Tag: British rock

Albums

Best albums of 1997: #3 Radiohead “OK computer”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date May 3, 2018
14 Comments on Best albums of 1997: #3 Radiohead “OK computer”

I’m sure for many others out there, Radiohead’s “OK computer” would be the clear cut number one album on their lists for 1997 and in any other year, it would’ve been for me too. And it was super close, my top three albums for 1997 are amongst my favourite ever, the distance separating them is minute. I knew immediately when I started putting together this list (for the rest so far, scroll to the bottom of this post) that these were easily the top three but ordering was not so much as simple. In the end, I went with the amount of time I figured each spent in my CD player over the years and how often each still gets put on my turntable platter these days.

I saw Radiohead live for the first and only time in 1998 for the tour in support of “OK computer” and it also happened to be the first and only time I saw a concert at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens. It was my friend Terry that convinced me to go. He was a huge fan of the band. He was convincing in his praises of their live show but there was another reason that helped my decision along that I will get to later on. Anyway, I was very glad that I had procured a ticket for that Easter Sunday because Ed O’Brien, Philip Selway, Colin and Jonny Greenwood, and Thom Yorke did indeed put on a magnificent show. Their huge sound filled the famed hockey arena, a worry I had, given that it was likely the largest show I had seen to date. The energy and euphoria carried on afterwards and infused every time I listened to the album thereafter and I remember that night.

For me, “OK computer” is Radiohead at their pinnacle. Many others may argue this point but I feel like the band lost a little something after this album. I definitely wouldn’t have wanted them to go into the studio for the next album and record another one just like this but “Kid A” and the albums that followed took them further and further from the band I loved. I still enjoy them but by comparison, I still get wistful when listening to their newer material.

“OK computer” might have been the band’s reaction to 1995’s “The bends” but it still carried along in a similar vein. It was guitar rock that flirted with experimental sounds to just the right degree and effect. The songs had structure still, though they were loose and sprawling. And despite the band not calling it a concept album, it all feels cohesive, a complete unit, rather than singles to be taken separately. So I’d love to present all twelve songs below for your enjoyment but if I’m to stick to my own rules, I have to limit myself to picking the three below.

“No surprises”: “A heart that’s full up like a landfill. A job that slowly kills you. Bruises that won’t heal. You look so tired, unhappy.” Cheery thoughts, no? It’s funny that when Radiohead set out to record the follow up to “The bends”, they did so with the determination that it would be a more upbeat sounding record than its predecessor. I suppose this mission was accomplished but it did nothing for the bleakness of the lyrical content. “No surprises” is not a prime of example of the upbeat sound, instead it’s slow, plodding, and dreamlike. This sound was created by the band playing the acoustic and chiming electric guitars and glockenspiel at a higher speed and then dubbed at a slower speed with the vocals. I love how it sounds like a lullaby at the beginning and it seems to build as Yorke seems to get more and more menacing.

“Paranoid android”: “Ambition makes you look pretty ugly, kicking, squealing Gucci little piggy.” It was a weird choice for a lead single, another example of a decision that shouldn’t have worked for Radiohead but did. At six and a half minutes, it’s one of the longest, if not the longest, of Radiohead’s studio recordings. It was influenced by The Beatles, The Pixies, and Queen in that it has four distinct movements, a result of it being multiple unfinished song fragments fused together. The band originally saw it as this funny joke, which it why it was named after a character from “Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy”, but nobody’s laughing now. This here is the imprint for what the band would become. It’s risky and convoluted but really, quite the masterpiece.

“Karma police”: “Karma police, arrest this man. He talks in maths. He buzzes like a fridge. He’s like a detuned radio.” Here’s another song that started off as an in-joke within the band, constantly ribbing each about calling the “karma police” on each other while on tour. It’s also another song that doesn’t end the way it starts. Halfway through, the pace and energy change completely, from a haunting, threatening dirge to outright rocking mania. For me, this is Radiohead at their best. A band at the crossroads between rock and roll and art house experimentation, taking a step in each direction while walking in place. The effects are beautiful and frightening. It’s a song worth exploring over and over again for hearing something new and at the same time, one that you can shut off your mind to and just close your eyes to everything. Not bad at all for a hit song that received oh so much airplay everywhere.

Check back next Thursday for album #2. 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”
4. James “Whiplash”

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

Tags 1990s, Alternative, Alternative Rock, Best albums, British rock, Radiohead, Retro, Thom Yorke

Albums

Best albums of 1997: #4 James “Whiplash”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date April 26, 2018
7 Comments on 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:

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

Tags 1990s, Alternative, Alternative Rock, Best albums, British rock, James, Manchester, Retro

Albums

Best albums of 1997: #5 Blur “Blur”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date April 19, 2018
15 Comments on 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.