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Post by berkley on Apr 7, 2024 22:51:13 GMT -5
Another favourite album of 1984... #9 - Rattlesnakes by Lloyd Cole And The Commotions Rattlesnakes is the debut album by Glaswegian rock band Lloyd Cole and the Commotions and includes the British hit single "Perfect Skin". I didn't pick this album up at the time; I found a second-hand copy at a Car Boot Sale in the early '90s. Still, I liked the single "Perfect Skin" enough in 1984 to have taped it off the radio (on my ghetto blaster, Slam  ). These days, I have all three of the band's albums, but Rattlesnakes is by far the best. The Commotions came out of the same Scottish indie scene as Aztec Camera, Orange Juice, and the Bluebells, but the difference was they were signed to Polydor, a major label. This meant that their records received a much bigger promotional push than their contemporaries and had a layer of studio gloss that was missing from those other bands' recordings. Cole is a skilled singer-songwriter, with a nice line in literate and unashamedly romantic lyrics, all sung in his cracked baritone. The songs on Rattlesnakes are either jangling guitar pop, with catchy melodies, or darker, more meditative tracks. Standout songs on the album for me would be "Perfect Skin", "2cv", "Down on Mission Street" and the title-track. That said, not everything on this album works; two or three of the songs are decidedly mediocre, in fact. But when they hit the mark, Cole and the boys create something rather special. Check out the video for the album's hit single, "Perfect Skin"…
Totally new to me. Whether it's the power of suggestion - knowing before hearing it that it's from 1984 - or not, it does sound very much of that time. Not in a bad way, just how it feels. A little reminscent of Simple Minds, maybe, in the vocals?
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 7, 2024 23:44:55 GMT -5
Totally new to me. Whether it's the power of suggestion - knowing before hearing it that it's from 1984 - or not, it does sound very much of that time. Not in a bad way, just how it feels. A little reminscent of Simple Minds, maybe, in the vocals?
Yeah, that's probably not a bad comparison to make, though at their root, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions had a retro, jangle pop indie aesthetic behind the major label production gloss, where as Simple Minds were much more indebted to post-punk and new wave, at least initially. But I agree that there probably isn't much between the two bands really, though personally I prefer Lloyd Cole. |
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Post by berkley on Apr 8, 2024 0:38:15 GMT -5
1974, continued:
Country Life by Roxy Music
This was my favourite Roxy Music album for quite a while and - not conicidentally, I'm sure - also one of the first I heard by them, tohgh I can't recall the exact order right now as I discovered all their first five records in the space of three or four years in the mid-70s. As the years have gone by, I would probably now lean more towards the first two with Eno, and might even rank their 3rd, Stranded, ahead of this one (which started to feel kind of like a sequel to Stranded as I got to know that earlier album better).
But Country Life will always be a special record to me for the way it shaped my feelings about this band, who for a while there in the 70s seemed to me the best thing I'd heard in pop music since the Beatles. Favourite tracks, I would say Three and Nine, All I Want is You, Bitter-Sweet, and Prairie Rose, but there's such a variety of sounds and musical emotions that it's the flow of the album as a whole that really brings out the best of these tracks, rather than isolating them from one another (which is why I don't think 'Best of' collections do them justice).
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 8, 2024 8:25:23 GMT -5
Really? I wonder if I'm mixing him up with someone else because that's not what I was thinking of at all when I saw his name - more the opposite.
OK, I listened to the Fort Worth song and read a bit of his wiki page. I admit I've had the wrong idea about him all this time, thinking he was one of these slick "modern country" guys, or whatever the term is when apparently he was known for the opposite, returning to a ore traditional sound. I could probably listen to some of this, based on the one song, though I'm not sure I'd ever become an enthusiast.
Early 80s country radio was still pretty much Urban Cowboy, with a a few vintage acts still hanging on and the last vestiges of outlaw peeking through. George Strait was one of the very few new acts doing traditional honky-tonk based country music until the “new traditionalist” movement started to hit in 1986 with Dwight Yoakam and Randy Travis and then Marty Stuart a couple years later. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 8, 2024 9:33:17 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1984
#8 – John Prine – Aimless Love
Prine's first release on his own independent label is a low-key affair. He teamed with his friend Steve Goodman and Jim Rooney to produce it and brought in a number of co-writers on a majority of the songs. It's good, but not great John Prine. There's certainly nothing wrong with it. For anyone else this would be a great album. But the level of expectation is so high with a talent like Prine's, particularly when it had been five years since his last album, but it's just a little underwhelming.
Still, "Unwed Fathers" is an incredible song. The title track gives us an individual who is almost paralyzed at the idea of looking for love. And "Me, Myself and I" is just a classic country drinking song. This is a very quiet album for Prine. And that's not wrong. It's just not what you necessarily expect.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 8, 2024 9:34:39 GMT -5
Another favourite album of 1984... #9 - Rattlesnakes by Lloyd Cole And The Commotions  I was today (well yesterday...but still) years old when I first heard of this band. But, interesting. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 8, 2024 9:35:49 GMT -5
1974, continued: Country Life by Roxy MusicThis was my favourite Roxy Music album for quite a while and - not conicidentally, I'm sure - also one of the first I heard by them, tohgh I can't recall the exact order right now as I discovered all their first five records in the space of three or four years in the mid-70s. As the years have gone by, I would probably now lean more towards the first two with Eno, and might even rank their 3rd, Stranded, ahead of this one (which started to feel kind of like a sequel to Stranded as I got to know that earlier album better). But Country Life will always be a special record to me for the way it shaped my feelings about this band, who for a while there in the 70s seemed to me the best thing I'd heard in pop music since the Beatles. Favourite tracks, I would say Three and Nine, All I Want is You, Bitter-Sweet, and Prairie Rose, but there's such a variety of sounds and musical emotions that it's the flow of the album as a whole that really brings out the best of these tracks, rather than isolating them from one another (which is why I don't think 'Best of' collections do them justice). Roxy Music is another one of those bands that I know the name...and that's it. I couldn't pick a song of theirs out of a line-up if my life depended on it. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 8, 2024 10:25:43 GMT -5
#9 - Rattlesnakes by Lloyd Cole And The Commotions I was today (well yesterday...but still) years old when I first heard of this band. But, interesting. Same here, although Cole's voice sounds *really* familiar for some reason (and no, he doesn't remind of the guy from Simple Minds, Jim Kerr). |
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Post by berkley on Apr 8, 2024 11:44:34 GMT -5
1974, continued:
Relayer, by Yes I would say this is my 2nd-favourite Yes album, after Close to the Edge - actually it's more like 1A and 1B, though I do think the production on Close to the Edge is much more clear and pleasing to my ears than this one. I think some of that might have been deliberate, as Gates of Delirium might be termed aggressive tracks, Gates thematically and Sound Chaser musically. But even so, there are times the sound feels a little tinny and jarring to me, and I would love to hear how the album would sound with the same production quality as on the earlier record. Gates of Delirium is a side-long epic of the sort that probably turns off a lot of potential listeners simply by its length. But I find it epic, cinematic in the variety of sounds and emotions it creates and the journey (hard to avoid this cliché) on which it takes the listener. It's about war, the violence and excitement but also the aftermath and longing for peace. Sound Chaser is a really inventive, high-energy jazz-fusion number that I think shows Patrick Moraz's influence - Moraz was the keyboard player who replaced Rick Wakeman on this one album. Highly original and unpredictable, one of their most interesting tracks. To Be Over is probably my favourite track of all on the album, and the one that I think would have benefited most from a less harsh production sound. It also has one of my favourite guitar solos of all time - maybe I shouldn't call it a solo, since it's more about the the interplay with the other instruments, but beautifully melodic and with subtle changes of mood, but always within the parameters of the overall peaceful, melancholy mood of the song as a whole.
Only one more 1974 album to go for me, which I'll try to post tonight.
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Post by berkley on Apr 8, 2024 11:51:24 GMT -5
Confessor , I agree, Exile is probably my favorite Stones album, followed by Beggars Banquet. After that, I am also partial to Sticky Fingers and oddly enough, Some Girls, which has some pretty great tracks too. Oddly? For me, Some Girls is tied with Exile as their best album. Not a dud on it.
I like Some Girls but for me there are a few tracks that don't quite make the grade, though the ones I do like I really like.
Exile is the one album of the Mick Taylor years I don't really know intimately, though I've heard it a few times. I'm sure I'll get into it one of these days. Tumblin' Dice might be my favourite of all their many classic singles and I think Happy is one of best things they (or Richards, since it was basically him) ever did.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 9, 2024 3:39:06 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1984 #8 – John Prine – Aimless Love
Weird as it might sound, I've only just recently started to really listen to John Prine. I've been listening to his debut album from 1971 on YouTube occasionally in recent months...the one with him sat on bails of hay and with songs on it like "Hello In There" and "Angel from Montgomery". I like it, but I'm not sure I absolutely love it. Folks I know who're into their music have been telling me for years that I need to listen to Prine. He's a fine songwriter, based on the evidence of that first album, but I dunno...the album hasn't made me think, "I gotta buy this!" so far. I haven't listened to anything beyond that debut record and have no clue about what his output was like as far into his career as 1984. |
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Post by Confessor on Apr 9, 2024 4:39:33 GMT -5
#8 - The Unforgettable Fire by U2 I'm not a massive U2 fan, by any means, but they had a run of three albums between 1984 and 1988 that I really enjoy. Prior to that, I find the band a bit too self-consciously political and over-earnest, and afterwards I find them insufferably post-ironic (not that there weren't occasional good singles from both of those eras). But the period of U2's recording career that I really enjoy listening to begins with The Unforgettable Fire. It's a very atmospheric record, with a murky, experimental vagueness to tracks like "Promenade", "The Unforgettable Fire" and "Elvis Presley and America", courtesy of producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. Even the rockier songs like "A Sort of Homecoming" and "Wire" seem shrouded in a misty, not-quite-there ambience. It's an album driven more by emotion than by intellect; an artsy record, for sure, but one that doesn't ever sound deliberately artsy. Really, it's only the rock anthem and big hit "Pride (In the Name of Love)" – which is easily one of my favourite U2 songs ever – that sounds like the U2 of earlier albums. Rather than post that big hit though, I'm gonna offer up "A Sort of Homecoming" instead. Partly because it's a good example of the murky, experimental sound I mentioned earlier, but mostly because it's an intensely personal song for me. Every time I hear its sweeping guitar textures, propulsive drum shuffle, and Bono's heartfelt and breathlessly romantic mystic/mythic lyrics, I am instantly transported back to a certain place, a certain time, with a certain person, walking home in the chilly pre-dawn towards the lights of my home town.
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Post by berkley on Apr 9, 2024 11:08:28 GMT -5
John Prine I know mostly by hearing friends play his records. Also I think a few of his songs were popular with bar musicians, can't recall the titles right now. I've liked what I've heard without feeling motivated to explore further.
U2, as we all know, are one of those bands that were so over-exposed, almost everyone got tired of them at some point and I'm no exception. I didn't own this particular album but I heard it a lot at the time and it would be a contender for my own 1984 list if I do one - not yet sure I can come up with ten.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 9, 2024 14:22:07 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1984 #8 – John Prine – Aimless Love
Weird as it might sound, I've only just recently started to really listen to John Prine. I've been listening to his debut album from 1971 on YouTube occasionally in recent months...the one with him sat on bails of hay and with songs on it like "Hello In There" and "Angel from Montgomery". I like it, but I'm not sure I absolutely love it. Folks I know who're into their music have been telling me for years that I need to listen to Prine. He's a fine songwriter, based on the evidence of that first album, but I dunno...the album hasn't made me think, "I gotta buy this!" so far. I haven't listened to anything beyond that debut record and have no clue about what his output was like as far into his career as 1984. I honestly think that is pretty clearly his best album. If you’re not digging it he may well just not be your cuppa. |
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Post by berkley on Apr 9, 2024 16:39:50 GMT -5
late finishing up with 1974 so I'll be brief:
Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy), by Brian Eno
This was the second of Eno's solo albums but the first that I heard, which might be partly why it's remained my favourite. It's different from his others, even his other vocal albums - more cohesive. I think Phil Manzanera cn¸ontributes a lot to this one - it's one of my favourite things I've heard him do. This is also a great sounding album - I remember one time when I got a new set of headphones this was the first cd I put on to see how they sounded. I'll just post the opening track to give an idea:
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). These days, I have all three of the band's albums, but Rattlesnakes is by far the best.
