1001 Albums: Suicide

#386

Album: Suicide

Artist: Suicide

Year: 1977

Length: 32:07

Genre: Synth-Punk / Electronic Rock / Synth-Pop / Electronic / Minimalist

“Ghost Rider motorcycle hero

Hey baby, baby, baby he’s a-lookin’ so cute

Sneak around-round-round in a blue jump suit
Ghost Rider motorcycle hero”

Ghost Rider

How do you even begin to talk about an album like this? An album whose sole purpose was to shock and terrify the listener. When performance art duo Alan Vega and Martin Rev conceived of this musical idea, their goal was to scare audiences. Alan Vega would aggressively get into audience members faces in hopes that they would beat the shit out of him in response, screaming gutturally in their personal bubbles., all while Martin Rev was behind his keyboards playing droning bass synths that felt like they were trying to eat your soul and attacking synth sounds with his right hand that pierced through your ears like a sharp needle. As a whole this is not meant to be a pleasant experience, it’s supposed to be disturbing and horrible… and yet… it’s absolutely beautiful in its execution.

Hauntingly beautiful is the words I would use to describe it, because no matter how sinister the album gets, there’s always the strange ethereal beauty just underlaying the whole thing. The best example of this is Cheree, which feels like a love song for two haunted souls finding each other in the afterlife. It’s like the soundtrack to a demented rom-com taking place on a creepy graveyard and I’m here for this. For all of this. Maybe it’s the halloween-esque synth sounds that feel possessed or the added reverb to Alan Vega’s vocals that give it this haunting beauty. Whatever it may be, this is one hell of an experience in the world of synth-punk that you will truly never forget.

How does one even convince people of the dark, sinister beauty of this album? Any average listener would run screaming at the very mention of it. The name of the band is provocative enough, but if they even make it to their ten-minute opus “Frankie Teardrop” there’s no way this person you’re trying to sell the experience on will be by your side. The second Alan Vega’s blood-curdling screams exit his mouth and travel through the speakers into their ears, they’ll be done. Their souls shrivelling up and decaying on the spot. A shiver down your spine is an understatement and he does it not once but multiple times and all to the story of a man snapping and shooting his wife and kids before shooting himself, the horrifying screams replacing the gun shots… how do you sell an album like this to someone?!

I would like to say I can spread the word and convince everyone of the haunting beauty that is Suicide’s Suicide. But, alas, with a piece of music like this, there’s more chances of a rejection happening than an acceptance. I would urge everyone to listen to this album at least once in their lives and experience it for themselves. If I can get just one person to see the album’ for what it is’s haunting beauty then I know I will have done my duty.

Favourite Song: Ghost Rider

-Bosco

1001 Albums: The Clash

#377

Album: The Clash

Artist: The Clash

Year: 1977

Length: 35:18

Genre: Punk Rock

“All across the town, all across the night
Everybody’s drivin’ with full headlight
Black or white you turn it on, or face the new religion
Everybody’s sittin’ ’round watchin’ television

London’s burnin’
(With boredom now)”

London’s Burning

Just like The Stranglers right before this one, The Clash, and specifically this album, was one I used to spin on my record player quite a bit. I remember finding it in a record store and how excited I was to finally have it as part of my collection. At that point, I already had London Calling sitting neatly in the collection, but it was really The Clash’s abrasive and aggressive debut that I really wanted to be holding in my hands. 22 year old me was incredibly excited to get home and blast this through the house (to my parents’ annoyance of course). It’s an album I enjoy enough that two months ago I got to talk about it at my monthly improv show that is based off my record collection. It was a real delight for me to do so.

Like any young guy just getting into Punk music, it made sense that The Clash would be one of my first exposures to it. They’re often hailed as one of the greatest British punk bands ever, and their debut and London Calling are often listed in top albums lists in general. I do like their debut much better than London Calling, even if their musical talents and songwriting skills are showcased much better on London Calling. The punk simplicity of this one always just made for a much more enjoyable experience for me. What can I say, I like my music fast and aggressive and my guitars crunchy and dirty and my vocals angry and passionate. What makes The Clash stand apart from a lot of their straight forward punk contemporaries is they actually knew how to play their instruments very well, which again, would heavily be seen in later albums like London Calling. And although most of the songs embody what we all know as the defining qualities of the punk genre, we do see their reggae influences start to appear on a song like “Police and Thieves”. A fun fact I recently learned about the fact that a lot of punk bands had reggae influences was that, apparently, at the venues they used to play at, reggae music would play over the speakers in between bands performing, so they were constantly exposed to that music. Pretty cool.

Of course, there has been criticisms thrown at The Clash for not truly being punk and being more of a “boy band” in a punk world, and although I feel that could be more attributed to The Sex Pistols (which I will talk about when we get there), I don’t think it fully could be said about The Clash. Sure they were a group of musicians brought together and given a bit of a makeover to fit the punk look, but the music here is full of biting commentary about UK politics and their culture that comes across as genuine that I believe these guys were pissed of at the state of their society and had something to say. A song like “Career Opportunities” still feels heavily relevant today. A take down of the lack of work available for the youth an the complete disillusionment and disdain for those that were available is something everyone of my generation still feels heavily. This may have been written in 1977 but could have easily been written in 2024. Their anger doesn’t end there though, “I’m So Bored With The USA” expresses their annoyance with the Americanisation of their country, their controversial “White Riot” was about class economics and race, and “London’s Burning” vented their frustrations about how boring everything had become.

The Clash left a large impact in the punk world and for good reason. They would become highly influential for future punk bands who tried to emulate their style, the mix of aggressive music with biting lyrics about society and politics would become a large staple of the punk genre. And regardless of that, it’s just a great album from start to finish, having what I feel is one of the best openers to an album with “Janie Jones” but also one of the strongest A-Sides to any album I’ve ever heard. The Clash are often considered one of the best in punk, and even if you might not fully agree with that, you can’t deny that it’s not well deserved on their part.

Favourite Song: Career Opportunities

-Bosco

1001 Albums: Ramones

#364

Album: Ramones

Artist: Ramones

Year: 1976

Length: 29:04

Genre: Punk Rock

“Beat on the brat
Beat on the brat
Beat on the brat with a baseball bat
Oh yeah, oh yeah, uh-oh”

Beat on the Brat

Hey Oh! Let’s Go!

Don’t lie, you probably sang along to that chant. How can you not? Is it one of the most famous call and response moments in music history? I’m sure there’s a debate to be made that it is, but regardless if you know it or not, I’ll admit its incredibly difficult not to chant along when they start singing Blitzkrieg Bop. It’s considered a banger for a reason!

The Ramones have always been a relatively fascinating band to me when it came to Punk history. It’s no secret here that I’m a big fan of the history of the Punk movement and how it came to be and The Ramones are definitely no footnote in it. They’re often considered one of the most influential and important American punk bands of all time. If I’m not mistaken, they’re THE band that is often considered to have been the first to have officially started Punk. Bands before this that were influential were mainly just that, influential, but considered proto-punk. Not until The Ramones burst onto the scene did the Punk moniker seemingly finally come into existence.

It’s a little more complicated than that because the term “Punk” started in the New York scene, especially when it came to artists who were frequenting CBGB’s, which would become the seminal venue for New York Punk and a lot of musical artists would get their start there: Blondie, Television, The Dead Boys, Talking Heads, Devo, Patti Smith, just to name a few. Well, The Ramones happened to be one of these groups and were one of the first to get a record deal. So with their debut out earlier than others, they cemented themselves as the first (with only Patti Smith beating them out). In context of history and culture, I can easily see where The Ramones fit in and how they were considered such a quintessential Punk band for the movement as a whole.

 In general, when looking at them through a modern lens, it seems hard to truly see this as Punk when you think of the Punk ethos as a whole (and not the “aesthetic” of Punk). If they were to release an album today, I’d find it hard to truly call them Punk, however they didn’t come out today, they came out in 1976, so this felt fresh and different. See, what The Ramones did was break down rock back to its primal form. With a music culture that was filled with Prog Rock bands and Rock artists constantly noodling all over their guitars and creating these long, complex soundscapes, The Ramones went back to basics and just played Rock music in its purest form, fast and loud and simple. Add to the fact that they were another band that could barely play their instruments, looked like a couple of ruffians and none of their songs hitting 3 minutes in length. They were doing things their own way and taking a stand against the rock scene at the time, which lets face it, was becoming rather self-indulgent, so yes, that is definitely Punk as we know it. 

Whether you feel that way or not, this album is just an incredibly fun one from start to finish. The speedy length of the tunes just keeps it moving at a break-neck speed and keeps the bangers coming one after the other. There’s a reason people often consider this their favourite Punk album, it’s just that much of a good time. Decades later, Ramones have left a legacy that can be felt in every young Punk who picks up a guitar and wants to play their own music in their basement, wailing and jumping around with teenage angst and energy. Garage bands may have influenced the Ramones heavily, but The Ramones heavily influenced modern garage bands. It’s come full circle in a great way.

Favourite Song: Blitzkrieg Bop

-Bosco

Album World Tour: South Africa

A Journey to Listen to an Album from Every Single Country

6/198

Album: Miriam Makeba

Artist: Miriam Makeba

Year: 1960

Length: 34:42

Genre: World Music / African Music

Before I started this journey to listen to an album from every country, it all began when, one week, I decided to try and listen to albums from different country for the entirety of the week. It started off as something fun for myself but it wasn’t until I chose to listen to Miriam Makeba’s debut that I was inspired to do this as an actual project rather than something just for myself. I don’t quite know what it is about Miriam Makeba’s debut album that has put a spell on me, but it’s become one of those albums that I want other people to know about, that I want people to discover and listen to. I want to share this album with everyone and doing the Album World Tour felt like a great way for me to talk about it to everyone and hope that many others will check it out for themselves.

It’s also fitting that I would choose Miriam Makeba for South Africa since she is considered, not only one of the most important musical artists, but also one of the most important people to come out of South Africa (straight from the city of Johannesburg). She did so much to put not only her country of South Africa onto the map but also had western audiences paying attention more closely to Africa in general as a continent. Basically being seen as an ambassador of sorts, she was given the nickname of “Mama Africa” and was seen as an emblematic of the continent of Africa from the eyes of North Americans. She would also receive the monikers of “Empress of African Song” and “Queen of South African Music”. She would be the one to bring African music to western audiences and would even one of the artists to popularise the term “World Music” (a term she did not particularly enjoy as she felt it marginalised music from the “third world”). It cannot be understated how important she was when it came to bringing African music to Western audiences.

Along with that, she was also an important activist for her country during the times of Apartheid. Openly speaking out against it and vocalising these feelings through her music. She was one of the most visible people to stand up against it and spokesperson for black Africans, to the point that her country would refuse her entry into it. She would use her high profile to testify against apartheid in front of the UN. She became a symbol of the cruelty of Apartheid as many of her songs would get banned in South Africa, where they were eventually distributed in the underground away from the eyes of the government. According to Hugh Masekela (Another artist and an ex-husband of Miriam Makeba), “there [was] nobody in Africa who made the world more aware of what was happening in South Africa than Miriam Makeba”. Nelson Mandela would even send her praises saying, “her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us.” There couldn’t be an artist more fitting to represent South Africa.

Her self-titled debut is something really special. It worked as a showcase of traditional African songs that would be exposed to American audiences. Most songs were sung in her home languages of Xhosa, Swahili and Sotho, with a handful of the English songs being covers of American classics to show she can do those just as well. It’s really the traditional songs that shine on this album with a mix of lullabies, the classic chant of “Mbube” (which would eventually be appropriated by an american band to make the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”) and her famous “The Click Song”, named so because American audiences could not pronounce the original title (something she prefaces the song with). There’s a beauty and grace to her voice that I find rare and even though you might not understand what she is singing, you can feel the sincerity and soul coming from her. She has a lot of love for these songs and it shows and that passion and heart radiates out creating a listening experience that is comforting and warm, like a large blanket enveloping you.

Although, one song off the album has left me baffled for years now. “One More Dance” is the penultimate song off the album and it’s a fascinating and curious song. One of the few sung in English, she sings about a husband whose health is failing and eventually dies. She sounds sad and evokes those emotions well. However, throughout the song a male vocalist sings along in a duet with her… but is laughing his ass off through the entire thing. I have done research and the closest I can find is this song is described as being about two cynical lovers… why this man is laughing about the failing health about this woman’s husband is beyond me and to this day has left me with so many questions. I would love to know the purpose of this duet but for now, it still remains a mystery.

This album left quite an impact on me the first time I heard it about six / seven years ago as I still find myself thinking about it and constantly feeling this desire to have it heard by everyone. It sits nicely in my top 100 favourite albums of all time and is just such a lovely album that is incredibly difficult to dislike. I genuinely do think everyone should listen to this album at least once in their lives and I hope when they do that they also feel the same warmth and comfort I did when I had first heard it.

Camila’s Thoughts: “I will definitely listen to this again in the future. I feel like I’m in a party in a grandma’s basement with lots of good food and so much love around.”

-Bosco

Updated Country List

1001 Albums: Joan Armatrading

#359

Album: Joan Armatrading

Artist: Joan Armatrading

Year: 1976

Length: 41:32

Genre: Folk Rock / Pop

“Oh, the feeling when you’re reeling
You step lightly, thinking you’re number one
Down to zero with a word, leaving for another one
Now you walk with your feet back on the ground
Down to the ground, down to the ground
Down to the ground, down to the ground”

Down To Zero

What can I really say about this lovely piece of music that I just heard for the first time in my life? Sometimes there isn’t much that needs to be said. Sometimes you just experience an album that is purely just good. Solid songwriting, solid musicianship, solid singing, just solid music from start to finish, perfectly packaged in a tight album that never overstays its welcome. It runs exactly the length it needs to run and even leaves you yearning for more as it breezes by briskly. I had never heard of Joan Armatrading before this but found myself falling in love with her music in the same vain I started to fall in love with the music of Soccer Mommy earlier this year. It’s the kind of music you wouldn’t necessarily expect me to enjoy based on my usual tastes and yet it just does something for me that works really well. And sometimes when that happens, you don’t question it, you just accept it and let it happen.

I will say, there was a quality to her voice that I really loved. At times she would go down into a deeper register with her voice and do this sort of frog sounding tone that shouldn’t work and should be weird, but somehow fit in perfectly with what she was doing. It seemed to mesh the strange vocal stylings I usually enjoy quite immensely with  a vocal skill I admire. She kind of reminded me of this blend of Joni Mitchell and PJ Harvey (and yes I know PJ Harvey wouldn’t release music until 1992, almost two decades later, but I didn’t have another point of comparison to explain what I was thinking!). I can see why she became such a big name in female rock especially with this album because her songwriting skills are just off the charts good, perfectly crafting these tunes that at once are full of soul but also can rock in a tuneful way. The more I try to explain it, the harder it becomes to perfectly express into words. So I’d rather not hurt my head trying to do so.

As I said, sometimes you just experience something that you can’t really express with the right words, something that’s good but you can’t quite explain why. And sometimes, that’s totally fine because it’s great to just allow yourself to experience the album and let it be good for you. At least, that’s exactly what I’m going to do with this one. 

Just enjoy it.

Favourite Song: Join The Boys

-Bosco

P.S. I found it funny how this album ended with a song called “Tall In The Saddle” and the next album started with “Back In The Saddle”. That kind of coincidence should always be acknowledged.