What does it sound like?:

Peter Gabriel is an intelligent man who retains his curiosity about the world and how we all fit in it together. He remains passionate about nature and climate change, global inequalities, mortality, personal relationships and the redemption to be found in love. He enjoys cutting-edge technology, takes as much care of the visuals as the sound, is drawn to the tones and rhythms of non-Western music and is fascinated by psychotherapy and the possibility of a profound, emotional performance resulting in a kind of catharsis.

He began recording I/O more than twenty years ago, with the intention of following 2002’s Up by 2004. At one point, he had 150 songs on the go. He got waylaid by Womad projects, films, a covers album, string versions of old songs, soundtracks, tours and family illness. As he points out in one of the songs, time slipped in the mirror. To be fair, he only properly settled in a studio with a band in Autumn 2021 to work on 23 songs, then whittled down to twelve. You will have heard them all already. Each track has been released digitally on a full moon, and an alternative » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Mamouna is the apotheosis of solo Ferry. Its sound is almost obscenely opulent, the grooves are graceful, and the voice is yearning. If you are not paying attention, the music is so sleek it can slip by unnoticed. Both Nile Rogers and Brian Eno, never shy of a spotlight, are remarkably restrained with their contributions. There are no real choruses. Desdemona and Toil and Trouble are mentioned in the lyrics but the words are the opposite of Shakespeare, being sparse and opaque. They seem to function as abstract sounds for Ferry to sing. In 1994, Mamouna struggled to gain traction just as Britpop and the edgy dance music of the likes of Underworld captured the mood in the UK. Youthful energy was valued much more than mature sophistication.

However, it is an album that seeps into your consciousness subliminally. Subtle details reveal themselves over time. The tunes are stronger than they first seem and countermelodies creep up unexpectedly. The rhythms are deceptively complex, the ten songs effectively making a single suite, set in a rich soundscape, ebbing and flowing beautifully on a bed of immaculate musicianship. Ferry’s vocal performance across the whole set » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back is the best Rap ever made. More than that, it is one of the greatest albums of any kind. Released in 1988, during Rap’s first golden age, it is stunning both sonically and in the challenge it laid down to its listeners. Driven by rage but sustained by belief, Chuck D’s booming raps are punctuated by Flavor Fav’s waspish buzzing, together painting a picture of life in America for black youth that is still as dispiriting and as vivid today. The imagery is military and incendiary, extending to the stage uniforms and their cross-hair logo, but there isn’t any of the uzi fetishism or misogyny of their debut. This is serious business, tackling real-life issues such as crack addiction, conscientious objection, a loaded justice system, black self sufficiency and junk TV. However, the real revolution is in the sonic assault. Hank and Keith Shocklee, Chuck D and Eric Sadler, otherwise known as The Bomb Squad, create a dense thicket of sound full of barbs, interweaving multiple samples from a breathtaking array of sources, from political speeches, forgotten James Brown’s rhythms to a Slayer thrash » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Kirsty MacColl is a darling of The Afterword but not particularly well known in the real world. Her biggest hit was guesting on The Pogues’ Fairytale Of New York but how many listeners to that song can name the woman who plays the role of curmudgeonly wife? There may well be more U2 fans aware that she sequenced The Joshua Tree than have actually listened to her songs. French And Saunders obsessives probably wouldn’t recognise her despite her frequent appearances in the video skits. Her career is littered with mishaps and near misses. Her first single, They Don’t Know, attracted a good deal of airplay but sales were thwarted by a distributors strike and it failed to chart. She suffered crippling stage fright and went through a long period of writer’s block. She released five studio albums in her lifetime for four different record companies. When Stiff Records went bust, no-one picked up her contract from the receiver and she had to make a living providing backing vocals for others. It helped that her husband was producer Steve Lillywhite. Her last album, Tropical Brainstorm, was certified Gold in the UK but, nevertheless, her label » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Tony Visconti has reached the point in life, at nearly eighty, when he is taking stock, looking back on his career and weighing up how big a difference he has made in the frivolous world of Pop. Naturally, being American, he is not shy in coming forward. With the help of Edsel, he has put together two luxurious box sets, one for 77 tracks on 4 CDs and the other with 73 on 6 LPs. Licensing issues mean that the four Bowie tracks on CD are dropped for the vinyl. There is also the option of a 30 track double LP. The book in the boxes includes an essay by Mark Paytress and detailed notes of Visconti’s thoughts on each song, plus lots of period photographs. He curates the whole thing and personally oversees the remastering by Phil Kinrade. Produced By Tony Visconti is the best representation of his life’s work, according to the man himself. It is a blatant vanity project. He even provides the sales pitch: Tony says, “This boxset covers five and a half decades of my efforts in the art of making iconic recordings. Some of it is familiar and » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret is the opposite side of the same synthesised coin as The Human League’s Dare, the grubby tails to the polished heads. Released a month apart in late 1981, they have much in common but tell very different stories of the industrial North. Both bands came into being because of a drop in the price of electronic parts, making early Korg synthesisers affordable. Dave Ball and Marc Almond met at Leeds Polytechnic, The Human League hail from Sheffield. Both love Tamla Motown, Soft Cell the frantic Northern Soul end of the catalogue, the Human League the romantic soulful end. They share a sense of melody, a wicked sense of humour and a desire to fill dancefloors. Both created club hit B sides, Memorabilia and Hard Times, and both followed up the parent album with one of remixes, Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing and Love And Dancing. However, whereas Phil Oakey sang with insouciant cool, Almond was sweaty, breathless, constantly gyrating. Oakey’s baritone was sleek and stylish, Almond’s voice wild and expressive. Jo Callis and Ian Burden’s synthesisers sound smooth and silky, Ball’s battered and second-hand. Dare aspired to glamour, dreaming of a better » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

The Stones are back! Hackney Diamonds struts like a Stone, riffs like a Stone and rocks like a Stone. It actually follows the blueprint of their imperial phase. There is the ancient Blues cover (Rolling Stone Blues), the one with the stretched-out musical interlude (Sweet Sounds Of Heaven), the country song (Dreamy Skies), the social verité (Whole Wide World), the Keef lead vocal (Tell Me Straight) and the real jaw-dropper (Depending On You). Only the smutty rocker is missing, unless you accept the swearing in Bite My Head Off, but there are plenty of riffs to compensate. There has been no musical progression since the mid seventies but who wants groundbreaking experimentation from The Rolling Stones?

Most of it was recorded straight after the 60th anniversary tour and the band are a well-oiled machine. It’s the same band that recorded The Bigger Bang in 2005, apart from Steve Jordan. Rolling Stones guitars have a tendency to being sloppy but, here, they are sharp and focussed. Keef has adapted his playing to his state of arthritis and has come up with a raft of fiery riffs. The Keef/Ronnie interweave and solos are lean and purposeful. » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Joni Mitchell’s strategy for her reissue programme is to house all the outtakes and extras in separate boxes to the albums themselves. Casual fans can enjoy the albums without having to wade through a load of takes they may listen to only once, while enthusiasts can indulge themselves in the whole lot. Volume Three of her archive extras oozes with the confidence and class of a great artist bang in the middle of her imperial phase. You can hear her in demos, alternate studio recordings and live interpretations taking risks and making the choices that produced three superlative albums, For The Roses, Court & Spark and The Hissing Of Summer Lawns. She is unhurried but restless, honing her craft as a musician, a writer and a producer, at an astonishing rate. She sounds utterly alive. On Blue, she had achieved the supreme realisation of the singer songwriter, exquisite in its honesty and its simplicity. Ever the innovator, this box follows her as she broadens her soundscape and incorporates modal jazz into her art. She’d used polymodal composition techniques since her first album. Now, she challenges her listeners further while still taking care to gently » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Beastie Boys began life as a bunch of frat boys indulging in a juvenile party, playing in an Indie band. Privileged sons of an architect, a playwrite and an art dealer, they knew nothing of life in a ghetto but they soon discovered the joy in larking about and shouting daft rhymes over the top of Led Zeppelin beats. Their eager-puppy charm took their debut, Licensed To Ill, to number one, the first Hip Hop album to do so. They then got serious about making records. Paul’s Boutique is a remarkably skilful collage of samples, largely thanks to The Dust Brothers. It flopped on release but was soon regarded as a landmark Rap album. Both Check Your Head and Ill Communication feature the Boys playing their original instruments as lo-fi indie-skateboarders, Ad-Rock guitar, MCA bass and Mike D drums, plus frequent collaborator Money Mark on keys. They are loud, dense, multilayered and full of raucous energy. Ill Communication got them back to number one in the US. By 1998, they were well respected, loved even, making plenty of money and over thirty years old.

Hello Nasty is a huge sprawl spread over almost the » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

The Lexicon Of Love, released in June 1982, confirmed that eighties Pop music had grown up. It followed The Human League’s Dare, Japan’s Tin Drum and Roxy Music’s Avalon over a period of eight months, shifting the UK musical landscape from Punk, New Wave, Agit-Funk to beautifully produced, gorgeous sounding, hopelessly romantic magnets to the dance floor. Martin Rushent worked his alchemy on Dare, Steve Nye, who refined his craft on Siren, did the same for Tin Drum and Rhett Davies’s deft skills grace Avalon. On The Lexicon Of Love, Trevor Horn, ably assisted by Gary Langan engineer, J.J. Jeczalik programner and Anne Dudley arranger, surpasses them all. He is known for his excesses but even though The Lexicon Of Love includes his trademark kitchen sink and a glockenspiel, it’s his best, most coherent work, successfully stitching together a breathtaking variety of different elements. He and the musicians take Computer World’s multi-layered synthesisers, Fear Of Music’s spiky guitars, Earth, Wind & Fire’s horns, Chic’s strings, Mark King’s bass flourishes, and Gang Of Four’s Rock solid drums to create a panoramic spectacle. Martin Fry takes his cue from Bryan Ferry both sartorially and in his » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Joni Mitchell is a popular music icon who completely redefined the singer songwriter role with her multi-octave vocal range, unusual chords and disarmingly frank lyrics. She steadfastly challenged the male-dominant music business and coaxed her listeners to think differently. A true innovator, she bent the normal rules of songwriting and performing to create something gloriously new. She is also a human being approaching the age of eighty whose life has been long and colourful but tempered by adverse life events. Those unusual chords were often a pragmatic solution to a left hand weakened by childhood polio. Her voice has been losing upper registers steadily over a couple of decades, getting closer to the rasp of her hero, the British jazz singer and actress Annie Ross. She has endured a very distressing medical condition called Morgellons and, in 2015, an aneurysm ruptured in her brain. Her rehabilitation involved monthly musical ‘jam’ sessions. Close friends and supporters would attend regularly but the list of famous guests dropping in to participate is stellar including Elton John, Paul McCartney, Bonnie Raitt, Harry Styles, Chaka Khan, Marcus Mumford and Herbie Hancock.

This live recording of her unexpected appearance at Newport last year is a celebration, a » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Marc Bolan began recording the material in this box in August 1972, brimming with confidence, at the peak of his creativity and the zenith of his commercial success. He’d enjoyed a run of number one singles, his last album, The Slider, was making waves in America and a movie documenting a T.Rextasy tour was in the can. By the end of it, his band was disintegrating, his trusted producer had quit, the single that gives the box its title failed to enter the top ten and its parent album couldn’t even find a record label in the USA. His next LP did not chart at all. A well compiled Great Hits failed to make the top thirty. In that context, you might expect the 4 CD/5 LP Whatever Happened To The Teenage Dream? to track the diminishing returns of an artistic decline. However, it’s not as simple as that.

Tanx opens with a stumble and concludes with a crash. In between, is the smoothest, most polished of all T.Rex albums. The traditional T.Rex sound is supplemented by mellotron, phased vocals and slurpy sax. The songwriting is more varied, incorporating soul, funk and gospel. The » Continue Reading.