VAN MORRISON: ENLIGHTENMENT (1990)

RELEASE DATE: October 1990
TRACKS TO DOWNLOAD: Real Real Gone, Enlightenment, In The Days Before Rock ‘n’ Roll.

WITH such an extensive back catalogue, Van Morrison’s Enlightenment album is perhaps not the obvious choice to be put under the spotlight. Being his twentieth studio LP, it nevertheless broke into the UK national album charts, peaking at number five. Jaunty opening track Real Real Gone was one of the singles released from the album and became a top twenty hit, peaking at number 18 on the Billboard chart.

Van The Man, as he is affectionately known, is notoriously difficult to work with, and something of an all-round curmudgeon if the many tales regarding him are to be believed. Fans talk of whole shows where he sang with his back to the audience. He is also quite strict with his band, issuing them with numerous fines for any perceived mistakes noticed by his Van-ness. Allegedly, he also once sacked a roadie for playing with a key fob backstage, dismissing him with the immortal line “This is no place for key janglers”.

Clearly a complex character, Van Morrison is undoubtedly one of the best British singers of the past 50 years. His output has been consistently high and he has kept on working when many of his peers had long since given up, or worse still, died.

For a man with such a fierce reputation, Enlightenment is a decidedly mellow affair. The title track is a mid tempo ballad questioning the nature of life and living in the here and now.
Stand-out track In The Days Before Rock ‘n’ Roll imagines Van as a keen youth, kneeling down next to the family wireless to tune into Radio Luxembourg. For many years this was the only radio station where you could hear the emerging rock ‘n’ roll talents like Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard. Van namechecks them all, and at the end of the song, which, at over eight minutes, is something of an opus, spoken word artist Paul Durcan is heard to comment “You certainly got a lot of beautiful things in there, Van”.

The album was re-mastered and re-issued in June 2008 and is well worth tracking down.

(c) DAVID DUFFIN

[First published in the Evening Mail]

THE QUEEN IS DEAD (THE SMITHS)

ARTIST: The Smiths

TITLE: The Queen Is Dead

RELEASE DATE: June 1986

TRACKS TO DOWNLOAD: The Queen Is Dead, I Know It’s Over, There Is a Light That Never Goes Out

THE Queen Is Dead was the third studio album from The Smiths, and reached the no.2 spot in the national album chart. The band’s previous album, Meat Is Murder, became a number one album despite including no hit singles in its original track sequencing. For the US release, the vibrato-led anthem How Soon Is Now? was added, after being used in a commercial for Pepe jeans. Hatful Of Hollow, cited by ‘Call-Me-Dave’ Cameron as his favourite Smiths release, was something of an oddity, being a collection of sessions for the John Peel radio show, B-sides, the aforementioned How Soon Is Now? and the splendid William, It Was Really Nothing.

 

Morrissey’s cutting humour and dark pathos are always evident in his lyrics, and came to their fore with The Queen Is Dead. Ever anti-establishment, even the album’s title assured that Morrissey would never be honoured in the New Year’s List, and he probably wouldn’t have it any other way. The opening title track, with it’s Take Me Back To Dear Old Blighty intro (from the kitchen-sink drama film The L-Shaped Room) is a ferocious 12-bar rocker, which some fans may not have expected. On tour, they would augment their 4-piece line-up with rhythm guitarist Craig Gannon.

 

The jaunty Cemetry Gates details Morrissey’s headstone wanderings with early Buzzcocks singer Howard Devoto, who later would go onto front new-wave art rock band Magazine. The anthems on the album are I Know It’s Over, in which Moz imagines being buried alive as a metaphor for a failed relationship and the equally haunting There Is A Light That Never Goes Out. No one jangles and spangles like guitarist Johnny Marr, and his work on this album is exemplary. Despite his reputation for dourness, there is much humour in evidence, such as Vicar In A Tutu and the hilarious Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others, which plants an image in the mind of Anthony opening a crate of ale in front of Cleopatra. This album is a priceless English treasure.

(c) DAVID DUFFIN

* First published (in amended form) in the Evening Mail (Thu.17.Feb.’11)

OUTLANDOS D’AMOUR (THE POLICE)

TITLE: Outlandos d’Amour

ARTIST: The Police

RELEASE DATE: November 1978

RUNNING TIME: 38 mins. 14 secs.

TRACKS TO DOWNLOAD: So Lonely, Roxanne, Can’t Stand Losing You, Born in the 50’s

 

THE Police arrived on the coat tails of the short-lived punk scene and the emerging new wave sound that immediately followed. The core trio of Sting (lead vocals/bass guitar), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums) were inspired by the energy and raw attitude of the punk movement, but there was one important difference that set them apart from other acts – they could play their instruments really well.

 

All three were already seasoned and accomplished musicians who had paid their musical dues long before the punk explosion was dreamt up. As well as the high octane punk/new wave ingredients, their music also contained various other elements, including pop and reggae. This would eventually morph into their trademark fusion sound and catapult the band to global success.

 

Before this occurred, however, the band’s road to stardom was a tough one. Recorded at Surrey Sound Studios for the tiny budget of £1,500, Outlandos d’Amour was a hard laboured affair that also failed to impress the critics upon its release. The BBC were not keen on promoting or playing songs on the radio about prostitution (Roxanne) and suicide (Can’t Stand Losing You), so radio play was shaky at best.

 

The picture sleeve photograph for the 7 inch single release of Can’t Stand Losing You featured a stark black and white photograph of Stewart Copeland with a noose around his neck, standing on a large block of ice, waiting for a two-bar electric fire to melt the ice. The black humour was lost on the BBC, and the band also received criticism from other quarters too.

 

This meant that, initially at least, Outlandos d’Amour was a commercial flop. It would be April of the next year, 1979, before it would achieve respectable chart success, eventually peaking at no.6 on the national album charts, spending a total of 96 weeks in the LP charts. The Police were then on their way, and four further studio albums would be released, garnering them eventual worldwide fame.

* First published in the Evening Mail (Thu.1.March.’12)

PENTHOUSE (LUNA)

TITLE: Penthouse

ARTIST: Luna

RELEASE DATE: August 1995

RUNNING TIME: 51 mins. 16 secs.

TRACKS TO DOWNLOAD: Chinatown, Moon Palace, Lost in Space

LUNA emerged from the ashes of Galaxie 500, an influential indie trio from Boston who recorded three albums before singer songwriter Dean Wareham called it a day in 1991.

Enlisting the help of bass player Justin Harwood (The Chills) and ex-Feelies drummer Stanley Demeski, Wareham set about recording the first Luna album, Lunapark, which surfaced in 1992.

A few years later, and the band released their third LP, Penthouse, to critical acclaim but national silence. They were now firmly established as a four-piece band, with guitarist Sean Eden joining the band from their 2^nd album (Bewitched) onwards. His 6-string sonic shapes matched well with Wareham’s spacey riffs and laconic vocal delivery, and Penthouse is probably the peak of the band’s studio recorded output.

There’s a dreamy nonchalance about Penthouse, kicking off with the sleazy Chinatown and continuing with the brilliantly simple Moon Palace, which Wareham still counts as his favourite Luna track. The rumbling 23 Minutes in Brussels transforms into a mesmerising full band space rock work-out, and would often be a centre point of the band’s live shows.

Lost in Space is an echo drenched love ballad gone wrong, while closing track Freakin’ and Peakin’ highlights Wareham’s fascination with the Some Girls-era Rolling Stones, ending with a riffing duel between Dean and Sean. The hidden bonus track is a version of the Serge Gainsbourg song, Bonnie and Clyde, featuring Laetitia from Stereolab taking on the Bonnie Parker role, while Wareham sings in French.

While bands like Mercury Rev (their guitarist, Grasshopper started off with Luna) and the Flaming Lips went on to achieve global acclaim and multi-platinum record sales, Luna remained resolutely under the radar until they finally split in 2005.

Often described as a mixture of dream pop and indie rock, Luna owe much to the style and delivery of the Velvet Underground, and were personally chosen by Lou Reed to support the reformed Velvets on their re-union tour of Europe in 1993.

^ above: the latter-day Luna line-up: Sean Eden (guitar/vocals), Dean Wareham (vocals/guitar), Lee Wall (drums), Britta Phillips (bass/vocals)

* First published in the Evening Mail (Thu.27.Oct.’11)

AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE (R.E.M.)

TITLE: Automatic for the People

ARTIST: R.E.M.

RELEASE DATE: October 1992

RUNNING TIME: 48 mins. 53 secs.

TRACKS TO DOWNLOAD: Man on the Moon, Nightswimming, Find the River

 

FOLLOWING the huge success of 1990’s largely acoustic sounding Out of Time album, R.E.M. had initially planned to return to their roots, with a collection of more driving rock songs. What they ended up with, for their eighth studio album was a lush affair with orchestration called Automatic for the People.

 

Of the twelve tracks on the album, no fewer than six of them would be released as singles: Drive, Everybody Hurts, The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight, Man on the Moon, Nightswimming and Find the River. Everybody Hurts took on a life of its own, and the video seemed to be on a constant loop on MTV throughout the 90s.

 

The four-piece band had come a long way from their low-key beginnings in Athens, Georgia way back in 1980. Frontman Michael Stipe, initially a mumbling singer who shunned the limelight, had blossomed into an enigmatic showman. His band weren’t bad either. Peter Buck’s guitar lines always found a steady foundation with the deluxe rhythm section of Mike Mills (bass) and rock solid drummer Bill Berry.

 

There has been much speculation that R.E.M. created the template for indie and alternative rock bands. There’s perhaps some truth in this, as they signed to a relatively small independent label (I.R.S.) and toured constantly to finance the next record. Their success was a slow-burn affair too. By the time they signed to major label Warners and released Green in 1988, they already had five critically acclaimed studio albums, a B-sides collection (Dead Letter Office) and a jumbled hits album (Eponymous) under their belts.

 

It’s doubtful that a band like R.E.M. would be given the room to grow and breathe on their own terms nowadays – they would be dropped by the record company after the second album failed to take off. With the news that they have decided to call time on R.E.M. after 31 years, it’s perhaps time to look back and recall just how good they were.

* First published in the Evening Mail (Thu.29.Sept.’11)

THE UNDERTONES (THE UNDERTONES)

 

TITLE: The Undertones

ARTIST: The Undertones

RELEASE DATE: May 1979

RUNNING TIME: 34 mins. 42 secs.

TRACKS TO DOWNLOAD: Teenage Kicks, Get Over You, Jimmy Jimmy

 

THE Undertones arrived amid the post punk and new wave flurry, and were gladly received by much-missed Radio 1 DJ John Peel. He championed the band from an early point, affording them much air-play on his night-time show, which was a ‘must listen’ for the discerning music fan who wanted to delve beyond the popular chart music of the day.

 

Teenage Kicks smashed through the airwaves with its melodic power pop and simplicity, earning the band a top 40 hit in October 1978. Despite featuring one of the best recorded whistles on record, their follow-up, Get Over You, only made it into the top 60. Jimmy Jimmy was a top 20 hit just before the band’s self-titled debut album was released.

Hailing from Derry in Northern Ireland, The Undertones were the opposite of pop glamour, wearing street clothes that chimed in with the ‘do it yourself’ motif of the punk and new wave explosion.

 

The band seemed to falter when they grew up, releasing more considered albums like The Sin Of Pride in 1983. It seemed as if the record buying public didn’t want the snorkel-parka wearing lads to grow up, despite great singles such as the echo drenched Julie Ocean.

 

Their debut contains everything you need to know about the dual guitar songwriting team of John and Damian O’Neill and also features the very best of lead singer Feargal Sharkey’s trademark quavering vocals.

 

The band eventually split up in the summer of 1983, and singer Feargal went on to sing the lead on The Assembly’s Never Never single. He became a solo artist in his own right, enjoying hit singles with A Good Heart and You Little Thief, before becoming a record company A+R man and music industry activist.

 

The O’Neill brothers formed the band That Petrol Emotion in the 80s, and have since reformed The Undertones for touring and album releases, albeit without Feargal.

* First published in the Evening Mail (Thu.22.Sept.’11)

BONA DRAG (MORRISSEY)

 

TITLE: Bona Drag

ARTIST: Morrissey

RELEASE DATE: October 1990

RUNNING TIME: 49 mins. 45 secs.

TRACKS TO DOWNLOAD: Interesting Drug, Suedehead, Everyday is Like Sunday

 

ONCE The Smiths had called it a day in 1987, the future seemed briefly uncertain for enigmatic frontman Morrissey. He was soon to emerge as a solo artist though, and indeed, had almost been in rehearsal for that role during the promotion for the final Smiths album Strangeways, Here We Come.

 

The band fell apart following the departure of guitarist Johnny Marr, leaving a lone Morrissey at the helm to publicise the record. He appeared on his own in a number of promo videos, and was at one time joined by a multitude of Moz lookalikes on bicycles.

 

This all served to increase and amplify the myths already surrounding Morrissey, and his solo singles were instant successes. His landmark gig at Wolverhampton Civic Hall cemented his position as an iconic vocalist who could seemingly transcend the confines of a band and prosper as a solo act. For that concert though, and for some of his single releases, Morrissey’s backing band was basically The Smiths minus Johnny Marr, with The Queen Is Dead‘s extra guitarist Craig Gannon returning to the fold.

 

Bona Drag gathers together Moz’s first seven chart singles, plus some pertinent B-sides and off-cuts. His debut solo LP, Viva Hate, reached the no.1 spot in the album charts, and yet Bona Drag seems to offer a wider and more panoramic picture of where Morrissey was at following the demise of The Smiths.

 

Everyday is Like Sunday became a staple of the fledgling MTV music channel, showing Morrissey at the grave of one of his idols, 50s screen heart throb James Dean. It went on to be covered by Natalie Merchant’s 10,000 Maniacs, and remains a steadfast snapshot of dour, grey English life.

 

Other stand-out tracks include the irreverent Hairdresser On Fire and He Knows I’d Love To See Him, which many fans think is Morrissey’s lyrical postcard to the departed Marr. That Morrissey is still loved and revered today is testament, in part, to the firm foundations laid out early in his solo career – and they’re all collected here on Bona Drag.

* First published in the Evening Mail (Thu.15.Sept.’11)

HOPES AND FEARS (KEANE)

 

TITLE: Hopes and Fears

ARTIST: Keane

RELEASE DATE: May 2004

RUNNING TIME: 50 mins. 37 secs.

TRACKS TO DOWNLOAD: Somewhere Only We Know, Everybody’s Changing, This is the Last Time

 

KEANE burst onto the scene with their stunning debut album, Hopes and Fears, in the summer of 2004. Although new to the record buying public, the band, from Battle in East Sussex, actually formed in 1997.

 

When they first appeared on TV, the most noticeable thing about their line-up was that they didn’t have a guitarist. Founder member and guitar player Dominic Scott had been with the band from the beginning, finally leaving in 2001 before they broke through.

 

So Keane appeared as a trio, lining up as Tim Rice-Oxley (piano, keyboards and backing vocals), Richard Hughes (drums and percussion) and lead singer Tom Chaplin. Rice-Oxley played bass on the album, and for live gigs, made use of sequencers which he could trigger from his keyboard station.

 

In the wake of the guitar heavy Brit Pop scene, an English alternative rock band such as Keane were a real breath of fresh air. With their line-up, only Tom Chaplin was free to move around the stage, and he embraced this role with gusto. His emotional vocals veered from soft spoken, almost whispered, intonations through to soaring rock and powerful falsetto.

 

Without a guitar slinger in the line-up, the songs came to the fore, unfettered by limelight hogging histrionics or never ending guitar breaks and solos. There is a melancholy at the heart of Keane’s music, particularly in Chaplin’s lyrics of loss, betrayal and abject loneliness. The plaintive piano and utilitarian drumming backed up these central themes brilliantly.

 

Their most well-known songs, the singles, Everybody’s Changing and Somewhere Only We Know, demonstrate this admirably, but the same feeling is evident throughout the album. Bend and Break, She Has No Time, Can’t Stop Now and This is the Last Time – every track is full of emotion and longing. And then there is the final track, Bedshaped – you’d be hard pushed to find a more downbeat song. Through it all though, Keane retain beauty, pop hooks and great melodies – it’s an uplifting journey.

* First published in the Evening Mail (Thu.5.Jan.’12)

PSYCHOCANDY (THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN)

 

TITLE: Psychocandy

ARTIST: The Jesus and Mary Chain

RELEASE DATE: November 1985

RUNNING TIME: 42 mins. 22 secs.

TRACKS TO DOWNLOAD: Just Like Honey, Taste of Cindy, Some Candy Talking, Never Understand

THE Jesus and Mary Chain made headlines from the very start, not least for their band name, which many Christians found deeply offensive. Their live concerts were both short, sharp and shocking. Many of their shows ended under the 20 minute mark, with musical equipment being destroyed and violence erupting amid the audience.

Hailing from Scotland, brothers Jim (lead vocals, guitar) and William Reid (lead guitar, vocals) had an abiding love for 60s bubblegum pop records. They were also hugely influenced by the punk and new wave scene of the mid-70s, particularly early U.S. pioneers such as the New York Dolls and The Ramones, with their uncompromising take on pop songs, made super heavy with distorted guitars and pounding drums. This also linked in to their love for anything produced by legendary 60s record producer Phil Spector, with his signature huge reverb drums and the original ‘wall of sound’ production techniques.

After a series of early home portastudio recordings, the Mary Chain recruited Douglas Hart on bass guitar and Bobby Gillespie on drums. Hart famously only ever had two strings on his bass, while Bobby’s kit consisted merely of a floor tom and a snare drum with a tambourine gaffa taped to the batter skin. This was a nod back to the Velvet Underground, and their female drummer Moe Tucker, who, like Gillespie, played standing up

Their debut album, Psychocandy confounded many critics, as it was swathed in ear splitting feedback and unrelenting distorted guitar attack. What lies beneath are some great pop songs, such as opener Just Like Honey, which, much later, would be used to great effect at the climax of the Bill Murray film Lost In Translation. The Mary Chain, and Psychocandy in particular were a perverse answer to the super slick studio output of the mid-80s, and although shocking and unpalatable to many, it influenced legions of bands including Sonic Youth, Nirvana and Glasvegas.

* First published in the Evening Mail (Thu.15.March.’12)

TALKING WITH THE TAXMAN ABOUT POETRY (BILLY BRAGG)

 

TITLE: Talking With the Taxman About Poetry

ARTIST: Billy Bragg

RELEASE DATE: September 1986

RUNNING TIME: 38 mins. 29 secs.

TRACKS TO DOWNLOAD: Greetings to the New Brunette, Levi Stubbs’ Tears, The Marriage, Help Save The Youth of America

 

BILLY Bragg broke onto the national music scene with his debut mini-album Life’s a Riot With Spy Vs Spy which made it into the top 30 at the beginning of 1984. This 7-song offering featured A New England, which would later be covered by Kirsty MacColl and become a huge hit.

 

Bragg’s solo delivery was brash and to the point, with over-driven electric guitar and barked out vocals. His songs though, such as The Milkman of Human Kindness, had a real, almost poetic depth to them, which proved to be a much needed tonic to the over-produced fare that was filling up the rest of the charts at the time.

 

Later in the year, he released the full length Brewing Up With Billy Bragg album. At the time, the record industry were concerned that music fans who bought compact cassette tapes would simply borrow albums to record them onto tape, and thus fail to buy them on vinyl or the emerging new compact disc format. Home Taping Is Killing Music screamed the stickers. With the clever catchphrase, Home Taping Is Skill In Music, Bragg countered with cassette copies of Brewing Up With. Side A contained the album in its entirety, while side B remained blank, for the listener to record a bootleg or album of their choice.

 

Bragg arrived at an auspicious moment in UK politics, with Margaret Thatcher’s cast iron grip threatening to destroy the welfare state and drain the unions of their power. The Falklands War was a recent memory, the miner’s strike was in full sway, and unemployment was topping 3 million.

 

The Between The Wars EP summed all of these tensions up perfectly, and along with Brewing Up With and Spy Vs Spy, were all collected on the Back To Basics album.

 

Talking With the Taxman is billed on the cover as The Difficult Third Album. With a more expansive sound and musical contributions from the likes of Johnny Marr and, returning the favour for A New England, Kirsty MacColl, it sold well and reached no.8 in the UK albums chart.

Not bad for a boy from Barking.

* First published in the Evening Mail (Thu.9.Feb.’12)