt rock music fans, reminding me of songs I’d loved forever and some I’d long forgotten, and of course, introducing me to classics I’d not yet discovered.

One such example of this latter category was broadcast and ranked in the high 100s, wedged in between Yazoo’s “Nobody’s diary” and The Stone Roses’ “Fools gold”. It sounded familiar, but not, an unconventional love ballad, lyrics referencing “hooded claws” and “vampires”, but sung with glorious, impassioned sighs. Midway through, I turned to my tool rental store colleague, Chris, with whom I was working that day, and he returned my quizzical look with one of surprise. “You don’t know ‘The power of love’ by Frankie Goes to Hollywood?”

Of course, I had known the Frankie Goes to Hollywood of “Relax” and “Two tribes” infamy, they were ubiquitous in 1984, but this was something completely different, and I was hooked.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood was started by vocalist Holly Johnson in Liverpool in 1980. The original edition didn’t take, so he tried again with a different lineup the following year. The five piece lineup that would sign to ZTT Records in 1983 included Mark O’Toole (bass), Brian Nash (guitars), Peter Gill (drums), and Paul Rutherford (keyboards, tambourine, and dancing). The band would only ever record two albums, but one of these was the iconic debut album, “Welcome to the pleasuredome”, an album that boasted three consecutive #1 UK hit singles, and a fourth that could only make it as high as #2. It was a smash the world over, even in North America, and this on the back of their their love affair with the music video and MTV’s love affair with the band. Their second album, 1986’s “Liverpool”, didn’t come close to its predecessor’s success internationally, but did reasonably well in England and Europe. The band acrimoniously split in 1987. Holly Johnson successfully sued ZTT to get out of the contract, publicly stated he would never perform with his ex-bandmates again, and successfully blocked them from using the Frankie Goes to Hollywood name.

I loved “Relax” and “Two tribes” as a pre-teen and though the nostalgia factor kept me dancing to them on retro nights, “The power of love” became a mainstay on my adult life playlists through most of the 2000s**. It is a ballad that had more of a timeless sound than the rest of their dated, new wave dance hits, boasting real instruments and less Trevor Horn production. It is a love song about love, rather than lovers, and Holly Johnson puts on the vocal clinic that you’d have every right to expect. It’s magical.

Original Eighties best 100 position: n/a

Favourite lyric: “I’m so in love with you / Purge the soul / Make love your goal.” Oh yes, indeed.

Where are they now?: Remember when I said Holly Johnson vowed never to perform with his Frankie bandmates again? Well, he did just that, for one song, at Eurovision 2023, last May, the first time they had performed together onstage since 1987. But of course, nothing since.

*I’ve posted links to playlist versions of this list for both Spotify and Apple Music consumption.

**But somehow I managed to forget to include this great track the last time I was putting together this list of 100 great 80s tunes.

For the rest of the Eighties’ best 100 redux list, click here.

Tags 1980s, Alternative, Alternative Rock, Best tunes, British rock, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, New Wave, Retro, Synth Pop

Tunes

Best tunes of 2013: #23 My Bloody Valentine “new you”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date January 10, 2024
2 Comments on Best tunes of 2013: #23 My Bloody Valentine “new you”

<< #24 | #22 >>

For many years, there was nothing but rumours, conjectures, and blind hope, and eventually, all that gave way to eye-rolling and running jokes.

Nevertheless, in 2013, Kevin Shields finally made good on his long-standing promise to follow up 1991’s “Loveless” and he did so in astonishing fashion. I fully admit to getting caught up in all the hoopla on February 2nd, 2013, when Shields had the Internet a-buzz with his announcement that a new My Bloody Valentine album would be made available for purchase from his website that very night. I think I remember reading somewhere that for most of that year’s Super Bowl weekend, “MBV” (or sorry “m b v”) was trending higher on Twitter than that hallowed sporting event.

But how was the album? Did it stand up to “Loveless”?

To be honest, I was in a slightly different situation than other music fanatics my age because I didn’t feel like I had waited the whole 22 years for “m b v”. Though I was aware of My Bloody Valentine at “Loveless”‘s release and liked a few songs at the time, I didn’t become a fan until much later and so my expectations weren’t as insurmountable. Personally, I liked “m b v” from the start. Yes, much of it sounded like it was recorded 22 years before, along with the sessions of its predecessor (except with better production), but for me, there were subtle differences and hints throughout at the direction Shields and company could have been looking to take should they have continued to make music.

Indeed, “m b v” was exceptional because it did something no other album had been able to do: stand up to the brilliance of “Loveless” and not flinch. I don’t think it could have been released at any other time than 2013. I don’t think we were collectively ready to be able to appreciate it as an album for its own beauty until then.

All that being said, “new you” was and still is my favourite track on the album and the one I point to whenever the album comes up in conversation. A double barrelled shotgun of plodding bass and funky drumming, looping guitars that soar and dive, and Blinda Butcher’s ghostly vocals. It is a song in constant climax – no ups, no downs – just pure joy as noise consummated. It is My Bloody Valentine and it is good.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2013 list, click here.

Tags 2010s, 2013, Alternative, Alternative Rock, Best tunes, Indie, Indie rock, Irish, Kevin Shields, My Bloody Valentine, Noise Rock, Psychedelic, Shoegaze

Albums

Best albums of 2023: #1 Slowdive “Everything is alive”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date December 31, 2023
5 Comments on Best albums of 2023: #1 Slowdive “Everything is alive”

Well, folks, here we are at the precipice of a new year and I’m wrapping up the old one, crumpling it up like an off-scribbled on piece of foolscap, and jettisoning it in favour of new ideas… but not before celebrating my favourite piece of work that 2023 had to offer.

“Everything is alive”is Slowdive’s fifth studio album and second since re-forming back in 2014. Their original run spanned only six years from 1989 to 1995 but it was a prolific period resulting in 3 LPs, 5 EPs, and a handful of singles. The five players moved in different directions when they were dropped from Creation Records, a victim perhaps of the flagging shoegaze scene with which they were lumped, a flash fire that passed as quickly as it started. The lineup that performed on the group’s debut album – Neil Halstead, Rachel Goswell, Nick Chaplin, Chris Savill, and Simon Scott – announced a string of reunion shows nine years later and they’ve stuck together ever since then.

Slowdive has appeared a few times on these pages already, including placing number two with their triumphant return, the self-titled album, on this blog’s inaugural end of year, best albums list in 2017, and in pretty much every post I’ve referenced how I wasn’t super-enthused with them during their first go-round as a band. My attitude has, of course, changed and I now fully appreciate what they were doing back then and it goes with saying that I am completely enamoured with their new work.

“Everything is alive” got its start as many of Slowdive’s albums do, with principal songwriter Neil Halstead writing and demoing by himself. He had originally envisioned the album as more austere and electronic based. The recording sessions were then planned for the spring of 2020 but were in the end impacted and informed, as pretty much every album over the last three years has been, by the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns. The recording of the album was pushed back and then spread out over various sessions and locations. But for the band, these were all joyous occasions when they finally happened, being the first time they had seen each in months and perhaps the first time they had seen people other than those with whom they were living for the same amount of time. This positivity likely informed the mood of the record and the original concepts for these songs were enlarged and expanded and became a representation of the band and their mood as a whole.

Indeed, “Everything is alive” is hopeful and joyful and full of life. It is eight songs that don’t want to be anywhere near darkness and solitude. It is five musicians and friends that have known each other a long time performing as one, familiar and familial, a large sound that can envelope and absorb and has room for everyone and everything. It is the album we needed, whether we knew it or not.

There is so much to love here that I wanted to pick all eight songs and run through each for you but in recognition that we’ve only got a few hours left to make 2023 brighter, I’ve managed to narrow down my picks for you to three.

“Alife“: Track three was the final single to be released in advance of the album and was the first one to be finished for it. It starts with a ringing and jangling guitar line and Rachel Goswell adds a set of vocals that are just as ethereal.”Two lives are hard lives with you.”And this is a theme that continues throughout, setting out a mysterious balance against Neil Halstead’s slightly more straightforward narrative. But really, it’s all just a whirlpool of sound and cyclical tones, a hint of relationship struggles, a blockage of communication, diverting wishes and dreams, he said, she said, a billion voices, all looking for love in this difficult life.

“The slab”: The climactic track on the album is very much that, dense and heavy and intense, its title perfectly describing the sound rather than hinting at a narrative. The intro is just over a minute and a half of pounding drums and guitars that fritter and sizzle in repetitive drones and underneath it all is something a bit ominous, washes of deep synths, like black curtains in a black room, ponderous and striking. When the vocals do come in, it’s like Halstead is allowing us in to a conversation already in progress but not quite completely opening the door. The words seem like they’re purposefully incomprehensible, just adding to the mystery and mood of the piece. And at the end of the five minutes, as the sound fades, you’re left bereft and just want to restart it but before you can stop yourself, you’re already flipping the disc back to side one.

“Kisses”: The first advance single from this amazing album is the closest thing to a pop single I’ve heard from the group in a very long time. Though it does feel upbeat and perhaps a little structured for Slowdive, it still is very much a chill vibe. The drums provide clarity in just one of the many layers of gauze and cobwebs, chiming guitars echo off into eternity and Halstead’s and Goswell’s harmonies flit and flirt on the surface of a million mirrors refracting in upon themselves.”I know you dream of snowfields, floating high above the trees, living for the new thing, sometimes the new won’t do.”It is a perfect sampling of the joy that the five-piece is looking to spread about here, drumming up memories previously lost, and forcing you to face them and appreciate the good and the bad and how they shaped everything that came after.