Album #158: Regurgitator - Tu-Plang

Regurgitator

Tu-Plang (1996)

Regurgitator are like the herpes of Australian music - they refuse to go away and cause an itchy sensation (er maybe.) Their biggest years were in the 90s, when their first two albums - this one and Unit - were massively successful (and in Unit's case, damn catchy retro.) They tried to come back by being a 'Band in a Bubble' (it didn't work.)

The group's debut album Tu-Plang was notable not just for providing several big Hottest 100 tracks, but also for its variety. Covering pop, alternative, hip hop, rap rock, punk and electro, it was a hodgepodge of styles.....and not all of them worked.

The Album

The successes are several, and make the album worthwhile. Opener I Sucked A Lot Of Cock To Get Where I Am is possibly the catchiest song about using the art of fellatio to get ahead....well, ever (it may also be the only song about that topic). A simple yet appealing riff is tied to some occasional harmonies, and the whole thing is headboppy (pardon the pun.) Although it's just electro noise, G7 Dick Electro Boogie is strangely appealing, with some rather entertaining anti-capitalist lyrics set to some thumping beats. Blubber Boy is another example of the Gurge's ability to write 'pop' tunes with an underground edge, Miffy's Simplicity is a very enjoyable slice of punk-tinged rock, while the only hip hop song that hits the mark is the blatant parody of Pop Porn, where every single lyric seems to refer to 'gats' and the protagonist's impressive semen distribution skills, as well as his incredible rhyming abilities; if it were serious it'd suck, but thankfully it's blatant parody.

A couple of songs are honourable mentions for being nice efforts but a little weak - Music Is Sport is an impressive piece of metaphor, mainly in being able to tie the live music experience to the sporting one, while Kong Foo Sing's massive, messy sound and half rapped/half sung vocals create a decent tune, but one that does grate by the end.

Other songs miss the mark completely. Couldn't Do It (Happy Shopper Mix) proves that nobody should ever do Muzak ever, Social Disaster is intolerable rap/rock noise, F.S.O is intolerable punky noise, Manana is a dirge and Young Bodies Heal Quickly is pointless.

The Verdict

I enjoyed Tu-Plang when it was released, and I still like most of it today, but as an overall album there's too many weak spots on it, to be fair. It's a perfect album for the iTunes generation because some of the songs are essential, while others are unnecessary. It's also not as good as its followup, the consistently better Unit.

My rating: 6.7/10

BULK MEGA MINI-REVIEW CATCHUP

Bulk Mega Mini-Review Catchup

In light of the fact that the next two months are going to be extremely busy (thanks to the World Cup, largely) I've made the decision that, where I'm stretched for time, my reviews are going to be much, much shorter.

Now that may come as a disappointment to...well, maybe three of you, but this way I can a) still listen to an album a day, b) not feel pressure to churn out a massive review every day when I'm gonna be busy sleeping/drinking coffee/watching football/watching cycling, and c) stay relatively up to date.

To test out this new 'mini-review' idea I'm going to, today, do a Bulk Mega Mini-Review Catchup of the last four albums I've listened to.

I won't do this for every album, but where I fall behind, it's going to be the way I catch up; and if I'm pressed for time, it's going to be how I get a review out in a timely fashion.

With all those disclaimers out of the way, let's get cracking!

Album #154: Dream Theater - Images and Words

The second album by prog metallers Dream Theater, and the first to feature vocalist James LaBrie. Keyboard whiz Jordan Rudess isn't here yet but that doesn't really matter, not while guitarist John Petrucci and drummer Mike Portnoy are around to blow your mind. In fact, one of the remarkable things about Dream Theater is that technically, all the musicians are fucking superstars.

From the sprawling keyboard chords and monster choruses of Pull Me Under to the insane progressive polyrhythmic masterpiece of Metropolis Part I, it's a kickarse display of progressive rock/metal, and seems like the natural progression of bands like Yes, Rush and King Crimson. It's really rather good and what's more, it's apparently not even their best album

My rating: 8.2/10

Album #155: The Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique

When Paul's Boutique was released, it was a chart disappointment. Label execs stopped promoting the album because it didn't sell as well as Licenced to Ill. It's proof that people are stupid because Paul's Boutique stomps much ass. Backed by producers The Dust Brothers, who cram every single possible sample possible into a single album, there's some insanely powerful beats, thrilling hooks and that oh so Beastie tongue-in-cheek gift for humourous hyperbole.

I dare you not to listen to this album and jump up every thirty seconds as you recognise yet another sample (the ingenious chopping up of The Beatles' The End on The Sounds of Science and the use of Hendrix's Are You Experienced on B-Boy Bouillabaisse are my personal favourites, along with all the use of John Bonham thunderous drumbeat mastery throughout the album).

My rating: 7.9/10

Album #156: My Bloody Valentine - Loveless

This album was requested by two friends with the promise that it took guitar overdubs to a level that not even the bloated Be Here Now could touch. It came with a further assurance that, unlike Be Here Now, it didn't disappear up its own arse.

That's certainly true, because Loveless ends up being something akin to an orchestral piece, except all the classical instruments have been replaced by endless samples of guitars and drums, and even the vocals themselves are less a standout, more just another instrument. The result is something that drones (a lot) but it's a good drone, if that makes sense - there's textures and layers all over the place, and the album ends up being more than the sum of its parts. Credit must go to Kevin Shields for labouring over this album for so long, because the proof is in the pudding.

The stunning Come In Alone, the rather indie-rocking I Only Said and the Stone Roses-dance-rock of Soon are the biggest standouts on a bloody good record.

My rating: 8.6/10

Album #157: East 17 - Walthamstow

People forget that East 17 were legitimate contenders for Number 1 Boy Band of the early 90s. They sold more records and were generally seen as much cooler than Take That because of their hip, streetwise image. That streetwise image is on this debut album in spades, thanks to the rave-meets-R&B-meets-pop-meets-hip hop flavour of its aesthetic. 

As you'd expect from a boy band album though, it's singles and sweet fuck all else; even if some of those singles are stompingly ace. I mean, come on, if you don't think House Of Love is a fucking anthem and if you're not jumping around like a motherfucker when it's on, you're probably fucking dead, and even if It's Alright has some frankly dreadful lyrics at times ("Alright/alright/everything's gonna be alright/alright/alright/everything's gonna be alright/alright/alright/everything's gonna be alright/alright/alright/it's really alright"), it makes up for it through sheer dancepop power and some hilarious lyrics ("We are the seed of the new breed/We will succeed").

The rest of the album can get stuffed.

My rating: 5.5/10

Album #153: George Harrison - All Things Must Pass

George Harrison

All Things Must Pass (1970)

It's rather telling that on his first solo album after leaving the Beatles, George Harrison had enough material for a triple album release (and, allegedly, enough unissued material to fill another double album). For so many years the 'junior' Beatle, Harrison had seen his attempts to include more of his own compositions on Beatles albums come to nought, ignored by the mighty egos of Lennon and McCartney. Even though the odd song had managed to sneak through the net, Harrison had seen other, equally good, songs passed over by the rest of the Beatles.

So it was that after the band's split, Harrison spent five months at Apple Studios recording some of the 'hundreds' of songs he had accumulated in the past five or six years, songs that were never good enough for The Beatles or that Harrison had been too nervous to introduce, for fear of a cutting putdown. The result was the sprawling All Things Must Pass, three LPs of some of the finest material released by a solo Beatle (in fact, some consider this to be the definitive solo Beatles recording). With a crack team of guest musicians (including Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, the members of Badfinger, Phil Collins, Alan White and Billy Preston), and with the assistance of producer extraordinaire Phil Spector, Harrison painstakingly put the album together.

It's the subject of this review as I've never actually heard the whole thing, and it's time to see if it lives up to the hype.

The Album

Reviewing a triple album is a huge task. There are so many songs to try and get through that it could end up taking ages. So what I'll do is proceed LP by LP as per the original album release.

The first LP contains most of the album's big hitters. The controversial My Sweet Lord is one - despite shamelessly ripping off He's So Fine, it's still a signature tune, with Harrison's spiritual cries backed by a trademark slide guitar motif. It's also one song where Spector's Wall of Sound doesn't threaten to ruin the whole damn song (more of that later). The album's other single - What Is Life - is also here, and it's every bit as good, driven by a rather powerful riff and some rather loud horns. Yet the stars of this LP are the stunning Isn't It A Pity (Version One), the driving, rocking Wah-Wah and the somewhat modern-sounding Let It Down. The latter two are a perfect example of Spector's production technique (which I hate, if I'm honest) - Wah-Wah is almost destroyed by simply being too damn loud at times, meaning that all of the guitar work and horn overdubs mesh into a mess. Thankfully Harrison's terrific vocal saves the song, as does his wonderful slide guitar work. Let It Down, on the other hand, uses the production well; Spector and Harrison only let the choruses explode, with bombastic vocals and horns blasting through some truly cavernous drums. Isn't It A Pity is almost the best song on the album bar none though - essentially a ballad but in the Hey Jude vein, right down to the four minute long outro that echoes the Beatles classic, right down to the "na-na-na-na-na" vocals.

LP2 opens with another contender for song of the album, Beware Of Darkness. Harrison's beautiful slide guitar work is a real highlight, his vocal is tender and vulnerable yet powerful, and the strings that accompany never overpower any of the other instrumentation. It's a brilliant, brilliant tune. There's also the terrific title track, with a terrific spiritual lyric that matter-of-factly deals with the reality of life, and there's again more great slide guitar work. The surprise of LP2 though is Art Of Dying, which is remarkably reminiscent of disco thanks to its drumbeat, yet the echoed vocals and guitar, plus the chord progressions, give the song a real progressive rock edge. It's massively underrated and one of the hidden gems of the album. LP2 does also contain the album's worst 'proper' tracks (that'll make sense soon) - I Dig Love is fucking awful, and Awaiting On You All, while it's a nice throwback to Spector's 60s pop production, has no place on this album, which is a fine testament to a rock craftsman's skills.

Knowing that there was material that Harrison had that wasn't recorded for All Things Must Pass makes the third LP's inclusion baffling. Apple Jam is what it's referred to, and it consists of five impromptu, throwaway jam recordings. It's pointless, fairly banal, self-indulgent tripe; the only thing worth listening to it for is the work of Eric Clapton on guitar, as the axe god lets his hair down and has a bit of a flairy wail. Frankly, the album would not have suffered for its exclusion, and given some of Harrison's shining songwriting on the rest of the record, it's a bit of a surprise that it wasn't excluded, to be honest.

Beyond the songwriting though, this album sees Harrison as a musician truly blossom. Here he moves away from the lead guitarist of The Beatles to a player of touch and refinement, the slide guitar his trademark; while songs like Something displayed his class and skills to the world, on All Things Must Pass we see that his gifts were not in playing blistering lead breaks; rather, his gifts were in textural layers that, like an onion (not a glass one before you smarty pantses chime in), need to all work together.

The Verdict

Is it the best solo Beatles album ever? I guess this is another question the LOAD Project will need to explore. It has to be close though, not just because of its scale but because of the sheer quality of its music. We can only thank The Beatles for the existence of this album (although part of me would love to have heard what they'd have done with songs like Isn't It A Pity and Wah-Wah), because their casual disrespect for Harrison's abilities resulted in all of this material being stockpiled, and then unleashed on the world in one go.

The first two LPs deserve your attention....just don't waste your time with Apple Jam.

In a word? Brilliant.

My rating: 9.1/10

Standout Tracks

Beware of Darkness

Art of Dying

Isn't It A Pity

Let It Down

All Things Must Pass

Album #152: Dolly Parton - Jolene

Dolly Parton

Jolene (1974)

In the course of a fifty-year career, Dolly Parton has released some 42 studio albums (approximately; it may be more than that). That's not to include live albums, movies, owning her own theme park....

Yep, it's fair to say Dolly is a phenomenon. A phenomenon of country music, no less, a genre that always seems to be the province of a fairly limited cross section of people. Yet Dolly Parton has managed over the years to transcend expectation and genre barriers, and appeal to a great range of people.

Jolene was her thirteenth album, and released in the middle of Dolly's country explosion; when she was arguably the leading light in country music. It propelled her to even greater heights thanks to two songs - the title track and I Will Always Love You, which was later covered by Whitney Houston (and consequently made Dolly zillions of dollars.)

Now, I don't like country music, so this is gonna be hard for me to review objectively, but I'll do my best.

The Album

Thankfully, it's short - clocking in at just 25 minutes or so, it's not a great stretch to listen to. That 25 minutes consists of ten songs, all country, with touches of bluegrass for good measure. Besides the standard acoustic guitar meat (mostly provided by Parton herself), there's pedal steel guitar, fiddles and banjos aplenty to add that country flavour.

Yet that all seems to pale in comparison to Dolly herself. There's a reason she's had such an amazing career - she's fucking talented beyond belief. Not only did she write the majority of the album's material, she is also a phenomenal vocalist. Nowhere is this more evident than on the title track, where she effortlessly nails a terrific, high range vocal (and somehow goes even higher to harmonise with herself). This track also manages to be the album's standout; a dark arrangement complements the lyrical content perfectly - it's Parton's desperate plea to a woman not to steal her man from her, and you can hear it in her voice - and there's touches of bluegrass guitar to pad out the moody guitar lines.

The other song of note - I Will Always Love You - is almost as good. None of the bullshit vocal gymnastics that amount to egotistical showing off that you find on the Houston cover are here, or at the very least they've been greatly toned down. Instead the emotion and feeling of the song comes through (Parton wrote it as a farewell tune to country legend Porter Wagoner, whose TV show Parton had been a star of for several years). It also (unlike the cover) doesn't outstay its welcome.

Elsewhere, it's tiny variations on the same country theme, and while that in and of itself is not a bad thing it doesn't make for a OMGWTFBBQ listening experience. Early Morning Breeze is more proof of Parton's vocal talent, while a nice pedal steel guitar lick simulates the titular breeze. Highlight Of My Life is a jaunty fiddle-filled country number with a decent pedal steel solo; it's pretty decent, as is Living On Memories Of You, which is resplendent with wistful harmonica lines and a bluegrass waltz motif. The upbeat Randy and the closing It Must Be You are also pleasant little diversions.

Basically, it's hard to hate.

The Verdict

Indeed, I didn't hate it. It was pleasant, listenable, and short. But like 99% of country music, it doesn't really go anywhere. It's at its best when it pairs lyrical content with musical evocations of emotion. Thankfully, Jolene does that a bit, which makes this slightly above your average country music album.

It won't change your life, nor will it leave a lasting memory (well, except for the title track, which is awesome) but it's a nice little distraction.

And Dolly? Well she deserves all the praise she gets.

My rating: 6.5/10

Standout Tracks

Jolene

I Will Always Love You

Highlight Of My Life

Album #151: Future of the Left - Curses

Future of the Left

Curses (2007)

Future of the Left were formed out of the ashes of two Welsh bands, Mclusky and Jarcrew, in 2005. Both groups had garnered passionate fanbases, albeit in a slightly underground way, and in the band's early days this proved a burden. In fact, their early gigs were played under code names, to ensure that hardcore Mclusky and Jarcrew fans didn't turn up expecting to hear the old tunes played the same way.

It took just shy of two years before FotL - at that time a threepiece consisting of Andy Falkous (guitar/keys/vocals), Jack Egglestone (drums) and Kelson Mathias (bass/vocals) - released their debut album, Curses. Anticipation was high amongst Welsh music fans for the first music from this supergroup, and apparently those fans were not disappointed.

Time for me to find out for myself.

The Album

It's a bloody firey album, that's for sure. Curses burns with energy, power, aggression and verve. At times it's hard to believe that the group are a three-piece, such is the raw power and thickness of their sound. To the band's credit, they adopt a real punk attitude to song length; keep them short, rock out as hard as you can, and get out before the audience gets bored or exhausted (or both). 

When it's good, it's really, really good, combining post-hardcore rhythmic elements and song structures with the 'fuck-you' attitude of punk rock and, at times, the more melodic approach of alternative rock. The lyrics are, for the most part, rather clever, sometimes dryly observant, while at other times they're quite funny.

Highlights of the album? There are a few. Adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood lulls you in with its pseudo-country music vocalised pastiche, before buzzsaw guitars, cavernous riffs and Falkous' high-pitched bark punch you in the gut and stomp on your face. Plague of Onces has much the same feeling, albeit with a structural callback to At the Drive-In, while the brilliant Fingers Become Thumbs packs more punch than Floyd Mayweather, sounding utterly filthy yet dynamically superb at the same time (never before have the lines "We're not alive, we're not alive/we're not at home for preg-er-nant callers" been so fucking chantable before).

The group also excel at the sudden musical sucker punch. On several occasions, they create a sense of comfort through repetition, before slotting in an unexpected section to jolt you out of your comfort zone. Opener The Lord Hates A Coward drives along with scuzzy guitars and energetic drumming, before kicking into a frenetically dynamic closing thirty seconds. Kept By Bees is almost entirely drums and vocals - cavernous, booming drums and vocals - except for a sizzling fifteen second blast of guitars. This also overlooks the pirates-chanting-like-Peter Gabriel sections...it's a very different, way-out-there tune. 

At other times, Future of the Left are content to pull whole musical surprises. The catchy Manchasm has no traces of guitars at all - instead it's left to Falkous' falsetto and some catchy keyboards to do the heavy lifting. It's the only time on the album that you get the feeling that the group have crafted a song to dance to. The mildly sarcastic Fuck The Countryside Alliance is an ode to minimalist simplicity - a plodding drumbeat, a repetitive two note guitar motif and dry vocals (though it contains another favourite lyric of mine - "Take a man to his nightmares in a Land Rover" - which describes the CA rather well). Finally, closing track The Contrarian is that in more ways than one - after thirteen tracks of pulsating scuzz rock, the album closes with a piano ballad (yep, you read that correctly). It comes out of nowhere and yet it's the perfect way to conclude an album that shows no end of experimental flair.

The Verdict

Curses is quite a decent debut album. It's not necessarily a style of music I love, but there's so many shifts in dynamics, so many little touches and surprises, that you can't help but enjoy the album. It's worth checking out, as are Future of the Left in general.

My rating: 7.6/10

Standout Tracks

Fuck the Countryside Alliance

Fingers Become Thumbs

Adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood

Album #150: Pink Floyd - A Saucerful of Secrets

Pink Floyd

A Saucerful of Secrets (1968)

Recorded in a period of great flux and transition, A Saucerful of Secrets has a reputation amongst even some diehard Pink Floyd fans as the band's worst pre-Waters departure album (I only say that because many diehard fans absolutely loathe both of the Gilmour-led creations). There's a number of reasons for this. Firstly, founding member, songwriter and early creative genius Syd Barrett was on the way out, mainly because of his rapidly deteriorating mental state, which had contributed to his severe lack of input to the band's live performances and studio work. Secondly, guitar whiz David Gilmour had only just joined the band, and even that was as a backup to the increasingly erratic Barrett, just in case he decided in the middle of a gig to detune his guitar until the strings fell off, or worse, just stop playing altogether. Thirdly, the group were shifting somewhat uncomfortably and blindly away from the childish psychedelic pop/space rock adventures of their debut album, Piper at the Gates of Dawn, and heading towards the expansive, experimental, spacey psychedelic full-blown progressive rock that would be their trademark for the next five years.

So it's far from their best work.....but I still think there's some work of merit here. Today I'll take a critical look at this album, the second Floyd release of The LOAD Project.

The Album

Spacier and more eclectic than Piper, A Saucerful of Secrets is where the yoke of Syd Barrett's songwriting was cast aside, meaning the rest of the group had to pick up the slack. This job fell to keyboardist Rick Wright and bassist Roger Waters. It's notable that their contributions reflected their sensibilities - Wright's tunes being melodic, yet melancholy, while the Waters tracks are either weird mindfucks or songs about war. The latter theme would resurface sporadically throughout the band's history. Barrett's sole contribution is....well, more on that shortly.

Opening with the nonsensical Let There Be More Light, the die is cast - random lyrics about ancient English historical figures, references to Beatles tunes and RAF bases are barked by Gilmour, interspersed with unsettling Waters/Wright passages. Musically it's a continuation of the Interstellar Overdrive ethos; meandering guitars, Wright's Farfisa organ swirls and messy, cacophonous percussion from Nick Mason. The reflective Remember A Day shines, as Wright's maudlin piano and wistful lyrics create a sombre mood, while engineer Norman Smith turns in a sparkling guest spot on drums (as Mason couldn't play the song). Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun is the only time that all five members of this temporary lineup appeared on the same recording (Barrett and Gilmour both contributed guitar). The lyrics are ripped straight from Chinese poetry, while Waters' vaguely Middle Eastern bassline, Mason's timpani-struck drums and Wright's distinctive Farfisa create an eerie, yet strangely appealing, soundscape. Side A (VINYL REFERENCES FOR THE WIN) closes with the anti-war ditty Corporal Clegg, notable for being one of the rare lead vocal performances from Mason, while all other members of the band also contribute vocals. There's also a chorus of kazoos just to provide a bit of Pythonesque silliness to all the serious lyrics about the futility of war.

The album's title track comes next, and for all the Floyd's space rock epics of their early days, this is the first time where the psychedelic went decidedly avant-garde; Waters and Wright used their architectural backgrounds to 'design' the song's structure, with some interviews from Waters claiming that the whole song tells the story of a battle, from the pre-fight anticipation to the closing mournful choirs of the dead. For the most part, it's a tribute to tape loops, pandemonium and experimentation, though the last two minutes are worth hanging out for. Wright's organ and mellotron work creates an ethereal atmosphere, and he joins Gilmour in some heavenly vocal chorus work. The album's worst song, See-Saw, comes next, and it says everything that when this song was recorded, the band referred to it as 'The Most Boring Song I've Ever Heard Bar Two'. While it's not THAT boring, being another Wright-penned maudlin piano/Farfisa tune, there's not much going on and it's probably lucky that it made the record. 

Closing the album is the last ever appearance on a Floyd release (and the sole songwriting contribution on this album) by Syd Barrett, Jugband Blues. By this time Barrett's mental state was fragmented, and while it's somewhat de rigueur to blame the drugs (and I'm sure they were a catalyst) it's probably accurate to say that the pressures of success were also contributory. At any rate, Jugband Blues is the observation of one man's mental state, written by the man himself. It serves as Barrett's own commentary on his fragmented mind, the fact that his own band were steadily squeezing him out, and an inability to cope with everything that was happening to him. In true Barrett fashion though, there's enough musical meat to make it listenable; the Salvation Army brass band add a nice touch, the "I don't care if the sun don't shine" section contains a flicker of Piper's psychedelic pop edge, while the song's closing notes, Barrett on an acoustic guitar singing, in a maudlin key, "And the sea isn't green/and I love the Queen/and what exactly is a dream?/And what exactly is a joke?" haunts you long after the song has closed.

The Verdict

I don't think it's Pink Floyd's worst album (step forward The Final Cut and A Momentary Lapse of Reason for that dubious honour) but A Saucerful Of Secrets' biggest problem is that it rarely achieves the musical heights of so many other Floyd releases. It's solid, but unspectacular; the sound of a group trying to find their feet as songwriters now that their main creative force was basically a vegetable. The lofty genius of the 70s was still a few years (and albums) away, though there are flickering moments on here that foreshadow what was to come.

Not one for casual fans, more for the purists like myself.

My rating: 6.3/10

Standout Tracks

Corporal Clegg

Jugband Blues

Remember A Day