A great abum to have in the build up to our wedding for many reasons, foremost of which was that it wasn't thrash metal. Building up to our big day with a nice chilled out vibe, including many recognisable tracks, was just what was required. This is an album that I was reasonably familiar with, as I owned it and had heard it a fair few times just after it came out. I hadn't heard it it for at least a decade though, so it was like visiting a familiar friend; pleasant, comforting, but not necessarily exciting.
Melody A.M. was Royksopp's debut, released in 2001, and had a pretty galvanising impact on the dance scene in the early 2000s. It was strongly thematic, with a real depth and variety to the songs that ebb and flow throughout the body of work. Royksopp are a Norwegian group made up of two DJs, Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland. They were strongly infuenced by the handful of radio stations they could listen to in their northern city of Tromsø. Indeed, this album has strong parallels with Mylo's Destroy Rock and Roll, both in terms of its sound and the influence of fragmented snatches of radio broadcasts.
Eple was the bggest selling single from this collection, and it is instantly recognisable as it has featured in the mood music of many TV shows and adverts. Sparks is a great song, with a beautiful, delicate vocal score that is reminsicent of Portishead at their best. Royksopp's Night Out was a real grower for me, and the only properly clubby number on the album, but the stand out song was Remind Me, that features an incredible vocal line by the Kings of Convenience lead singer Erlend Øye. It builds and grows, and you get carried along in this lush arrangement of textures and sounds.
In many ways, this album deserves a higher score than I've given it. However, the variety I speak of is only there if you really focus on the music, and that requires a greater effort than would happen by defult. It is a great album to have playing in the background, or if you're trying to revise, but I dont every feel like I can just sit and fully focus on it straight through. Indeed, trying to do this on a long distance flight led me to skipping through several tracks - hardly a ringing endorsement.
Chloe's rating: 6
Chloe's favourite track: 3. Sparks
Olly's rating: 6
Olly's favourite track: 9. Remind Me
Next week we have 441. Pretenders by The Pretenders, a band I know very little about, but my future father in law loves; I shall obviously remain impartial.
After two albums I think I get the Kinks; they write some excellent songs, have a bit of filler on their albums, comment on social class a lot and have an incredible guitar sound. They strike me a lot as a slightly old-fashioned, and less angry, version of The Jam, which I see as being something of compliment. And my God can they write a good bridge.
This album has some absolutely cracking songs on it. Mr Churchill Says is utterly irreverent, but brilliant in its use of quotations and mesmerising lead guitar. Shangri-La is a fascinating commentary on middle class values, and lyrically is still spot on today. She's Bought a Hat like Princess Marina doesn't reach the same heights musically with a slightly tired harpsichord but it does paint a fascinating picture of upper-middle class striving in the austere environment that was Britain post World War Two. Nothing to Say is truly anthemic and the slow burn success of the album, particularly with its beautiful backing harmonies, powerful horn section and percussive pianos.
It's a shame that a few songs don't seem to jump out in the same way. I would regularly find my attention waning during Young and Innocent Days and Brainwashed, to the point that I would have struggled to name these songs after hearing the album through seven or eight times. They're not bad songs, it just sounds a bit like Ray Davies going through the motions.
The album was written with the title character being based on the Davies' brother in law, Arthur Anning, who had emigrated to Australia with their sister Rosa. Davies apologised for using him as his inspiration only to find that Arthur was flattered. The album was written to act as the soundtrack to a TV show, and was released a few months after The Who's Tommy, demonstrating the trend for concept albums at the time.
I really enjoyed this album, but it is sold slightly short by the few weaker songs that hinder the momentum that the album builds up as it rambles through its nostalgic view of England. As a snapshot of the society it was written in, along with the idea of telling a story through vary varied songwriting, it reminds a bit of A Grand don't come for Free by The Streets. High praise indeed.
Chloe's rating: 8
Chloe's favourite track: 11. Nothing to Say
Olly's rating: 8
Olly's favourite track: 11. Nothing to Say
Next week's album is 927. Melody A.M. by Royksopp, which should be a fairly blissed out soundtrack in the run up to Chloe and I getting married.
A band I did not think I knew at all until about ten minutes into the first listen, and I found myself singing along word for word. It turns out that What "U" Waitin' "4" is on one of the 2 Many DJs compilations, and is actually one of the best tracks off it, so I felt that this album would have a lot of promise.
And, on the whole, it lives up to that promise. There is real innovation and imagination in the variety of tracks, and a sizeable proportion of the songs are catchy as hell. Other than the track mentioned earlier, Acknowledge your own History is a fantastic song, which gets better and better as it progresses, building to a stunning female vocal line near the end. Beeds on a String is very catchy, and Belly Dancin' Dina is as enjoyable on the tenth listen as it is on the first.
Jungle Brothers are a trio from New York City, and it runs through in their themes and lyrics, as well as the cover art. Trying to bridge the gap between hip hop as a new genre, and the history of black music, they cover a variety of topics, both light-hearted and serious, but with a strong social consciousness that runs throughout.
This is what I feel a good hip hop album should be like; interesting enough to hold your attention, and with enough wit and anger to convincingly deliver the message. Unfortunately it also suffers from a major problem with many rap albums in my opinion, in that it is too long, and loses its way in the last third. A more ruthless editing job would end up with a more compelling, less bloated, album.
Chloe's rating: 7
Chloe's favourite track: 6. Acknowledge your own History
Olly's rating: 7
Olly's favourite track: 4. What "U" Waitin' "4"
Next week we have another Kinks album - Arthur, or the decline and fall of the British Empire from 1969. After a couple of listens, it's already sounding better than Something else by The Kinks.
A band I knew a bit about following reading Simon Reynolds' excellent Rip it up and Start again, the only song of theirs I was familiar with was Whip it. It transpires that this is from their second album, so again we were presented with a completely unfamiliar set of tracks. And the titles did not look promising, to be frank Jocko Homo and Mongoloid not inspiring us to be excited. The album was produced by Brian Eno, however, so that's something in its favour.
DEVO are a post-punk band from Ohio who aimed to provoke discussion through their artistic sensibilities. Their live shows became legendary, as they'd always be dressed in some experimental outfits, and made use of an array of high art ideas. The hype surrounding the group grew, and they were signed to Warner Bros following supportive noises being made by Iggy Pop and David Bowie in 1978.
The cover of Satisfaction is great, taking the anthemic Rolling Stones number and turning it into a teutonic rail against everyday life. Praying hands has a fantastic guitar sound coupled with an almost nursery rhyme-esque lyrical simplicity. The frankly terribly titled Mongoloid is actually the stand out track for me, with a driving rhythm that sustains your attention throughout. Having listened to the lyrics carefully on this song, it is actually about someone with a mental disability who is able to lead a full and active life, indeed being "happier than you and me", which enabled me to feel more comfortable listening to it.
Whilst I enjoyed parts of the album, it appears less than the sum of its parts to me. There'll be a great refrain, or chorus, or angular guitar sound, but the time these moments is to long, making it a struggle to remain entirely focused on the album. Chloe picked out the bridge on Jocko Homo as a great example of how good they can sound when they get it right.
Chloe's rating: 6
Chloe's favourite track: 3. Praying Hands
Olly's rating: 6
Olly's favourite track: 5. Mongoloid
Next week we have 641. Done by the Forces of Nature by the Jungle Brothers, one of the last Hip Hop albums of the 80s.
