Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica

I've tried... Oh how I've tried... Tirelessly to 'get' this album, but like two pensioners in bed, after much groaning and straining, it's decided that there's no point anymore. Maybe we'll try again one day, but for now there's simply nothing.

I'm not going to lie, there are parts of the album which I like, they're the parts that aren't simply dissonant rubbish, whilst the purely vocal tracks are interesting, I could probably take verbs and random words from a dictionary and get the same result.

I don't want to simply slate the album, alot of people say you need to listen to it several times, and after sacrificing about ten hours of my life forcing myself to listen to it, I simply cannot enjoy it fully. I read somewhere that for some of the compositions Don Van Vliet (Beefheart) sat down at a piano and played 'things' and then a studio engineer transcribed that onto another instrument, and if you do that, the music's going to simply sound amateur-ish? Especially considering he had no real musical knowledge.

I believe in freedom of expression, and if someone likes this album, fine. I recommend people give it a go, but people talking as if this album has some kind of deep, cryptic message is simply wrong. I will admit however, it captures the spirit of the 60's perfectly. Listen to it and you'll know what I mean.

In summary, while it is incredibly bad, I still think everyone should listen to it, at least once, just to experience it, but for Christ's sake, don't pay for it. That'd only make Don Van Vliet laugh harder. Maybe everyone says this album's good because they feel sorry for the musicians who had to play it...

Maybe I'll try again someday, and if it clicks, there'll be a re-review, until then I'll have a apathetic view towards this... thing.


2/10

For people who hate music.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Your Funeral... My Trial

Released in 1986, Your Funeral, My Trial was Nick Cave's fourth album, it has a slightly different style to his previous releases and is the album that won the most people over and garnered interest in the singer/songwriter and his Bad Seeds.

From the opening notes it is clear that the album isn't going to be a happy one, however it's not all doom and gloom, the album goes through several phases, beginning in a solemn mood with "Your Funeral, My Trial" and "Stranger Than Kindness", moving to Nick's metaphorical prose in "Jack's Shadow" to the grinding, horrific and disturbing "The Carny", followed by three songs where the main subject is female: "She Fell Away", "Hard On For Love" and "Sad Waters" then the album ends with a story of murder in "Long Time Man".

"Your Funeral, My Trial" opens with a sparse arrangement led by Cave's piano and vocals, setting the tone for the rest of the album, the opening lyric is: "I am a crooked man, and I've walked a crooked mile" a feeling of self-loathing hovers over this track and Nick seems sad and withdrawn, feeling every bit of what he sings.

The atmospheric "Stranger Than Kindness" follows, with U2-esque guitar lines fading in announcing the track, the rhythm section working tightly together with a marching snare and prominent deep bass, build around repetition the song doesn't change much until the coda in which Cave croons: "I'm a stranger... To kindness."
The song fades out in a suitable manner.

"Jack's Shadow" combines country/blues guitar chops with a throbbing, galloping bassline aswell as industrial sound effects, Nick sings in the crazed manner of a man desperate to get rid of his burden, his 'shadow', only to regret it, after all, you have to live with your shadow, if you want to live in the light, lest ye be constrained in the darkness.

The longest track on the album "The Carny" is a tour-de-force in which a fairground type motif is taken, made into a horror soundtrack and pounded into your head, Cave's story telling is at its peak in this track, featuring the characters of "Carny" and a horse named "Sorrow" and the boss "Bellini".

The song "She Fell Away" is seemingly a story of a man whom is left by his lover, with lyrics like: "Seems impossible to me now, but once the road lay open like a girl." Part of the the narrators torment is that she fell: "To better days" a syncopated piano riff is the calling card of this track and a single screaming guitar note.

"Hard On For Love" has potential to seem like a standard rock song, which, in Nick Cave's case, would be a bad thing, but as soon as flashes of white noise begin punctuating the track, all seems promising, the song is rife in sexual imagery, for example "Milk and blood" and "It is for she that the cherry bleeds" The song has the best vocal performance on the album, as the songs power mounts with Cave screaming and repeating "Her breasts rise and fall."

"Sad Waters" maybe the weakest track on the album, lyrically it is brilliant, musically it is no more interesting than any ballad in another artist's repetoire, there are some religious references in the lyrics, which gives this track some depth than it, at first, seems to have.

"Long Time Man" marks Cave's return to his story-telling narrative style of singing, this time the story of a man who kills his wife and is sent to prison, giving the title a double-meaning, the long time man in the relationship and the long time man in jail, whilst lyrically interesting, the song suffers, from the worst vocal performance on the album.

Overall, the album is very good, some of the tracks have bad points which do detract from the atmosphere of the record, whilst I'm fond of Nick Cave's style of songwriting, some people may find his songs long and drawn-out, and are more interested in the music being catchy rather than actually listening to what Cave has to say. It's a demanding listen, even if it doesn't at first seem it, most definitely not background noise, this is an album you need to focus on, soak it in, interpret the stories.


7/10

John Lennon - John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band

John Lennon needs no introduction, he is arguably one of the finest songwriters of our generation, this was his debut solo album recorded with the Plastic Ono Band, the Plastic Ono Band was a concept thought up by John to describe the group of musicians with whom he'd be recording his albums and touring, on Plastic Ono Band this consisted of John, Yoko, Klaus Voorman and Ringo Starr, of note is that Klaus did the artwork for The Beatles album, Revolver.

This album was recorded at the same time as Yoko Ono was recoring her own album Yoko Ono / Plastic Ono Band, it features similar artwork, with Yoko leaning on John as opposed to the opposite as featured on John's album.

Seen as one of the best rock records of all time, John confronts his demons on this record, his lyrics display his ideas on religion and certain tragic events of his life.

The album begins with a bell ringing out, simple, ominous and tragic, leading into "Mother" a song about how both of John's parents left him, in their own ways, his mother being killed in a car accident, and his father moving to New Zealand, the song features piano, bass and drums, the song builds in intensity to the point where John is screaming his lyrics: "Momma don't go, Daddy come home." The screaming inspired by his Primal Scream therapy, in which patients face their pain and let it out.

The second track "Hold On" sees John a contemplative mood, featuring clean guitar and John's softly sung vocals, for some reason or another John impersonates the cookie monster, barking: "Cookie" about half way through the song, I'm sure it's probably an in-joke... Or a reference to advertising in the media, John trying to suggest it wouldn't be long before adverts were inserted in songs.

Next up is one of John's most famous compositions, "I Found Out", which has a thumping bassline and a raw, raucous sound, in this song John states that he's; "Seen religion from Jesus to Paul." An obvious dig at former bandmate Paul McCartney.

Yet another notable tune from John comes next; "Working Class Hero". The lyrics address the ideas of class systems in England, sometimes in a brutal manner: "You're still fucking peasants as far as I can see." Far from dense, this song features John's vocal work and acoustic guitar.

Moving forward, the track "Love" is another of John's piano-based tunes, instantly recognisable simply by its opening line "Love is real, real is love". The line; "Love is asking, to be loved." Sounds like a reference to a certain war happening around the time of recording.

Contrasting and getting loud again, the next song is "Well Well Well". Featuring the catchy and yet again, instantly recognisable repeated refrain of "Well, well well, oh well." The song starts with a distorted guitar riff, then joins a stomping bass drum beat, the song builds to a crescendo with John screaming "Well" in a similar vein to "Mother", the opening track. A brief lapse in the noise before building up again and the screaming returning, the song ends by breaking down with John stating: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." In reference to not being able to keep up the shouting.

The tenth track on the album "God" is another of the tunes on this album that everybody knows. The lyrics are very thought-provoking with lines such as: "God is a concept, by which we measure our pain." The song's chorus features a lengthy of John saying he doesn't believe in things which people have sought resolve in throughout the ages, ending with: "I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me." Because of the seemingly blasphemous connotation of what John sings, the song sparked alot of controversy.

The last song on the album "My Mummy's Dead" is incredibly Lo-Fi and has John singing about his deceased mother to the tune of "Three Blind Mice".


Overall, this album features some of John's most recognisable, controversial and introspective songs, with most of the songs being iconic, people will listen to this album and know all the songs bar one or two, even if they have never heard the album before.  Powerful, this is an record people should own.

A classic.

10/10

Now I'm gonna go listen to it again.

Sunny Day Real Estate - Diary

"Sew it on, face the fool." Announces Dan Hoerner on Sunny Day Real Estate's debut album "Diary"

This album is widely seen as a landmark for the Post-Hardcore/Emo genre of the 90's, standing out at a time when the grunge scene was at it's largest, featuring deeply personal lyrics combined with sweet melodic verses and explosive choruses.

The album's opener "Seven" sees the band jump straight into the fray head first, dispelling any misconceptions people may have about them, the band knows what they're here to do, and they do it well, the album as a whole is quite progressive, most of the songs clock in around the five minute mark and feature non-standard structures.

The third track on the album "Song About An Angel" is arguably the most powerful track on the album, the lyrics deal with Dan Hoerner's coming to terms with his finding religion (Shortly after releasing this album, Dan became Christian) Lyrics such as: "Although you hit me hard I come back" suggest that he may have been trying to shun his religious urges, most people would probably see this as a song about a girl, unsurprisingly, considering the nature of most Emo songs, of course, there's nothing wrong with thinking that, after all, I am a genuine believer that once an artist releases his/her material into the public domain it is no longer their own, but that's a debate that could go on till Hell freezes over.

The next track "Round" starts quietly and builds in intensity until both Dan and Jeremy Enigk feel fit to burst singing: "The suffering said, we go round". In this track we get the Emo genre cliché of shouty harmonies from Jeremy & Dan, this is probably the weakest track on the album, maybe because it sounds too 'happy' compared with the rest of "Diary".

In "The Blankets Were The Stairs" SDRE take some inspiration from their grunge peers with a dirty, grinding opening riff, a driving bassline from Nate Mendel (Yes, the bass player in Foo Fighters) keeps the track on the ground, when suddenly the track takes a right turn and we get a nice taste of some acoustic guitar, only for it all to explode back into that same thrashy, grungy sound.

A standout track, "Pheurton Skeurto", sees the band trying a more chilled approach to their music, fading with piano as the lead instrument sounding like an old intermission track played at the cinemas between films the piano is accompanied only by Nate on bass, clocking in at only 2:33, it is a short tune in comparison to the rest of the album, probably because it was intended as filler, it's a nice little ditty nonetheless which builds to a crescendo then smoulders away.

One could mistake the opening of "Shadows" for a certain Coldplay tune, however, this similarity is shattered when the rest of the band join in, along with that, it's better than anything Coldplay could ever write. The song has a schizophrenic bridge section with wide leaps in dynamics the whole band playing one second, a few solemn notes the next.

"48" begins with a marching band style drumbeat and some clean guitar, once again, this is shattered by a trashy, grungy riff and Dan's shouted vocals proclaiming: "Where were you? We could have been the last time."

"Grendel" shows the band trying out different things, Dan's vocals are more ethereal than on the rest of the album and Jeremy decides to try out a more choppy style of guitar playing, bursting into a dissonant chorus with Dan's vocals echoing all over the place.


The albums closer "Sometimes" features a more gradual build up then the Loud/Quiet dynamics featured on the rest of the album, eventually building to a climax with Dan screaming: "Although my heart is bruised by your words. Sometimes... Sometimes..."

Altogether the album is very good, it's only down point is that all the songs sound the same, but you can't really blame that one on the band, after all they were pioneers in creating a new 'emo' sound with their only real waypoints being first generation 'emo' bands such as Cap'n Jazz, Fugazi and Rites of Spring.

Listen to: Song About An Angel, Seven, Sometimes. Then decide whether to buy the album, it's not for everyone, more for people who want a heart-wrenching listen.

8/10