Classic Albums: Either/Or

Elliott Smith - Either/Or  (1997)

With his first two albums, Elliott Smith made a name for as a sort of lo-fi, underground god - singing mostly about doing Heroin ("Needle In The Hay"), getting hammered ("St. Ides Heaven") and generally being a bit glum ("Roman Candle"). I personally am at loathe to describe his music as folk-punk, which many journalists have done over the years, but there really is no better description for his early efforts. All the rage, emotion and intensity are there, just unplugged. Imagine if Sid Vicious was blessed with the quivering voice of an angel and voila. There you have it.

His eponymous second album was extremely well received in the indie community and soon Elliot did what all good artists do, he moved to LA for his next album, Either/Or. From the opening chimes of "Speed Trials" it's clear the Mr. Smith isn't quite finished being morose just yet, however for the first time in his floundering career, he began to expand the musical palette beyond an acoustic guitar and some light drums. "Alameda" finds him in a floaty, Beatles-like state. "Ballad of Big Nothing" is possibly the chirpiest song ever written about a vast empty universe, and then comes "Between The Bars" - a gut-wrenching little number drenched in booze and melancholy, which is a lot better than it sounds.

Now, anyone who knows the story of Elliott Smith knows that he struggled quite monumentally with his fame, resulting in a pretty severe drug habit and ultimately his suicide. Sadly, that is also what makes his music so great, for me at least. It's incredibly personal and everything he's going through is there for us all to see and hear. "Pictures Of Me" is another upbeat number about his struggles with fame, "2:45AM" deals with the consequences of him getting beaten up by another human and so on and so forth. There is no-one better at making beautiful music out of what could be considered depressing subject matter. It just pours out of him.

This album ebbs and flows quietly along, changing gears with subtle ease, exploring the depths of the human soul while still making you hum along. Not an easy feat by any stretch. However, it's not all doom and gloom, "Rose Parade" is a lovely little number regarding an annual Los Angeles ceremony and "Say Yes", the album's last track, positively brims with hope, with Elliott repeatedly crooning "I'm in love with the world, through the eyes of a girl". Thus making it all the more ominous that his tragic end was soon to come and the world was deprived of yet another brilliant, unique, ridiculously talented individual. 

If you're reading this going "who the f*ck is Elliott Smith?", sort your life out! I suggest you visit his back catalogue immediately. Starting right here.

Cheers.

JB.

Classic Albums: Astral Weeks

Now, obviously I'm not the first person to sing the praises of this record. Pick up just about any 'Top Albums of All Time' list and you'll be certain to see this one riding pretty high. However, such it the absolute breathtaking beauty of this album, I shall anoint it nonetheless.

Van Morrison, an enigma at the best of times, was at the beginning of his musical career. He had just penned the Essex-wedding staple, "Brown Eyed Girl", and should, by rights, have been a star. However, as the music industry sometimes has a habit of doing, he was instead handcuffed to a Draconian contract and absolutely flat broke. Threatened with deportation back to his native Belfast, he ended up marrying his girlfriend at the time and scratching a living playing grubby little dive bars around New York and Boston. Until, one day, he came in contact with a producer from Warner Bros. Records (at the time known for being artist friendly, as opposed to money-at-all-costs friendly) who was moved to tears upon hearing the title track and declared "I didn't know what it was, I just knew I wanted to be a part of that sound". Thus they agreed to make an album.

Holed up in a New York recording studio, they rounded up a handful of accomplished musicians and recorded the whole album in two days. Yep, two days. An achievement in itself, but what makes this even more interesting is that Van didn't tell the musicians a thing about what they were doing. Their only instruction being "just do what you feel". So Van played the guitar and sang, the others kept up. The end result is astonishing.

What follows is one of the most evocative, passionate, soulful 45 minutes you'll ever hear. There is not a chorus in sight, there is often the ear-piercing Irish wail that he has been unable to match since, there are tales of heartbreak, death, happiness, love and all else in between. The entire thing just pours out of this 23-year old kid (when I was 23 I barely knew how to tie my shoelaces!) and you can't help but get dragged along for the ride. From the opening title track to the mournful "Slim Slow Slider" this album  gets you on a level that's not really even musical after a while. You just have to forget the world you know exists for a bit and feel the man sing. For that reason alone, this ranks as easily one of my favorite records of all time. So, if you so desire, give it a listen. I guarantee that everything you listen too after will seem shiny, plastic and marginally shite in comparison.


Van Morrison - Sweet Thing


Peace and Love,

JB.

Classic Albums: Breaking Atoms

This is the one and only LP from the now defunct Main Source. "Who?" You might ask. Exactly.

So, Main Source were a hip hip group with two DJ's hailing from Toronto (not exactly the most gangsta of hoods) and the one and only Large Professor. "Who?" You might ask. Again, bear with me.

This album, released in the good old days of 1991, is just outstanding music from start to finish. It also covers a wide range of topics, something that sorely lacks from Hip Hop music in this day and age - Bitches, money and gun crime is okay for a few songs, a few albums even, but enough is enough. From the opening bizarre piano loop of "Snake Eyes", a song comparing life to a dice game, you know this is going to be different. From there we delve into Large Professor's failed love life ("Looking at the Front Door"), Police Brutality ("Just a Friendly Game of Baseball") and the misuse of a certain word ("Peace Is Not the Word To Play"). The final song, "Watch Roger Do His Thing" is a tale of a friend from the hood (whose name escapes me...) who goes out, gets a job, works hard at said job, and makes something for himself and his family. Gasp! That's right folks, a positive message from a rap record. Who'd have thought it possible.

All of the wild and varied subject matter aside, the only reason rap gets our attention in the first place is to answer the question "will drunk girls potentially grind with me if heard in a bar?". The answer is an resounding yes. This album boasts some of the funkiest beats the old school has to offer (again from Large Professor - in fact I'm not really sure what the DJ's really do in this group at all. Might explain why they are no longer a group, eh?) and from start to finish I find myself nodding along like the middle class whitey I truly am. Play this loud in your car, and birdies will come a-flocking. So I'm told anyway.

As far as great albums that absolutely no-one has heard of go, this one might take the gold medal. In short, listen to this album now. No-one else has.

Main Source - Snake Eyes

JB.

P.S - this album also features the first performance, ever, from a young fella called Nas (now a rap megastar). Who, despite being about 14 when this was recorded, managed some pretty high levels of offensiveness, declaring himself himself a "police murderer" and claiming "when I was 12 I went to hell for snuffin' Jesus". Haha. Marvelous isn't it? These young black chappies and their unruly ways. Hurrah!

Classic Albums - Illinois

Released in 2005, this album represented the second in Sufjan Stevens' ambitious (to say the least) '50 states project', in which he was to record an album about every state of America, excluding Alaska and Hawaii presumably.

Now, everything about this record tells me I should hate it; the preposterously long song titles, the number of tracks, the consistent use of a choir which sounds like 'It's a small world' on crack. All of this I should hate. Yet this record is so searingly brilliant that I consider it one of my all-time favourites by any artist of any genre.

Few musicians these days are interested in making an album, in the old-fashioned sense of the word. That is, an LP that needs to be listened to from start to finish to be appreciated. A seamless piece of moods, textures and melodies, perfectly segued and working together for the duration of the whole thing. This is one of those albums. It starts with a quiet piano number, before swiftly moving into a mad instrumental about the plight of the Blackhawk Indians. From there, somehow, things only get weirder and wonderfuller. Obviously the hit of the bunch was "Chicago" but there's so much more to enjoy here. Christ, there's even a song about one of America's most notorious serial killers, and it's beautiful.

By the time you get to the last song, you feel as if you've sat through an insane person's very own broadway musical, in the best possible sense. It's a journey, it's certainly a slow burner and it's sure as f**k not for everyone. For me though, it will be forever be one of my tops.

Sufjan Stevens - Casimir Pulaski Day