Tag Archives: Pop

All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes (Pete Townshend) – Album Review (Part 2)

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This is the second part of the review. Learn about the context the album is circumscribed in and the first four tracks here.

“Exquisitely Bored” is the fifth song on the album. It is one of the two direct analyses on fame and stardom, the other being (obviously enough) “Stardom In Acton”. “Exquisitely Bored” is Pete’s lyrical take on a theme assayed by The Eagles not long before: life in the “Hotel California”. The message is basically the same, although in “Hotel California” it is implied that no-one can get out, whereas Pete’s song seems to be saying that the ennui is a true choice, that it is comforting, and that “there are good times walking in Laguna…” before finishing the excellent chorus with the line “but it rains in my heart”. One is tempted to ask the question first posed by Creedence Clearwater Revival there and then, namely “Who will stop the rain?”.

The fact is that things don’t look too sunny either when we talk about the London scene. As described by the song “Stardom In Acton”, local success seems every bit as vitiated, and also more transfiguring in the long run. The one song that describes all the vices you can imagine is this one, not “Exquisitely Bored” – “want my stash, want my cash, want omnipotence”, “the long cigarette full of hash”, “don’t admire anonymity”… It seems that making it in your hometown is the most dizzying event that could ever occur. It probably has to do with the fact you can then look down your nose at those who put down your aspirations all your life, and snort “I made it!” in their very faces. Continue reading →

All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes (Pete Townshend) – Album Review (Part 1)

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"All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes" Is My Favorite Solo Record By Pete Townshend. The Album Was Released In 1982, After The Acclaimed "Empty Glass" Had Ignited Townshend's Career.

"All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes" Is My Favorite Solo Record By Pete Townshend. The Album Was Released In 1982, After The Acclaimed "Empty Glass" Had Ignited Townshend's Career.

“All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes” was issued in the aftermath of Pete’s near-fatal depression of 1980-81. Keith Moon was dead, Kit Lambert was gone, and Pete was not reaching out to the public the way he once did. The faith on his band was broken, he had already launched a promising solo career. His marriage was in shambles (he was living away from his wife and children), and he was a million pounds in debt.

You must understand that Pete was never a strong person. He always had enormous difficulty coming to grips with who he was, and the way others saw him was instrumental to Townshend. When others perceived there was a problem, when they could see behind his blue eyes, that was the time he also noticed that he had a problem. And like most people who face alcoholic issues, he used to go to extremes all the time. He once remarked he even used to get suicidal about people he didn’t know at all if rebuffed.

During this time, virtually everybody scolded him. Roger Daltrey almost had it with Pete one night on stage, and even his best friend Richard Barnes (he who had suggested the name of the band all those years ago) cornered Townshend and called him “pathetic”. Pete’s response? “It’s alright. Why should Keith have all the glory?”

Finally, during a night out at the Club For Heroes he took heroin, overdosed and had to be rushed to ER. It transpired his heart had stopped beating for a while. A mere second later would have been fatal.

The turning point came shortly afterwards when wife Karen asked him “Why don’t you come over again and we try to work it out?”. That gave him the resolve to start pushing once more.

His 1982 record captures all of the above, and it shows that sometimes there is not a difference between being shattered, being broken and being fragmented. The only valid difference lies in being there or not being there at all.

“All The Best Cowboys…” is experimental in every sense. The first track has Pete reciting instead of singing. “Stop Hurting People” is actually an open letter for reconciliation he had written to Karen. The song, dealing with a love that died and had to be born again was the one way to start the record. “People, stop hurting people”, he pleads. And we all can picture him looking into the eyes of his wife as he does so, his gaunt reflection in her eyes, the words “without your love there is no flame” hammering and hammering until they are unleashed into song. Continue reading →

Wasp Star (Apple Venus Part 2) (XTC) – Album Review (Part 2)

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Read the introduction to this review here.

“Church Of Women” reminds me of Tears For Fears’ “Woman In Chains” lyrically, as the submissive state of the fair sex is somehow explored. In Andy’s case, though, the strong/weak roles are not just reversed but eventually coalesced as all that remains is a respect for life so profound that it is impossible to think of someone submitting himself so wholly without being incredible weak and incredibly strong at the same time. A really striking song, and the end chorus is just sublime.

“Church Of Women” would have worked excellently as an album closer, much in the same way that “Books Are Burning” closed “Nonsuch”. But…

…we have “The Wheel And The Maypole”. I have already talked a bit about the song when reviewing “Apple Venus”. Some quick facts: the song is made up of two different compositions that Andy glued together as neither was working individually. One deals with the creation of life, and the other with its finality. The first is “The Pot Won’t Hold Our Love”. The second is “Everything Decays”. I like the imagery, as a pot is something very small and fragile that isn’t really suited for holding something as valuable to begin with. I guess that is the idea, along with expressing that love can be kept everywhere, and even in places that one could create himself.   Continue reading →

Wasp Star (Apple Venus Part 2) (XTC) – Album Review (Part 1)

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"Wasp Star" Was Released In The Year 2000, Roughly A Year After "Apple Venus" Was Issued

"Wasp Star" Was Released In The Year 2000, Roughly A Year After "Apple Venus" Was Issued

XTC’s swan song, and a very powerful moment even when taken separately from it companion album, the critically-lauded “Apple Venus”. As I explained when reviewing it, this is the one disc that was meant to “rock” a little from the pair. Hence, fans often call it “the disc that everybody was waiting for”.

“Playground” and “Stupidly Happy” are positioned at the forefront of this “return to form” or whatever you want to call it. The truth is the previous disc was not a departure but an assertion of the sound that was manifested on songs like “Wrapped In Grey”, and which had began insinuating itself as early as “Sacrificial Bonfire” from “Skylarking”.

“Playground” is another interesting look at childhood, and one that joins “Let’s Build A Den” in its theme of the world of children mirroring the world of adults more than we care to admit. It has the memorable line “You might leave school but it never leaves you”, and Andy’s daughter Holly (yep, she from “Holly Up On Poppy”) supplies backup. “Stupidly Happy” is defined by Andy as “The great Keef Richard riff that never was”, and it was derived from the “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” riff. It is catchy like little else, with that simple but engrossing riff being gradually fortified by bass, tambourine, drums, handclaps…  Andy alliterates a lot on the lyrics, echoing the narrowness of thought he wishes to convey, and the effect when taken as a whole with the instrumentation is fabulous. Continue reading →

Apple Venus Part 1 (XTC) – Album Review

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XTC's Penultimate Album Surfaced In 1999. It Was Titled "Apple Venus"

XTC's Penultimate Album Surfaced In 1999. It Was Titled "Apple Venus"

After a decade-long strike against their record company, XTC were finally released from their contract with Virgin. The question was how to present the material they had stockpiled over the preceding years. This was to escalate into a rift that ended with Dave Gregory leaving the band, as he disagreed with Andy’s notion that two separate albums had to be released. He did play on the first of the two discs that were to be issued, and he was credited as a session musician. The disc was named “Apple Venus Part 1”, and  Andy has described its sound as “orchoustic” – acoustic instrumentation mixed with elaborate orchestral arrangements. This is evident the second the disc starts spinning, as “River Of Orchids” couldn’t be described using better words. A whimsical tune, a multifaceted tune, a lovable tune. An XTC tune in all its essence. Andy deals once again with his hatred of automobiles in a string-led song that takes up 6 minutes of layered vocals and a permanent crescendo where climax after climax is reached.

The song is immediately counterbalanced by “I’d Like That”, the one cut that everybody liked on the record when it was issued. Because the album had some detractors that were expecting a harder sound, and when they finally got that in the shape of “Wasp Star” the following year they were to eat humble pie and admit that the sound of Apple Venus was far more suitable to this mature stage of the band. “I’d Like That” is a very jumpy track, running through a plethora of chords in which only three strings are strummed most of the time. Only the E chord that is played after the “Sunflower” bit is played in full. Andy slaps his thighs as accompaniment, and his wordplay is delirious, dropping the names of famous couples in a tale of unrequited love that is just an inch from materializing – hence the overall optimism. Continue reading →

Monster (REM) – Album Review

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REM's Fourth Album For Warner. The Record Was Named "Monster". It Came Out In 1994.

REM's Fourth Album For Warner. The Record Was Named "Monster". It Came Out In 1994.

After the somehow pastoral textures of “Out Of Time” and “Automatic For The People” (with mandolins and orchestras taking center stage), nobody could have blamed the band if they wanted to rock out a little once more. And that is what they did on their 1994 release. Named “Monster”, it was a return to their basic sound, and one that elicited strong reactions both in the buying public and in critics. One thing is for sure: the album did leave no one indifferent.

Personally, I find the sound a little unimaginative, with the guitar always going “wahh, wahhhh, wahhhhh” and Michael’s voice left intentionally low on the mix and /or completely distorted (“I Took Your Name”). When the record kicks in (with the successful single “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?”) I am momentarily thrilled, but I quickly become a bit bored until a couple of more subdued performances do roll in. These include the beautiful single “Strange Currencies” and the organ-pumped “Tongue”. The voice is crisp there, and it is easier to focus on the actual message. Continue reading →

Automatic For The People (REM) – Album Review

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"Automatic For The People" By R.E.M. Year Of Release: 1992.

"Automatic For The People" By R.E.M. Year Of Release: 1992.

The follow-up to the critically-acclaimed “Out Of Time” (1991), “Automatic For The People” (1992) feels like the perfect successor to the previous offering to me. Now a broader scope of themes is broached, and personal compositions such as “Nightswimming” are turned into wider statements about youth and the passing of time. Mortality is also another recurrent topic, with the songs “Try Not To Breathe” and “Sweetness Follows” treading heavy territory. “Try Not To Breathe” deals with an old man’s resolution to die, based on his will not to be a burden to his family any longer. And “Sweetness Follows” is a song that makes you realize that you don’t have to wait for the end to come in order to bury the hatchet and make peace with any member of your family.

The album also has the highly successful “Everybody Hurts”, with one of the best orchestrated fades of the record. The title is explicit enough, and the song on the whole is just that bit too slow for my liking. But it has “hit” written all over it. The accompanying video was also a clever one, using subtitles that matched and then moved away from the actual lyrics to drive the point home: harming others is human nature in itself. It is not a matter of superiority. Nietzsche used to say that only he who does wrong can do right. I guess he had a point. And so does R.E.M. here. Continue reading →

Out Of Time (REM) – Album Review

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R.E.M's "Out Of Time" Was Issued In 1991 To Strong Reviews And Sales. It Included The Hits "Losing My Religion" & "Shiny Happy People".

R.E.M.'s "Out Of Time" Was Issued In 1991 To Strong Reviews And Sales. It Included The Hits "Losing My Religion" & "Shiny Happy People".

“Out Of Time” (1991) was to be R.E.M.’s second release for Warner, and it was also the record that led the band to levels of popularity that surpassed all their expectations. Of course, that also means that (as any band with a serious cult following that makes it to the big time) they were faced with the odious “what-have-you-done-to-us-your-true-fans”.  It didn’t certainly help that the disc included “Shiny Happy People”, a song considered one of the stupidest ever by a major band, and that the song was a transatlantic hit.

Leaving aside that composition (and how sickly catchy it is, I must add) the album is characterized by a tremendous world-weariness in terms of lyrics and motifs. Two songs use the expression “the world is collapsing”, and the adjective “hollow” is also featured in different compositions, and repeated as part of choruses. Besides, the one instrumental cut of the album goes by the name of “Endgame”. Continue reading →

R.E.M. – General Introduction

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A 90s Picture Of R.E.M. Featuring Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills & Bill Berry

A 90s Picture Of R.E.M. Featuring Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills & Bill Berry

We all know how pointless it is, but still we take part of conversations along the lines of “The best band ever was…” or “The best guitarist in history will always be…”. It is pointless, because there is not a parameter that we could agree upon to base the judgment on. Is the best guitarist the one with the best technique? The one with the fastest fingers? The one who plays the best solos? I recall the uproar caused by a list published in Rolling Stone detailing the “100 Best Guitar Players Ever” in which Johnny Ramone was in the Top 20. Some were enraged, and some defended the placement.

Still, I think that we take part of such discussions if only because we feel that championing our best-loved band is a way of bringing new converts in. And if you are over 30, I know that you have taken part of the “What’s the best band of the 80s?” discussion. And chances are, if you didn’t go for U2 you actually went for R.E.M.

Hailing from Athens (Georgia), the band fronted by Michael Stipe has had a career of note. It can be split in three sections. The first was the underground one. It started in 1982 with the release of the “Chronic Town” EP (on Hib-Tone), and the subsequent releases for I.R.S. This stage ended when they signed up with Warner in pursuit of broader international outreach in 1988.

The Earliest Picture Of R.E.M. I Have Ever Come Across

The Earliest Picture Of R.E.M. I Have Ever Come Across

With Warner, they were to get that and become international superstars. The albums “Out Of Time” (1991) and “Automatic For The People” (1992) are indisputably the high points of their tenure at Warner, and the guys were to eventually renew their contract for about 80 million dollars (a record-breaking amount at the time). The year was 1996, and the next year they were to lose their long-standing drummer owing to health complications.
Continue reading →

Rough Mix (Pete Townshend & Ronnie Lane) – Album Review (Part 2)

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(Read the introduction to this album here.)

Doing a quick recap, Ronnie Lane handled the folksy bits on this record whereas the Birdman doled out the rock numbers. It is Pete the one to start it all with the delirious sketch “My Baby Gives It Away”. He knows he is singing utter piffle, and he sings it so brazenly and the accompaniment is so joyous and upbeat that it is not as Dave Marsh says: Pete is not sounding as if he were having fun. He is having the time of his life in a studio in a long, long time. The song goes from silliness to silliness set to the steady beat of Charlie Watts and acoustic guitars that are strummed as if they were the cue for the listener to smile.

Ronnie takes the lead and supplies “Nowhere To Run” and “Annie”, with the instrumental title track sandwiched in between. I do like “Nowhere To Run” – its melody is good, but the lyrics are a bit hazy and it is tricky relating to them. “Annie”, on the other hand, is one of these songs about lost love that are impinged with so much sensibility that the melody (and words) paint concrete images into just anybody, young or old. Continue reading →