Tag: American rock

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Albums

Best albums of 1991: #4 R.E.M. “Out of time”

This blog is now exactly two months shy of celebrating its fourth anniversary and already, R.E.M. has been featured on this pages in eight separate posts, this one, now, being the ninth. I’m starting to get worried that I am going to run out of nice things to say about the iconic rock band from Athens, Georgia. Because, yeah, I am fairly certain that this won’t be their last appearance, as long as I continue making lists and blathering on about music.

So let’s start with this:

“Out of time” is the seventh studio album to be released by the quartet of Bill Berry, Mike Mills, Peter Buck, and Michael Stipe. It was the group’s second major label release and third collaboration with producer Scott Litt. This was the album that finished the job started by 1988’s “Green” in turning a cult, college radio band into an international rock phenomenon and household name. It sold four and a half million copies in the U.S. and more than 18 million worldwide, earning them gold and platinum status in a bunch of countries, and winning them three, count them, one, two, three Grammys.

And how about this:

I don’t often agree with what’s written on venerated music site Pitchfork.com, but they make three excellent points on their hindsight review of “Out of time”’s 25th anniversary reissue: 1. There are many who wish “Shiny happy people” out of existence; 2. It is the sunlight to the nocturnal sequel of “Automatic for the people”, and; 3. It is a rare example of an album that nets a group exponentially more followers without pissing off the diehards.

I remember borrowing a CD copy of “Out of time” from my friend Tim shortly after its release because I had already fallen in love with “Losing my religion” and as I’ve already recounted in a post on that very song, I had the album on repeat while attempting to strip the wallpaper from the walls in the upstairs hallway in the house in which I grew up. The bright, yellow rays of music eased the mundane task to which I was set and by the third go around, I was singing along to many of its tracks and smiling to myself. Sore and tired, I recorded a copy for myself to cassette later that night but it wasn’t one that lasted or saw many plays. And that was only because I not long after bought a proper copy for my burgeoning compact disc collection.

There’s so many great tracks on this album, eleven, to be exact, and you probably don’t really need to be reminded of or introduced to the wonders “Out of time”, but I do have a template to follow with these posts. So to that end, here’s my three picks for you. Enjoy.

”Near wild heaven”: Track number four was the third single to be released off “Out of time” and is the first one to be released by the band whose lyrics were written and sung by bassist Mike Mills. It is jangly and boppy and full of sparkles and lemon yellow sunlight. Stipe adds his touch on vocals in the background during the chorus, alongside those of Kate Pierson (The B-52s) who also appears on “Shiny happy people”. And though both those tracks are heightened with her touch, the bubble gum bubbles blown just that much bigger, this one lacks some of the kitsch of the other, leaving the good mood smiles without so much saccharine. With all these good feels it’s easy to lose track of the fact that it’s a song about the beginning of the end of a relationship.”Whenever we hold each other, we hold each other, there’s a feeling that’s going. Something has gone wrong.” And yet, you can’t help but feel, with all those “ba ba ba ba”s, that there’s some silver lining in there somewhere and somehow things will all turn out.

”Belong”: A rumbling bass line, the snap of fingers, and a world-filling jangle of guitars. Michael Stipe speaking through the verses in that deep, serious voice of his, demanding to be heard, demanding change, demanding everyone to take up the fight. “Her world collapsed early Sunday morning. She got up from the kitchen table, folded the newspaper and silenced the radio. Those creatures jumped the barricades and have headed for the sea.” And at the chorus, if you can even call it that, it is voices without words, all plaintively calling into the ether, ecstatic messaging against hatred, and a music so beautiful and so insistent. It is a woman and her child, it is a man and his wife, it is two teenagers figuring out love, lust, and sex, it is all of us. We all need to belong and Michael Stipe is just the one to lead us forward.

”Losing my religion”: Yeah. “That’s me in the corner, that’s me in the spot-light, losing my religion.” If you’ve done any other reading on this song, especially on this site, or even if you’re just in the know, that last bit is quite poignant. Because who hasn’t had that moment where you’ve just lost your sh*t and feel like everyone is there looking at you and there’s nowhere to which to escape. Hell. Stipe is playing with a breakdown and painting it so beautifully, as only R.E.M. can do. It’s that mandolin that strikes you from the first, sticking out like a sore thumb against Bill Berry’s rock and roll drum and Mike Mills stomach rumbling bass line. If you pretend that three decades haven’t passed listening to it and that all the songs that have followed have never happened, you might think to yourself that it’s not an obvious pop song, not an obvious hit single. And yet, there it is with all the accolades bestowed upon it (it has also appeared on these pages at #13 on best tunes of 1991 list and #3 on my all-time favourite R.E.M. tunes list), it really is just a wondrous bit of religion.

Check back two Thursdays from today for album #3. In the meantime, here are the previous albums in this list:

10. Ned’s Atomic Dustbin “Godfodder”
9. Spirit Of The West “Go figure”
8. Chapterhouse  “Whirlpool”
7. Blur “Leisure”
6. Levellers “Levelling the land”
5. The Wonder Stuff “Never loved Elvis”

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 2020: #5 Secret Machines “Awake in the brain chamber”

This COVID-19 pandemic has changed all of our lives and for the most part, we have looked at these changes negatively. But are there some positives to be found in this new normal? One that I can think of right off the bat is that it brought us a new Secret Machines album, their first in twelve years.

Secret Machines were originally formed in 2002 by brothers Brandon and Benjamin Curtis and fellow Dallas, Texas musician Phil Karnats, when the three of them relocated to New York City. Their debut album, “Now here is nowhere’, was met with buzz and critical acclaim when it was released in 2004. Its big, kautrock-influenced prog sound even found a fan in David Bowie and they ended up getting calls to tour with Muse, U2, and Oasis. The sophomore album, 2006’s “Ten silver drops”, followed up on the promise of the debut and this is where I caught up with them, falling as hard for them as did Mr. Bowie.

Unfortunately, fortunes changed for the band when Benjamin decided to leave to the group to pursue a project called School of Seven Bells with the Deheza twins. A third Secret Machines followed but felt a bit stalled to me. Regardless, I still went to see them when they rolled through Ottawa in 2008 and yeah, I was bowled over by the intense and explosive performance. I kept tabs on them for a while and there was word of a new album being worked on in 2010 but it ended up being shelved for being too depressing and the band went inactive. Besides word of Benjamin Curtis’s death in 2013, seeing Brandon Curtis performing with Interpol in 2015, and Runout Groove Records* issuing the band’s first two albums on vinyl in 2016 and 2018, news this summer of a new Secret Machines record is the first thing I’d heard about the group in a decade. So yeah, it was a surprise.

The band is still just the two still-living original members, though a number of additional musicians appear on “Awake in the brain chamber”, including a beyond-the-grave performance by Benjamin Curtis. The album has reportedly been in the works, off and on, for many years, but really only started to solidify after Brandon Curtis started working with Josh Garza again in 2018. And it is possible that the only reason we hearing this year is because of the opportunity the band to release it without the pressure to promote it, afforded by this pandemic.

Okay. So that’s a lot more words than I had planned on writing for this album but I think the backstory for it is almost as important as the sound of it, which by the way, is excellent. Have a listen to and read more words on my three picks for you below and see what you think.

“Everything starts“: This first track illustrates the most marked difference between this album and Secret Machines’ earlier work. At just a smidge over five minutes, “Everything starts” is the longest track on a tighter, more compact album, where it might’ve been the shortest by a long shot on earlier works. And they’ve done this without dispensing with the big, ambient space rock sound. It acts as a tribute to frontman Brandon Curtis’s brother Benjamin because they built the song around the deceased musician’s guitar work. Drummer Josh Garza has said this about it: “When I close my eyes and listen to ‘Everything Starts’ I see three guys in a room playing music. I see Ben, Brandon and me… we’re all playing our instruments, we’re all smiling and it’s probably a bit too loud.” And as sad and troubling as the lyrical subject matter is, Josh’s image is beautiful and satisfying.

“Dreaming is alright”: Track two on the album starts off with Josh Garza’s pounding and punishing drums. His self-described ‘bashing away’ style of drumming is a big part of this group’s sound and forced Curtis to rethink many of these recordings when he decided that they would form the basis of a new Secret Machines album. Here it pushes the song into overdrive, forcing the guitars and the synths to keep up, racing down a darkened highway, just barely hugging the curves and staying on the road. It’s dangerous and precarious but the title brings us back to just this side of optimism. Brandon sings words that evoke holding hands in the face of a disastrous apocalypse and turning the page to tomorrow when today seems hopeless. Yeah, dreaming is definitely more than alright.

“Everything’s under”: This final track features more of the driving and relentless drone that had critics calling them krautrock acolytes in their early days. And yeah, it rocks. Totally abandon with arms a-flailing, the drums are punished and synths wash over you like a tsunami and that’s exactly as Secret Machines would have it. But here, as on the rest of “Awake in the brain chamber”, it’s served up in a morsel manageable for the rest of us mere mortals, not dragging it out as they would have in their previous lifetime. The chorus sums up the feeling of this album best, the succinct injection of the passion and energy of it all: “We’re gone, gone, gone beyond… everything’s under control.” Indeed. Let’s just hope this spells the start of something bigger and doesn’t end up just being an excellent post script for the band.

*Runout Groove records is a vinyl only label whose monthly releases are voted on by fans. The fact that they are chosen every time one of their albums comes up to be voted on shows that Secret Machines’ fan base is very much alive and well.

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

10. The Strokes “The new abnormal”
9. Venus Furs “Venus Furs”
8. Bright Eyes “Down in the weeds, where the world once was”
7. The Beths “Jump rope gazers”
6. The Rentals “Q36”

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 1992: #3 R.E.M. “Nightswimming”

<< #4    |    #2 >>

“Automatic for the people”.

It was indisputably R.E.M.’s finest hour and I’m not just talking commercially. Sure, the album spawned six singles and went gold and platinum for sales in pretty much every country. However, it was also universally acclaimed. And for very good reason: There’s not a single bad track on the album.

For me, though, and as I mentioned back when I wrote about “Sweetness follows” when it came in at the number twenty spot on this very list, it’s the less obvious tracks, not the hit singles, that have become my favourites on this album. And yes, I know. “Nightswimming” was actually released as a single but I didn’t actually know that until about three years ago when I wrote the piece counting down my top five favourite R.E.M. tunes on which this song appears at the number two spot. I am thinking that the single might not have gotten a wide release here in North America because it didn’t make the charts here, only placing in England and Australia, and a track this great should definitely have placed, given the chance.

It was originally recorded as a demo for “Out of time” but was used instead for the following album. The original recording had Michael Stipe singing over top Mike Mills’ piano and was augmented by a string arrangement put together by Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones, along with a forlorn oboe to seal the deal. Mills’s piano doesn’t meander or dance or tiptoe. Instead, it eddies in place, like a whirlpool to get caught in, a bit of danger that might be heightened if the swimming hole was ventured upon at night.

“Nightswimming deserves a quiet night
The photograph on the dashboard, taken years ago”

The penultimate track on “Automatic for the people” is a quiet wonder, Mills and Stipe without Buck and Berry. A song about memories and remembering. A track that brings back many memories. Many of them driving in a car at night. In the city. On a backroad. Memories that are mine and memories that aren’t mine. But could be.

“Nightswimming, remembering that night
September’s coming soon
I’m pining for the moon”

There’s a sadness in Stipe’s lyrics and in his plaintive voice. Perhaps there’s regret in those memories, a sentiment never expressed, a kiss never stolen, a nakedness needlessly covered up. Yet there’s also the heavy weight of nostalgia, the excitement of youth lost forever. It’s something one can never forget. And never should.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 1992 list, click here.