Genre: Art Rock / Avant-Pop / Electronic / Ambient / Experimental Rock
“Oh, what you gonna say? Oh, what you gonna do? Ah, what you gonna be?
To be real me, to the real me Under the cool, under the cool and under having a ball What you gonna say to the real me, to the real me”
What In The World
How low can you go?
If you’re David Bowie, apparently low, very low indeed. When working on this album he seemed to be coming out of a period of drug addiction where he was constantly high on cocaine. So much so that he seemed to have had zero memory of ever recording his previous album Station to Station. One can say this is one of David Bowie’s most important albums ever in his career because in a way it may have saved his life. He and his best buddy, Iggy Pop, got themselves out of the USA and moved to France with the singular goal to kick their cocaine addictions. Of what I know it paid off because I’m pretty sure he ended up kicking it, which let’s be honest is no easy feat to pull off. If there’s anything I’ve learned is that addiction is one of the hardest things to overcome and I’ve read that drug addiction especially has a low rate of success overall. I have to commend Bowie for doing that, first realizing his problem and making the decision to kick it and secondly sticking to it. And he wasn’t alone, it was him and Iggy Pop working together to do it. It is slightly easier when you have someone to not only hold you accountable but that you keep accountable to and I’m very proud of them (even if this was decades and decades ago).
This also marks the first in what would be called his Berlin trilogy, which is often considered a peak in his creative output. I’ve always enjoyed Bowie but found myself disappointed when I heard Ziggy Stardust and Young Americans. And although Hunky Dory is a personal favourite of mine and I am partial to both Aladdin Sane and Station To Station, it did feel like a bit of a 50/50 chance that I might enjoy this one. I’m happy I went into it with low (hehehe) expectations because there’s a good chance this might even surpass Hunky Dory as my favourite Bowie album. It’s funny too, because this isn’t the first time I’ve heard it. I remember hearing it a long time ago and remembering that I just wasn’t into it. It seems my first time around was not that enjoyable. But that was a long time ago and I’ve grown a lot when it comes to how I listen to music and my appreciation for it. So coming into this time was a whole new experience in a way and it was an amazing one.
The first thing I noticed listening through it was that the musical style sounded very familiar. It felt like I had just heard this album not long ago and I realized it made me think of Brian Eno’s Before and After Science. It was even structured the same way, with Side A being these fun Art Rock bangers and Side B these ambient electronic experimental tracks. Even off the top with the first two songs I felt they sounded oddly like Brian Eno songs even from Here Come The Warm Jets and Another Green World. Well, wouldn’t you believe it, when I searched it up, lo and behold, Brian Eno was indeed a collaborator on this album. Not only that, but it seems Bowie was listening to Eno’s solo work on repeat quite a bit and used it as inspiration. I have to say, I’m pretty proud of myself for noticing that on my own! That could also be why I loved this album so much too, seeing as I have enjoyed Brian Eno’s solo work quite immensely.
Looking at David Bowie’s catalogue and going through all these albums, there’s no denying what a masterclass of a musician he was. It’s quite an experience going through his albums because he’s always changing, always growing as an artist and constantly trying new things and expressing himself creatively in a vast array of ways. There may be some slumps in his discography, but creatively bankrupt he was not. I have a lot of admiration for Bowie and can only hope to have at least half the creative talent he had.
Genre: Art Rock / Art Pop / Avant-Pop / Experimental Pop
“Spider and i sit watching the sky On a world without sound We knit a web to catch one tiny fly For our world without sound We sleep in the mornings We dream of a ship that sails away A thousand miles away.”
Spider and I
I find it funny how much I adore the music of Brian Eno and yet, for whatever reason, I keep purposefully stopping myself from listening to any other albums by him. It’s not because I don’t want to, I really do, but there’s this part of me that wants to discover them through this list as I go through it and only listen to the Brian Eno album once I get to it on the list. I don’t know why I’m doing this with brian Eno in particular, I haven’t applied this level of… I guess you could say commitment, with any other bands or artists. So why Eno? What is it about him that I’m holding such restraint from listening to his music before it appears on the list? If I want to listen to Music for Airports, there’s absolutely zero reason why I shouldn’t do just that. Why wait until it’s next on the list? Why do that to myself? What is this delayed gratification I’m creating for myself, is it really worth it? I’ve been aching to get to this album to finally listen to it, so would you believe my excitement when I finally did? I have to say, it was worth the delayed gratification.
Brian Eno has such a fascinating grasp on pop music as a whole. The music here seems to somehow embody the sensibilities of pop while also being unique in their own way, giving it that art school spin (for lack of a better term). I don’t know how he manages to make music that sounds both accessible and weird at the same time. It’s basically unconventional pop music that just works really well and Brian Eno has just mastered the art of making this style of music. In some ways I feel like it just shouldn’t work and yet, here he is, doing it and doing it spectacularly. To call Brian Eno a musical genius might be hyperbole but there’s definitely an argument to be made in that regard. He just understands what he’s doing at a fundamental level and stays true to his own artistic integrity. That’s worth a hell of a lot in art.
What makes this album in particular so interesting is how it seems to mark the exact transitional period from Eno making rock and pop music to his ambient music. The first half of this album is that exact art pop I mentioned above and it just kills tune after tune with his brand of eccentricity and absurdism. Something I admire about Eno is how he makes the music first and then when it comes to the vocals, he just sings gibberish and turns those into words. For him, it seems, the lyrics and vocals are equally a part of the instrumentals and are used to support the music rather than the music supporting the lyrics. That’s a pretty cool approach. But in the second half of the album we start to see songs that are a little longer and also have a very different feel to them, slowing down considerably and feeling more atmospheric. It’s like they’re taking you through some emotional journey rather than three minutes of just pure rockin’ fun. It’s interesting how the album changes completely, with the final song and beginning song seemingly coming from two different albums and yet Brian Eno eases us into the change, with the transition happening almost seamlessly that you don’t even notice by the end of it. He seemingly was already working on his ambient style of music while this album was in production (apparently for two years) so it makes sense that as we the listener go through the album, it’s almost as if we were experiencing the change Eno was going through creatively as well.
I’m excited to get to the next Eno album, whenever that might be, and yes, it seems likely I will indeed wait until I hit it on the list. I do like to torture myself like that sometimes, it seems like its all worth it.
Genre: R&B / Soul / Pop / Avant-Pop / Progressive Soul / Soul Jazz
“Tell me, who of them will come to be? How many of them are you and me? Dissipation Of race relations Consolation Segregation Dispensation Isolation Exploitation Mutilation Mutation Miscreation Confirmation to the evils of the world”
Pastime Paradise
We’ve hit, what I believe is, the final album by Stevie Wonder. I wish I could go on and on about how amazing this album is and how much of a talented, powerhouse of a musician Stevie Wonder is. I mean the fact that he was releasing album after album that was one banger after another and managed to come to a conclusion of an era with a double LP that manages to have no filler is absolutely amazing. That takes a level of creativity that is insurmountable and a well of ideas so deep that there’s no light (although this album feels like a bright light). I wish I could express all those things in such colourful detail as to fill out multiple paragraphs that will hopefully keep you engaged, but I just can’t. I don’t have the proper words to do that and as I had mentioned on a previous album, there’s only so much I feel I can talk a bit Stevie Wonder before it starts to get stale and repetitive. There’s nothing, absolutely nothing I can add at this point. This album is just fantastic and you’ll have to take my basic word on that.
This is where my musical limitations really start to shine. I’ve always been upfront about the fact that I’m purely a music enthusiast and know absolutely nothing about theory and can’t really break down a lot about why I think something may be good or bad. A lot of it is mostly purely on a personally emotional level that I can describe my feelings, which works out really nicely for some music, but I struggle with a bit more for other albums. It’s not that Stevie Wonder doesn’t evoke any emotions in me, his music does and especially here on Songs in the Key of Life (which might be my favourite, I even own this one on vinyl). There is this wonderful warmth throughout the album and he sings with such a calming tone that it’s hard not to smile while listening through all this. But that’s about as far as that goes. I enjoy it, it makes me happy, but I sadly feel I cannot go any deeper into why, and I really wish I could because Stevie Wonder deserves better than my rather shallow attempts at talking about his wonderful album. HE DESERVES BETTER.
Something I do love about this album, particularly the vinyl format of it, is how this double LP comes with a little mini third disc. It’s like a little baby vinyl record that this double LP gave birth to. Stevie Wonder had so many songs that he just needed to add this tiny extra disc for all of us to enjoy. He didn’t have to do that, but he did and I am grateful for that. I also love that with this album we get to hear the original, Pastime Paradise, a song that I went on quite a journey to finally, eventually, get to. Originally hearing it in the form of Weird Al’s parody, Amish Paradise, which led me to Coolio’s reinterpretation, Gangsta’s Paradise, which then had me learn there was an original version with Stevie WOnder’s, Pastime Paradise. I have to say the journey was worth it to get there because Pastime Paradise is easily the best of the three.
It’s funny, coming up soon I’m doing one of my monthly improv shows where improv troupes do sets inspired by albums in my record collection. For next month, seeing as it is February and black history month, I decided all the albums for that particular show will be by black artists. One of the albums is indeed this one right here, Songs in the Key of Life. Writing this out, it makes me realize how much I’ll need to really think about this album and do some deeper research because I’m going to need much more to say than just… this album good! I’m not complaining, if it helps me put into words what I want to express much better than that’s great! Plus I’m always down for a little history lesson when it comes to artists and their music! Let’s hope I can do it justice on that day!
Genre: Progressive Rock / Pop / Heavy Metal / Hard Rock / Avant-Pop
“Ah-ah, people of the earth “Listen to the warning, ” the seer he said For those who hear and mark my words Listen to the good plan”
The Prophet’s Song
Another band that I have an interesting relationship with. Funny how these albums sometimes seem to follow each other on this list. At least the break between this Queen album and the last was bigger than the one between Sheer Heart Attack and Queen II, gave me time to cleanse the palette, so to say. My feelings towards Queen haven’t really changed much, I do think a vast majority of people who say they think Queen is the greatest band of all time are looking back fondly on their greatest hits and not any of the deep cuts from the albums. I like Queen fine and I sued to be one of those people, back in college I remember drunkily exclaiming “Queen is the greatest band of all time” and believing it then. So I obviously don’t blame anyone who thinks so, I mean Queen are responsible for one of those most recognizable songs of all time, a song that no matter where it plays, everyone will stop and sing, no matter the age it’s a song that seems to have transcended generations and people of all ages, sexes, genders, races and creeds put aside all their differences to sing along to this one song because it feels almost impossible not too. Even me, the bitter cynic, finds himself singing along to this song even when I’m actively trying not to… it’s just impossible!! Can it be within the duration of this 5:55 minute song that we’ve reached perfect harmony?
Probably not, but we can’t deny the absolute power this song has. I don’t even have to name it, you know exactly which song it is, probably already singing the operatic parts in your head, especially since this song is on this particular album.
This begs the classic question I always ask when an album on this list includes a massive hit single. Is this album on this list purely because of this hit?
In this case, no, that’s an absolutely stupid question because there’s a lot of great tunes here and I can see why people often consider this Queens’s best and as their favourite. I found myself enjoying a lot of the more carnivalesque style tunes with their ragtime piano feel. I love a good jaunty circus tune here and there. But of course, this entire album is completely overshadowed by it’s centerpiece, that isn’t even in the center of this album. I mean, this song was big, huge, insanely ginormous. You couldn’t and still can’t escape the massively big shadow it casts in the music world. No it isn’t I’m in Love With My Car, a song that even the absolutely horrendous biopic made fun of as being stupid (which was also funnily enough the b-side to this monster hit). Even as I try to talk about other things about this album I can’t help but fall right back on this one song. Its pull power is too strong, its gravity is off the charts!!
Even now I find myself doing the famous call and response parts in my head. Begrudgingly of course, but nonetheless can’t help but enjoy it either. Its become such a cliché to have groups of people do their own versions of it, we’ve seen it parodied on College Humour, we saw the Muppets sing their own version, and even though its become such a cliché, I still find myself wanting to do my own version with my friends because… goddamn it, I can’t help it, its so much goddamn fun singing this fucking song.
There’s nothing I can do. There’s absolutely no denying to the extreme the absolute impact this song has had on the cultural landscape. It has completely transcended anything and everything as a song. It lives in our blood at this point, we are born just knowing it. Evolution has taken over and this song has become part of the human DNA. We can no longer escape it and I’d be an idiot to claim otherwise about this song. It is a part of us whether we like it or not. How Queen managed to do that, I don’t know and never will. It will be one of life’s greatest mysteries and honestly, some mysteries are better left unsolved. All we can do is accept our fates.
Genre: Jazz Pop / Folk Jazz / Art Rock / Avant-Pop
“Truth goes up in vapors The steeples lean Winds of change patriarchs Snug in your bible belt dreams God goes up the chimney Like childhood Santa Claus The good slaves love the good book A rebel loves a cause”
Don’t Interrupt The Sorrow
Why is it so hard to be productive?
I find myself in another one of those dips in life where doing anything seems incredibly difficult. I know it’s not completely abnormal for these moments to occur, but it doesn’t change how crappy it feels going through them. I just feel completely and utterly creatively bankrupt. Not that I don’t have any ideas or any projects I would love to be doing, but the issue is when it comes time to sit down and tackle them, my mind is incessantly blank. I’ve found my motivation and determination have been killed and my sense of purpose is just non-existent. There’s obviously a ton of factors contributing to this dip in productivity that is getting me so incredibly down, but the big problem is finding a solution on how to overcome this dip and get back on track, which seems even more difficult.
It’s hard not to find myself spiraling, lying on the couch, wallowing in my own misery when I start thinking about all the things I wish to be doing. Take this blog for example, when I think about when i started, I would crank out a post a day, and although I know that’s not the most sustainable because life happens, I find myself in a position now where I have all the time in the world and am doing absolutely nothing with it (which then has me spiraling more). I keep trying to write these posts and when I sit to write, again I find myself completely blank and unsure what to write. I had told myself that I would just keep writing these posts, even if I had nothing to say or couldn’t think of anything, but even that started to wear thin on its own. Another issue was I haven’t taken any photos for the photoshop covers in an incredibly long time and I just saw these posts filling up my backlog but never actually getting posted. I’ve been doing this since the Bad Company post and it’s to the point that when I finally release those early posts… what I said in them will be completely irrelevant to what’s currently happening in my life as it’s me talking from god knows how many months ago.
So, I’ve decided to finally just release the posts and stop wasting time on them. When I eventually do do the photoshop covers, I’ll just go back and add them to the post! Regardless they seem to be better off through my Instagram than here anyway. Point is, I shouldn’t stop myself from being productive due to small factors like that. You can always work around things, there’s always a solution. Even in regards to my other projects, I think I’m always in a state that I’m waiting… waiting for what sometimes I don’t know, but waiting for something, something that feels like it’s missing… or waiting for the thing to just happen on its own (which is impossible). It’s time to stop waiting and just to do regardless if things feel ready or not because let’s be honest, nothing is ever truly ready now is it? Hopefully I can stick to it…
I should probably say something about this album, an album I actually enjoyed fairly well. I always like Joni Mitchell and so far it seems every album of hers that’s thrown my way I end up enjoying thoroughly and this was no exception. Coming off the heights of Court and Spark you’d think it’d be hard to follow, but for me it not only continued what Court and Spark did wonderfully but also managed to do its own things as well. I was shocked when I read up on it to hear that upon it’s initial release it was met with widely mixed reviews. People just did not seem to enjoy it at all with the biggest criticism being the music itself, highly praising her lyrics but feeling the music was too distracting from what she was trying to say. This is a totally valid feeling if that is indeed how they felt, but for me, in my own experience, I didn’t feel that way at all. In fact, I felt the music supported the lyrics quite well and the blend of the two seemed to fit rather nicely. I never once felt distracted by it or at any moment felt like it took me out of the experience as a whole. But that’s just me.
With a title like The Hissing of Summer Lawns, it already evoked imagery of summer and for some reason I went into this expecting those kinds of sounds, taking the title of the album a little too literally. I would have enjoyed an album like that as well that made me think of grass and trees and nice breezes as well, but that being said I am just as pleased with the album I did get.
Favourite Song: In France They Kiss on Main Street
Genre: Art Rock / Ambient / Art Pop / Electronic Pop / Ambient Pop / Minimalist / Avant-Pop
“Mau Mau starter ching ching da da Daughter daughter dumpling data Pack and pick the ping-pong starter Carter Carter go get Carter Perigeeeeeee Open stick and delphic doldrums Open click and quantum data.”
Sky Saw
Remember in my last post when I mentioned that I was now starting a new playlist and was excited to finally listen to actual new albums for me? What I mean by this is, since I had listened to the end of the last playlist, I was basically revisiting all those albums and it wasn’t a first time listening type experience when it came to writing the post. I was finally excited to tick off more albums off the list as listened because I didn’t want to start on this playlist until I was absolutely caught up. Well, funnily enough this is not one of those albums. I’ve already heard this album and know it, so I’m not starting off right away with a new one. Oops, haha.
As someone who enjoys Brian Eno, it only made sense that I would have listened to this album on my own time at some point, especially since it closely followed (an album separates the two) Here Come The Warm Jets, an album I love. I was curious to see what Eno had done, especially knowing that later in his career he would start making ambient music. I was curious to see if there was a clear progression that led him to that moment or if it was a sudden and abrupt change in his creative vision as a whole. After listening to this album it became clear that it was definitely the former and this seems to mark the official transition that he would make towards creating ambient music.
Unlike Here Come The Warm Jets, which had a fun mix of art-rock and glam rock that felt like an obvious pre-cursor to post-punk and new wave music, here he stripped it all down and took a much more minimalist approach to his music. Most songs on this album are instrumentals, with the exception of five songs that do include lyrics, and he seems to be experimenting with lush soundscapes, music that paints pictures and evokes feelings through its sounds rather than its words. Another Green World seems like he was influenced by nature and natural elements, which makes it funny that he uses synthesizer so much through the album. He would even go on to create his own unique sounds that would get credited as “Snake Guitar”, “Uncertain Piano”, “Castanet Guitars” or “Leslie Piano” as he attempted to create new sounds that would fit the style of his album. There’s a great example in the opening song called Sky Saw, where the synth noises actually sound like saws. When put all together we get a wonderful experimentation from Brian Eno that showed a massive shift in his style and gave for promising prospects for his musical future.
As much as I have been gushing about Brian Eno, it’s funny that after this album, I haven’t actually listened to any others. I know a few of them will be coming soon and I think there’s a part of me that wants to wait until the moment comes that I get to listen to it for the first time and write down my first thoughts rather than having it be a revisit. I eagerly await the arrival of them because I’ve been wanting to listen to his ambient work for a long time. I know I could just listen to it whenever I want but there’s something exciting about waiting for it, almost like a delayed gratification. It’ll be awhile but I’m sure it’ll b worth the wait.
Genre: Art Rock / Pop Rock / Hard Rock / Avant-Pop
“Well we’ve never done a days work in our life And our records sell in zillions It irrigates my heart with greed To know that you adore me Up yours, up mine But up everybody’s that takes time But we’re working on it Working on it (Ooh)”
The Worst Band in the World
Who said music can’t be good and funny at the same time?
I have quite some affection to this album. It’s nowhere near my favourite album, but it’s one I do enjoy quite a bit. I find myself revisiting it once in awhile and remembering how fun it is as a whole. 10cc are quite an interesting band. They managed to create a rather unique voice when it comes to rock music and at their best they use the foundations of rock in cheeky and clever ways that make for fun and humorous songs. Having heard some of their other albums, it’s clear that their unique vision was fully realised on this album.
I can’t help but smile as I listen to this album, whether it’s the band singing about being the worst band in the world (what bands have the guts to do that?) or merging the ideas of songs with dance moves and realistic woes, there’s just this dry sense of humour that underlies the entire album. One of my favourite is Clockwork Creep, a song that is essentially a duet between a jumbo jet and a bomb that’s in it’s cargo. The idea of even creating a song like that is unbelievable and the music is poppy and upbeat and fun, which just adds to the dark humour of it all. I remember I ha an ex who absolutely hated this song because she found it incredibly annoying, which just had me want to listen to it more and more (just obviously not around her unless I wanted to feel her wrath). It would be easy to dismiss a lot of the music here as silly but really it’s just the band repurposing the sounds of pop in their own twisted way and it’s just absolutely brilliant.
It’s funny I get to talk about an album like this after my last post that talked about leaving place for lesser known albums to get some recognition. I don’t know how big 10cc were at the time and how popular this album was, but it’s definitely albums like this I was talking about. Albums like this that need the space on this list to get the chance to be heard by more people. Its a shame that everyone always loves to talk about the same albums and bands over and over when there’s albums like this that exist that don’t seem to get talked about and were doing just as interesting, innovative and inventive things as their contemporaries that nobody shuts up about. In an ideal world we’d talk about albums like this much more but alas, that’s not the case. So in a way I feel like I get to enjoy something that feels like a secret that only a small niche group of people know about. Honestly, in a lot of ways, there’s something nice about that.
Genre: Glam Rock / Art Rock / Progressive Rock / Pop Rock / Avant-Pop
“That’s how it’s gonna be Before and after me Manufacturing many, many me’s Gonna hang myself from my family tree”
In My Family
I’m so excited! I couldn’t wait to get to this album. I’ve been anticipating it for a long time and anxiously awaiting for the moment I can talk about this album. You see, Sparks is a very special band for me. I love Sparks. Sparks is one of my all-time favourite bands. Sparks has left such an impact on me and my life from when I first discovered them at the early age of 18. Every once in awhile I go back and listen to their entire discography from start to finish (an impressive feat when you realise that they have about 23 albums). I think I’ve done it about 4-5 times now and a sixth is definitely going to be happening some time soon for sure.
It’s always so intimidating when I hit an album or band I absolutely love especially a band like Spark where there is so much to say! I mean, they’ve been making music since the late 60s and are still making music today! They even have a tour coming up (one I am excited to catch!). Throughout their career they’ve touched on all kinds of genres from glam rock, hard rock, disco, electronica, synth pop, new wave, orchestral rock. Every album sounds different than the last and you can see they’re constantly evolving as a band, trying new sounds and new genres and constantly experimenting with that. And yet, despite how vastly different their albums are, they somehow still maintain the fact that they are Sparks. Every album sounds undeniably like them. No matter what genre they seem to be tackling, there’s always no doubt that it’s their voice. It’s a mix of Russel Mael’s falsetto and Ron Mael’s cheeky songwriting that always shines through no matter what sounds they seem to be using. (That’s right the band is comprised of two brothers).
The funniest thing about this band is despite having such a long and successful career… they somehow managed to stay under the radar. They’re finally gaining some visibility and acknowledgement thanks to the Edgar Wright documentary that came out not long ago, but for the longest time, if I were to ask anyone if they’ve heard of Sparks, the answer would always be “No”. There’s a reason they’ve received the monikers of “Best band you’ve never heard” and “Your favourite band’s favourite band”. Highly respected amongst their peers, but not as known by the general public, which is a real shame because their music is absolutely fantastic. WHat makes it so special though is their unique sense of humour that oozes throughout all their songs. They show that you can make great music while also being wickedly hilarious at the same time. They’re the definition of not taking yourself too seriously but taking your work seriously. They’re incredibly witty and tongue in cheek and it’s a shame so many people are missing out on their unique brand of music.
I can honestly do an entire retrospective on Sparks and that would be great! But that would also take up a lot of space and time and I figure I should focus on the album from this list, Kimono My House, the album that gave them their biggest hit in the UK (This Town Ain’t Big Enough For the Both Of Us) and was the band’s most important album in terms of perfecting their voice as musicians but also truly starting their long lasting careers. It also serves as one of the msot interesting and fun albums in the glam rock genre. Overlooked? Underrated? Possibly. Great? Most definitely!
I think it’s appropriate to do one of my rare song by song reviews that I occasionally do! So here goes:
This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us:
The album opens with their most well-known song. Fading in to some great keyboard played by Ron Mael that builds up to when the rest of the band kicks in full force. This song is emblematic of what makes Sparks Sparks and has everything you could want from the band. Upbeat fun, tongue in cheek lyrics, Russel’s falsetto, just enough campiness and clever references. At it’s core it’s a song about the difficulties of love and the anxieties that come with the pursuit of love, but all seen through the lens of hollywood cliches and big, bombastic action scenes (The title coming from a classic line from Western Films). One of the greatest openers to any album.
Amateur Hour:
While most rock and glam bands out there at the time were singing about their intense masculine energy and how great they were at sex, pleasing women left and right and being amazing lovers, Sparks comes out with this cheeky song about being bad at sex and how your partner will teach “you what you must do to be as good as people better than you”. I don’t think other contemporary bands could have had the guts to make a song as this, but that’s the beauty of Sparks!
Falling in Love With Myself Again:
The narcissist’s anthem. A song about basically being in a relationship with yourself, treating yourself as if you were a separate person that you were actually dating. Only Sparks can write a song that’s so arrogant and self-absorbed that is also dripping with charm. It makes it funnier that its written as a pseudo-waltz like song, a dance known as a partnered dance, just to add to the irony of it all.
Here In Heaven:
What starts as sounding as a pleasant, almost idyllic view of the images of being in heaven quickly turns dark when you realise it’s about a failed suicide pact. Sung from the perspective of a husband singing to his still alive wife, Juliet (Clearly a reference to Romeo and Juliet who both end the story by killing themselves), wondering if she had second thoughts before doing the deed and crying about how long he’ll have to wait before she joins him. Dark humour at it’s best.
Thank God It’s Not Christmas:
How can a song that sounds so lively be so sad? A man finds joy in the staying out the entire night at bars and pubs until closing hour, meeting interesting people, dreading going back home where he hates it. Christmas is his most dreaded time of year because everything is closed and he’s forced to spend it at home with his SO that he clearly either dislikes immensely or finds incredibly boring. While everyone else is having a great time at home on Christmas, he’s having the worst day of his life because he just can’t leave it. “Popular days, the popular ways, are for the chosen few, not meant for me and you, obviously”. Thank god it’s not christmas where the misery and pain is much more evident.
Hasta Manana, Monsieur:
A song about misunderstandings and culture shock when encountering a language you don’t understand. With many references and wordplay in reference to grammar and language, it’s another showcase of their skills in lyrics, which includes the ever hilarious line: “You mentioned kant and I was shocked,You know, where I come from, none of the girls have such foul tongues”
Talent Is An Asset:
A fun song that almost sounds like a playful commercial jingle takes on the topic of Albert Einstein and throws every pun and wordplay they can think of in relation to him (A notable one is the term relative in reference to his science but also his family). It’s a fun and incredibly amusing song that is hard not to clap along to.
Complaints:
When you’re hit with something in your life you don’t like you have two choices you can make: grin and bear it or yell it into someone’s ear. The hilarious takedown of people who complain, hard to tell if the song is saying it’s good to let it out or not, but it definitely has a cheeky take about the detriment of complaining too much. The funniest part of it all is the irony that the singer is talking about their annoyance of complaints in a way as if they’re complaining themselves. Complaining about complaints. No matter who we are we will be victims to complaining, whether we choose to keep it to ourselves or not.
In My Family:
We all have families. But what if your family is a generic pool of similar genetics. What if you have a family that has no one of importance in it? What if your family is just filled with a ton of uninteresting, insignificant and boring people just like you? Just filled with genetic clones that keep getting popped out, another indistinguishable leaf on the family tree. This leads to what I feel is the best lyric in the album: “Gonna hang myself from my family tree”.
Equator:
The final song off the album ends where we sort of started, about love and the pursuit of love, but this time a little more depressing and not as humourous. A man pursuing a woman he’s in love with but can never seem to find her. This ill-fated search started when she told him to meet her at the Equator (the longest part of the Earth) which is all the information you need to know about his never-ending search. If the man in the first song was easing his anxiety through hollywood cliches, this one is deluding himself on his fruitless journey.
And that’s the album! There’s a version of it that has two extra songs: Barbecutie and Lost and Found, which are great additions to the album and fit incredibly well. Actually I find Lost and Found to be a stronger ending than Equator! But either way, I can probably gush about this album and band for ages! It sucks this is the only Sparks album on the list, but at least they got one, and that’s a well-deserved acknowledgement on their parts!
Favourite Song: This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us
-Bosco
P.s. In my early days of karaoke when I was still shy to do it, This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us was my go-to song for karaoke. I haven’t sung it in forever, so I’m due!
Genre: Art Rock / Art Pop / Glam Rock / Experimental Pop / Avant-Pop
“Some of them lose – and some of them lose But that’s what they want – and that’s what they choose It’s a burden – such a burden Oh what a burden to be so relied on.”
Cindy Tells Me
Brian Eno is a weird fucking dude. I mean that in the best way possible because when it comes to music, that eccentricity he exudes works incredibly well. But man, he’s a weird looking dude. He seems to have adapted the famous bald guy with long hair look, which will always look weird. I mean, take a look at this:
If you saw this man walking down the street, you’d definitely do a double-take. He kind of looks like an alien who isn’t quite sure what a human is supposed to look like. He kind of looks like Riff-Raff from Rocky Horror Picture Show, unsure if either one was inspired by the others look, but wouldn’t be surprised if there was some look sharing going on there. I don’t mean to rag on his looks (he’s doing absolutely fine, especially at this point in his career) but I mean, LOOK AT THE DUDE!
Alright, enough about that, we’re all here for one thing and one thing only and that’s experiencing Brian Eno’s solo debut. His first album after his departure with Roxy Music and it’s clear he’s bringing along a lot of his musical stylings from Roxy Music with him, while peppering in a lot of his own unique style on top of it. With this album he managed to be post-punk and New Wave way before those two genres even existed. Listening to this album I can hear clear pathways to bands such as Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, Devo, Oingo Boingo, XTC, Magazine, Wire and many more! Which makes sense because a lot of members of these bands were not only hugely influenced by Brian Eno but, also, revered him. He even produced a few of those bands albums, that’s how much of a music legend he would become to be. But before he did that, before he touched the ambient music genre, here he was creating his own avant-garde version of art-pop. Mixing a myriad of experimentation with old school techniques (the bo diddley beat appears on one song) to create music of the future!
I think it’s pretty clear I enjoy this album, but what can I say? This music is right up my alley, it’s the exact kind of stuff I eat up. So maybe there’s a little bit of bias when it comes to it, so be it, but can you blame me? Regardless of what my taste in music is, you can’t deny, Brian Eno was onto something in 1974 when he made this (and maybe on something too). He set the stones for the roads that would lead to the artistic boom that happened in the late 70s and you can clearly see that pathway being laid down with this here album. I, also, have a soft spot for his approach to lyrics, which apparently, according to him, have no meaning to them whatsoever. He apparently would just record some gibberish over the tracks he made and try to turn that gibberish into words, which would explain a lot of the lyrics that have cone out of this album. I just absolutely love that, especially in an age where everyone is trying to dissect things to death and find meaning where there isn’t any, it’s nice to have something that refuses to be dissected because it was built on gibberish. It’s beautiful.
To end this, I just want to say that the first song is called Needle in the Camel’s Eye, which seems inconsequential, but I think is wonderful because as we all know Camels are the most beautiful creatures to exist. No, I will not explain this.
“Lookin’ at the devil, grinnin’ at his gun Fingers start shakin’, I begin to run
Bullets start chasin’ I begin to stop We begin to wrestle I was on the top want to
Thank you f-lettinme be mice elf Agin I wanna thank you falettinme be mice elf Agin”
I’m not feeling the greatest right now. I’m just feeling drained and exhausted and my mind is a complete foggy mess. I’ve been having weird naps during the day and sometimes just feel like I’m walking around in a haze. Not to say things are going well for me overall. I’ve been feeling more motivated to do things, I got the full time job I was supposed to get back in March before Covid hit and have been doing some work for another company as well. I don’t need to wake up early, I’ve started eating fruits everyday and have been reading and doing small things I enjoy. That doesn’t mean I’m not facing my fair share of draining things, I’ve been feeling a little overwhelmed as of late for a variety of reasons and emotionally I do find myself trying my best to keep myself at that state of bliss I do find myself in sometimes these days, but I do find myself falling down a bit too. It’s normal, we’re still living in uncertain times and my social life is basically non-existent. Other than work and Amber, I never leave the house, which of course has its own repercussions to deal with. Isolation isn’t fun and can suck the energy out of you. All that to say, at this moment I am feeling absolutely drained but I promised myself and made it a duty for myself to write at least one of these posts a day, and by god I will stick to it, no matter what.
I do think its important to keep some consistency in your life. I read somewhere that making small promises to yourself and keeping them allow yourself to gain some small control and starting to trust yourself. Ever since I read that, I decided it’d be good to make myself small promises like this and ensure I follow through. Since I have, I have noticed a slight improvement in myself. It’s not the most noticeable at the moment, but if I keep going and even begin to increase the level of the promises, I might seen some clearer improvements. Anything I can do for self-improvement because it became abundantly clear to me that I couldn’t allow myself to live in misery anymore. Even forcing myself to eat the aforementioned fruit everyday has been giving me at least some sort of nutrients, more than I have in the last few months at least. Baby steps, it’s a start.
Speaking of consistent, Sly and the Family Stone return in full throttle with this heavyweight funk album. Damn, is it funky as all hell. It has all the ingredients for an amazing groove, the wah-wah guitar, the beat, the bass groove, the vocals, it just hits you with every funk attitude it can and doesn’t stop until it’s final note. It’s another great album to let yourself get lost in the music and that’s exactly what I did. I’ve listened to it twice today as I found it giving me the small boost I need with my current mood. It just made me feel good inside as I sat here feeling drained, my eyes sinking into their sockets. I just shut off my brain and let myself feel the music and absorb it in and it was some little solace I had in my mental state.
It’s also notable that this band has become timeless. The themes they explore seem to feel even more relevant today. Highly against the idea of riots and all for racial unity (the band was not only multi-racial but multi-gendered as well), he named the album after (possibly) a riot that was caused at one of their concerts (but also possibly due to riots going on and the hippie movement that Sly found himself completely disillusioned by) and had the title track be a silent 0 second song because Sly felt there simply should just be no riots at all. With his involvement in the Black Panther party and his attitudes to race relations, Sly and the Family Stone is a band we need today. A band that stood for unity and wanted everyone to be together, rising up and speaking for unity to everyone, is exactly what we need today in these incredibly divisive times. Sly and the Family Stone wanted to break down the divisions and bring everyone together and having them singing and funking around today would possibly help (a least a tiny bit).
Although a good chunk of the songs here are related to drug use, the band were heavy users by this time, there is a symbolism to it that not only permeates in the sound of the album but also what they were trying to say. That high that you get, getting you smiling and happy, was a state to be in of peace (not the hippie kind). Throughout the funky tracks, there is a bit of a dark undertone that supports the whole album and really drives home the themes he was exploring. Times weren’t pretty at the time (times are definitely not pretty now) and Sly clearly wanted to evoke that feeling. Side A culminates to a 9-minute funk jam that was a response to the backlash from estranged fans that Sly received and end sup being a harshly cynical piece of music (That is so good).
With its dark underbelly, rich funky sounds, moments of highs and moments of societal lows, it creates a perfect blend and mix of what was happening in urban life at the time and this would be considered one of the most important albums for urban music. They spoke the truth and tried to get you grooving to it at the same time, no easy feat. If only they could be around today to speak out for everything. We need a Sly and the Family Stone.
Favourite Song: Africa Talks To You ‘The Asphalt Jungle’
Bosco's Modern Life 