Hello from your absentee blog host. I am sorry, to the few souls who will see this post, for my absence of late. I will heal the keenly felt rift in content with my favourite album of late, Virus, by Locura. This is the fifth studio album from the Argentine New Wave band Virus. It was released on St Crispin’s Day in 1985. There are several other albums of note from this band, including Vivo and En Vivo II, as well as 30 Años De Locura (En Vivo), but we shall leave these for another time. Locura means insanity in Spanish, also referred to as ataques de locura (meaning “madness attacks”).
A1 Pronta entrega 4:36
A2 Tomo lo que encuentro 4:19
A3 Pecados para dos 4:00
A4 Destino circular 3:46
B1 Una luna de miel en la mano 5:20
B2 Dicha feliz 3:36
B3 Sin disfraz 5:32
B4 Lugares comunes 3:13
There are only 8 tracks in this album, but each are unique, potent and full of wonderful inventive synth. Pronta Entrega for example starts with nice vocals from Federico José Moura (who sadly dies three years after the album’s release) followed by some sublime synth and guitar which form the base of the song going forward.
My other highlight from the album is Sin Disfraz. The title means without a disguise. The song is ostensibly about the narrator worrying about whether he appears to others like a liar and a nudist (!). But the music is superb. The insistent and hammering synth followed by the drumming and hypnotic, though silly in substance, vocals come together to make a cracking tune.
I’ll keep it short as this is my first post in a while, but suffice it to say this is a very special album. It falls squarely into my musical comfort zone. I am addicted to 80s synth pop and have made a playlist of my favourite tunes in this genre. Virus’ studio and live tracks feature heavily, as you can imagine. Get stuck in!
One album I have kept coming back to this month is Blue Weekend. This album, by London group Wolf Alice is a sort of ethereal rock feast. Produced by Markus Dravs, (Coldplay, Arcade Fire, Mumford & Sons, Florence + the Machine), it certainly packs a punch. Listening to this album transported me into a musical nowhere zone where one floats and lets themselves be carried. There are a few real standout tracks which almost make you feel as though you are at a live show.
Without wishing to heap on unreasonable expectations, it has the distinct tang of an album that could be huge. There’s something undeniable about it, the beguiling sound of a band doing what they do exceptionally well, so that even the most devoted naysayer might be forced to understand its success. Guardian
The first standout for me is Delicious Things. Unfortunately from a lawyer perspective, this song is about taking drugs proffered to Ellie Roswell, the lead singer, while she was out in Los Angeles. It goes without saying that this is not recommended. Musically however, this is a whopper of a track. The way it blends with the preceding track and delivers such force is a marvel to behold.
How Can I Make It OK is another of my favourite tracks. The synth, vocals and driving beat of the track is beautiful and ethereal. The track progresses from a subtle start to an overwhelming wall of sound which I have come to associate with this album. Wolf Alice’s soundscape is very well defined.
Even the acoustic, ostensibly lightweight Safe from Heartbreak (If You Never Fall in Love) packs an Abba-esque lilt to its melody and harmonised vocals. Despite the litany of late-20s worries in the lyrics – friendships floundering as priorities shift (The Beach); the continued allure of hedonism battling the sneaking suspicion it’s not providing the escape it once did (Delicious Things); the desire to keep romantic relationships going despite their evident failings (“I take you back, I know it seems surprising,” shrugs Lipstick on the Glass) – Rowsell’s vocals feel assured, confidently shifting from whispered intimacy to full-throated, arena-rousing, yowling anger, to cut-glass iciness. Guardian
No Hard Feelings is a sensitive breakup track. It is mature and forward thinking, and is also put here sequentially for the purpose of easing us into the last track. We are landing with this track. From a practical standpoint however, I would not take Wolf Alice’s advice and meet with one’s exes.
“No Hard Feelings” mostly consists of Rowsell’s voice backed by bass guitar and almost nothing else—none of the triple-tracked vocals, no guitarmonies, no bleats of synthesizer or Sistine Chapel reverb. Not that it lacks for drama: Rowsell spends the second verse heartbroken in a bathtub, listening to Amy Winehouse, trying to siphon the pain in her music as her own. A few lines later, she realizes “there’s only so much sulking the heart can entertain,” and “No Hard Feelings” emerges as an unusually mature and forward-thinking breakup song. Pitchfork
A masterful, coherent, stellar and varied work. This album showcases a range of talents and a high aptitude for creating a lasting and individual sound. What will Wolf Alice do next?
Heartfelt thanks to my dear Papa who first suggested this to me. I am not as familiar with Graceland as I ought to be but I understand this is an album which was sufficiently weighty to square up to it. Indeed I have listened and re-listened to this album countless times over the year, by myself, with Charlotte and with Nick and it has improved on every listen. It covers themes like love, ageing, and the onslaught of modern life. Regrettably I do not have enough time to give this album the depth of review which it deserves. However, the album does not need my endorsement, it sold two million copies and was nominated for two Grammys.
Though he recorded the album’s prominent percussion tracks in Brazil, Paul Simon fashioned The Rhythm of the Saints as a deliberate follow-up to the artistic breakthrough and commercial comeback that was the South Africa-tinged Graceland.
In the opening track, the protagonist seeks solace in a higher power when he considers his own mortality. The cross is in the ballpark,” Simon sings. “Why deny the obvious child?”. This is followed by The Coast in which a family of travelling musicians take refuge in the harbour church of Saint Cecilia, who is the patron Saint of music.
In counterpoint to these portraits of human affirmation, Simon casts haunted images of damage and helplessness. On the hypnotic “Can’t Run But,” he parallels with unrelenting grimness the steady erosion of the environment, romantic love and even the ability of music to transport the soul. Rolling Stone
This album does require a few re-listens in order to be fully appreciated. Simon paints abstract musical and poetic tableaus with the tracks in this album. The Cool Cool River is one such track, and is worth having a few goes at. The rewards are legion.
Powered by a surging, jagged 9/8 time signature, “The Cool, Cool River” runs through the thematic center of the album. After sketching a canvas of violence, oppression and isolation, Simon fixes the moment when a soul takes flight: “Anger and no one can heal it/Slides through the metal detector/Lives like a mole in a motel/A slide in a slide projector/The cool, cool river/Sweeps the wild, white ocean/The rage of love turns inward/To prayers of deep devotion.” In a startling moment, Simon offers this stark epiphany: “And I believe in the future/We shall suffer no more/Maybe not in my lifetime/But in yours I feel sure.” Rolling Stone
Overall, while I wish I had more time to explore this wonderful album, I shall leave it there. Suffice to say, this is one of those rare albums which hit hard and stay with you for many years, as I am sure will be the case here.
Welcome to the November Edition of ? Favourites. Below are 3 favourite covers this month.
Tame Impala – Currents (2015)
This cover is as excellent as this album. A silver ball or ballbearing is dragged through straight lines, messing up the currents. This psychedelic cover is very impressive in conception and the lines seem to move when you look at them.
Hookworms – The Hum (2014)
My old school friend Louis designed the later covers for this band. My father and I went to see Hookworms performing their new album at the Bundenell in Leeds one year also. I recall they blew the other band, for whom they were opening, out of the water. This cover is slightly creepy but quite well put together. The album itself is quite impressive also.
The Man Machine – Kraftwerk (1978)
This simple 1978 cover is as iconic as the other Kraftwerk covers. It is simple, two tone and effective. Efficient and German as expected. This is one of my go to albums for working.
I hope you have enjoyed this edition of Three Favourites.
A bit late but worth mentioning. ELO’s Out of the Blue is a massive moment in pop history. A double pop album, hitherto only attempted by pro rock artists, Out of the Blue earns its stripes. It is hard to believe this was the band’s seventh album. Unfortunately, with wedding planning, work commitments, qualification, I will not be able to dedicate an enormous amount of time to this review, but the essentials will be covered! The story goes that Jeff Lynne locked himself in a studio in the Alps, with a rented electric piano, tape recorder, and his own guitar. The final two weeks of his sojourn saw him compose 14 tracks of the 19 on the album.
The last ELO album to make a major impact on popular music, Out of the Blue was of a piece with its predecessor, A New World Record, as the most lavishly produced album in the group’s history, but it’s a much more mixed bag as an album, suffering from overkill in several departments. For starters, it was a double LP, a format that has proved daunting to all but a handful of rock artists. The songs were flowing fast and freely from Jeff Lynne at the time, however, and the idea of a double LP was probably tempting as a chance to release an album that was irrefutably substantial. Allmusic
This album has some of ELO’s best tracks on it: Evil Woman, Birmingham Blues (inspired in part by Gershwin’s An American in Paris, don’t you know) and of course, Mr Blue Sky. The album opens with Turn to Stone, which is overproduced (as the rest are) but overall very fun and catchy. Probably the best song on the first side is Night in the City – which I think of often while out in the city.
In the end, every one of the 19 tracks on Out Of the Blue were composed and produced by Lynne and the album was on the shelf in mere months. Out Of the Blue was a great success, reaching the top five on album charts in seven different countries and becoming the most highly regarded album by ELO. The album also benefited from being highly relevant to its time, having some disco-friendly sounds in the year which brought us Saturday Night Fever and spaceship-centered artwork in the year that brought us Star Wars. Classic Rock Review
The third side is called Concerto for a Rainy Day, which Lynne wrote after a long spell of rain in his Swiss chalet gave way to radiant sunshine. It ends in the sublime Mr Blue Sky which is the shining star of the album (aside from its cover).
Overall this is a superbly fun and engaging album which will live in mine and Charlotte’s hearts. We listened to this one evening and it lifted our spirits wonderfully.
Welcome to this month’s edition of Three Favourites, where we discover three album covers which, in the words of Stephen Fry ‘have been intriguing me rather’. Perhaps I should have picked some spooky options but I suppose I see Halloween more as a day in the way of the Solemnity of All Saints, rather than an opportunity to get cavities.
David Bowie – Low (1977)
Bowie is a polymorph, both vampiric and elvish. But, if you have seen Labyrinth, he is also a tights model. In the cover of this awesome album, Mr David Bowie is taken en profile, wearing a rather informal coat / hoodie. He looks the picture of cool, with his coiffed hair and one blue eye showing. If you have not already, I highly recommend listening to this album.
Nick Drake – Made To Love Magic (2004)
This was a posthumous compilation album of some different versions of Mr Drake’s outtakes and some unreleased material. It features a previously unreleased solo acoustic version of “River Man”, dating from early 1968, and the song “Tow the Line”, a previously unheard song from Drake’s final session in July 1974. The cover itself is quite calm, with Drake standing tall at 1 metre 91, next to an unsuspecting normal height couple. There is something quite magical about this photograph.
Ozzy Osbourne – Patient Number 9 (2022)
Finally for this month, Ozzy’s latest. While the vocals now need a slight electronic tuning aid to get the best out of our Brummie hero, he needs no help in the cover art department. A provocative bat brooch, painted nails, cane, steampunk metal background and shock of white hair, this is an excellent and rather piercing cover, and quite spooky!
