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INSIDE:
101 ALBUMS THAT HAVE SHAPED POPULAR MUSIC AS WE KNOW IT
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INTRODUCTION Almost a decade ago I wrote The Cornerstone Collection, a booklet like this which picked out 101 albums on CD which could be building blocks for a serious and diverse music collection. Even today I get emails from people telling me they’re still working their way through it, making discoveries and following down the paths of albums we offered as the Next step from our 101 main entries. That booklet was distributed through JB H-Fi, a fine bunch of people it has been my pleasure to know over the years. So, when they approached me with the idea for another such guide, I jumped at it. And here it is. In the decade since The Cornerstone Collection a lot happened: new artists appeared; there’s been the inevitable sad attrition as some passed on; there’ve been one-hit wonders (“Hi and bye, Psy”), unexpected careers by former marginal players and big acts fading away. All of that we expect. What few would have predicted in 2011 was the resurgence of vinyl. At some point in the Nineties I wrote an article about the demise of black vinyl records which had been replaced by shiny CD technology. The accompanying illustration was of a record on horseback riding into the sunset. But then came streaming. Today I can’t even give away CDs to my millennial university music students. They stream and don’t have players. But increasingly they – and I guess you, if you’re reading this – have turntables and want that lovely piece of vinyl with the cover art, lyrics, gatefold sleeve, liner notes and such. All the things godawful, but convenient, streaming can’t provide. More of my students have turntables than CD players. This year vinyl outsold CDs so now the CD is heading for that distant sunset and recycling bin. Maybe, who knows? What we do know – and the reason for this handy booklet where we mostly sidestep live albums and greatest hits, and admit a few are yet to appear on record – is that people like to be guided to what they weren’t aware of, might have missed... or just want to know if their much loved scratched favourite is now on new vinyl.
Be assured, almost all these are on vinyl at JB Hi-Fi stores. We hope you enjoy looking through this, arguing with some selections, are seduced by others and challenged by some. Maybe in a decade we’ll do this again. But who knows what the technology of preference will be then? I don’t, so I’m keeping my wind-up gramophone. Just in case. Graham Reid www.elsewhere.co.nz Auckland, November 2020 You can find the original Cornerstone Collection online at https://www.elsewhere.co.nz Just enter “cornerstone” in the Search function And JB Hi-Fi stores are online here: https://www.jbhifi.co.nz/stores/
Design and layout by Murray Lock Graphics Ltd • Cover design by Indium Design Ltd
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1950S ELVIS PRESLEY: A BOY FROM TUPELO; THE SUN MASTERS (1956) Fusing black rhythm’n’blues and white country, the 19-year old truck driver with an unusual name intuitively created a genre with a backbeat and allowed for soulful, bluesy hollers. Black artists had been here before, but Elvis’ unique sound, appearance and risqué stage moves took it the world. Rock’n’roll was born in a small studio in Memphis, Tennessee. Next: Buddy Holly, Buddy Holly; Chuck Berry, The Great Twenty-Eight; John Lennon, Rock’n’Roll; Paul McCartney, Choba B CCCP
FRANK SINATRA: SONGS FOR SWINGIN’ LOVERS! (1956) In later life he seemed a relic from a distant age but, on records like this, that easy, personable voice and swinging style – here with arrangements by the great Nelson Riddle, and signature songs from writers like the Gershwins, Cole Porter and Johnny Mercer– he transcends time. Frank upbeat and behind the beat. Next: Frank Sinatra, In The Wee Small Hours; Amy Winehouse, Frank; Bob Dylan, Shadows in the Night
BILLIE HOLIDAY: LADY IN SATIN (1958) The great Holiday wore sadness like a heavy cloak and this album – the last released in her lifetime – found her aching over lost love after decades of pain. Gloriously nuanced songs (by Hoagy Carmichael, Rodgers-Hart, Jimmy Van Heusen etc) wrapped in gentle orchestrations. A hurting farewell letter. Next: Billie Holiday, Lady Sings the Blues
JOHN COLTRANE: BLUE TRAIN (1958) A jazz genius – among many of his era – Coltrane is perhaps best represented by his spiritual A Love Supreme but we draw attention to this earlier album which is among his most swinging bop albums. Your journey into jazz starts here. (See page 6). Next: John Coltrane, A Love Supreme and Giant Steps
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1950S MILES DAVIS: PORGY AND BESS (1959) Davis has so many great albums in so many styles he deserves pages here, but we offer this which for many will be unexpected. With arranger Gil Evans this often moody, bluesy album sits between jazz and classical music, and George Gershwin’s Black American opera which is the source material. Next: Miles Davis, Birth of the Cool, Sketches of Spain (with Evans) and Kind of Blue
TRUST CREATORS NOT CRITICS
Jazz critics are pretty unreliable when it comes to jazz. Many are so loyal to their chosen style they ring-fence it to keep others out. So Dixieland fans fought off be-boppers who in turn dismissed free jazz artists... and no one seemed to like jazz fusion which was at the intersection of rock and jazz. Then in the Eighties came the neo-conservatives who dismissed everyone, even Miles Davis (after the Fifties) and Duke Ellington. The one thing jazz critics agree on though is this: If jazz artists becomes popular it’s obvious they’ve sold out. No wonder outsiders find it hard to understand what jazz is all about. What these critics fail to do is read the small print on the contract: That jazz is about freedom of expression. In the Fifties pianist/composer Dave Brubeck ran foul of jazz critics by being hugely popular with young people, appearing on the cover of Time magazine in ‘54 and enjoying a hit album with Time Out in ‘59 (which included Take Five, one of jazz’s most recognisable and popular tunes). All that was a big ball of wrong: he was a buttoned-down academic white guy in a black idiom; shouldn’t have been the second jazz artist on Time (after Louis Armstrong) when the likes of his friend Duke Ellington and many others were more worthy. Brubeck was embarrassed by it too. But having a hit album? Man, that is just all wrong. Yet his critics were the wrong’uns: Time Out is an essential jazz album for its sophistication, memorable material, brilliant playing and writing, and the time changes which were its hallmark. Yes, Time Out is an easy-entry jazz album, but then so is Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue which has – rightly – been universally haled. Confused yet? Let’s cut through and offer cornerstone Fifties jazz albums available on vinyl. After Time Out and Kind of Blue, we direct you to John Coltrane’s Blue Train (see our main list) and Giant Steps, Sonny Rollins’ Saxophone Colossus, Way Out West and Freedom Suite, then Ornette Coleman’s Shape of Jazz to Come and Change of the Century... Thelonious Monk’s important material was collated as the terrific double album The Complete Genius (there are single album versions too). Essential. Oh, and seek out Sarah Vaughan’s Sassy and Ella Fitzgerald with Louis Armstrong on Ella and Louis which is a five star meeting of two giants. There you go. Critics, who needs ‘em, huh?
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BOXES OF VINYL
If you’ve sold the waterfront property on Waiheke and downsized to mansion overlooking Lake Wanaka you might have a bit of spare change to indulge yourself. But you need a lot to afford these recent big box sets. But they’re all very good. Tempted?
PRINCE: 1999 If you’d rather have the Super Deluxe Edition of Sign O’ The Times (13 LPs and a DVD) then knock yourself out. But this set – four records of the original album, B-sides, different mixes and edits – is manageable, affordable and a whole lot of fun with songs like the title track, Little Red Corvette, Delirious, Horny Toad (the Delirious B-side)... A central album in his vast body of work.
KATE BUSH: HOUNDS OF LOVE, THE SENSUAL WORLD, THE RED SHOES Two years ago the complete works of Kate Bush were remastered and packaged up in four separate box sets. So you could choose the early, approachable Kate with the first set (The Kick Inside, Lionheart, Never for Ever and The Dreaming) or the more difficult Kate with the last (the live Before the Dawn, the collection of B-sides, covers and experimental songs on The Other Sides). We direct you to this with her classic Hounds of Love and the equally fine Sensual World and Red Shoes. Ambitious stuff (the Ninth Wave cycle) weird pop (Rubberband Girl) and more. A central album in his vast body of work.
JOHN LENNON: GIMME SOME TRUTH Much as we are entitled to cynical about this 36-song, four album box set released on what would have been his 80th birthday you have to admit it’s a fair wedge of Lennon/Plastic Ono Band material drawn from albums and singles (Cold Turkey, Instant Karma, Power to the People etc). The set ignores his lesser material (only a couple songs from the wayward Some Time in New York City) but with a 124-page hardcover book it’s a real thumper.
TOM PETTY: AN AMERICAN TREASURE A career overview across six albums by one of the greatest writers of the rock era. A whopping 60 songs – 42 of which are rarities, outtakes, demos and live versions – which includes a couple of pre-Heartbreaker songs with Mudcrutch. Petty rechanneled and repurposed classic rock’n’roll and pop from the past, added his own sneer and sensibilities, bridged New Wave and Southern rock with folk ballads, and wrapped it all up in economic songs. He was an American treasure, here’s the evidence.
JONI MITCHELL: LIVE AT CANTERBURY HOUSE 1967 This three-record set taken from her three-set performance in Ann Arbor, Michigan a few months before her debut album Song to a Seagull. By this time she’d given up a baby for adoption, left Canada, married, divorced and relocated to New York. At 24 she’d had a lot of life experiences to write about. Here are Little Green The Circle Game, Chelsea Morning, Both Sides Now and others in their earliest forms. A great artist emerging.
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1960S ROBERT JOHNSON: KING OF THE DELTA BLUES SINGERS (1961) The compilation which launched the British Blues Boom in the Sixties and turned the heads of Eric Clapton, Brian Jones, Keith Richards, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and dozens of others. Raw, elemental, pained blues from a man who was gone in ‘38 before he’d even arrived. Source material for subsequent generations. Next: John Mayall Bluesbreakers, A Hard Road and With Eric Clapton; Various Artists, The Ann Arbor Blues Festival 1969; Rolling Stones, Blue and Lonesome and On Air
THE SONICS: HERE ARE THE SONICS (1965) Half an hour of breathless, lo-fi noise from one of the greatest garagerock bands with raw and primitive songs (The Witch, Strychnine) alongside raucous and appropriate covers (Do You Love Me, Roll Over Beethoven, Walkin’ the Dog and Good Golly Miss Molly). Excitement uncorked. Next: MC5, Kick Out the Jams; The Stooges, Fun House; The Pretty Things, The Pretty Things
THE WHO: MY GENERATION (1965) The anger of the title track is just one of many moods channeled by Pete Townshend’s lyrics and delivered by a fist-tight band. Songs about divorce, the collective spirit and frustrations of youth, high-wire energy and more. All in a classic Mod era cover. One of the great debut albums of any era. Next: The Jam: All Mod Cons; Blur, Leisure; The Datsuns, Head Stunts; Tom Petty and the Hearbreakers, Damn the Torpedoes
BOB DYLAN: HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED (1965) If rock energy was launched by Elvis and global teen excitement by Beatlemania, through Bob Dylan rock found its lyrical spirit beyond being all shook up or holding hands. Coiled rage (Like a Rolling Stone), surrealism (Tombstone Blues), time-shifting narratives (the title track), this was adult folk music and poetry repurposed by rhythm’n’blues, tightrope rock, ballads... The game-changer. Next: Delaney Davidson, Shining Day; Bob Dylan, Blonde on Blonde
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1960S BEACH BOYS: PET SOUNDS (1966) In the mid Sixties pop artists became more ambitious. The Beatles’ Rubber Soul and Revolver, and the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds were in the vanguard. Pet Sounds was a brilliant album in a lousy cover where Brian Wilson’s visionary ideas on vocal parts and arrangements reached a new height even as he dealt with melancholy material like I Just Wasn’t Made for the Times. Here too is one of Paul McCartney’s favourite songs (God Only Knows) and an unexpected radio hit for summer (Sloop John B). Next: The Chills, Submarine Bells; Crowded House, Crowded House and Together Alone; Love, Forever Changes; The Byrds, Fifth Dimension
JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE: ARE YOU EXPERIENCED (1967) The album which changed rock’s sonic parameters. Hendrix announced himself with an astonishing debut which pointed in so many directions – from blues (Red House) and ballads (May This Be Love) to protofusion (Third Stone From the Sun) and riff-hard rock (Foxey Lady, Manic Depression) – that he was free to go anywhere. Then went further. Next: Cream, Disraeli Gears and Wheels of Fire; Jimi Hendrix Experience, Electric Ladyland; Living Colour, Vivid
BIG BROTHER AND THE HOLDING COMPANY: CHEAP THRILLS (1968) Although overshadowed by Janis Joplin’s vocal power (Piece of My Heart and Ball and Chain are here) and her subsequent solo career, this second album of psychedelic blues confirmed the band as serious contenders, especially guitarists James Hurley and Sam Andrew (check the cover of Summertime). And on vinyl the Robert Crumb sleeve is even more outstanding. Next: Janis Joplin, Pearl; Beth Hart, Better Than Home; Blue Cheer, Vincebus Eruptum; Jefferson Airplane, Surrealistic Pillow; Bessie Smith, Bessie
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1960S ISAAC HAYES: HOT BUTTERED SOUL (1969) The Stax soul man who would write the inner-city theme to Shaft (and be the voice of Chef in South Park) was also a genius of enormous ambition. As this album proves with its 12 minute version of BacharachDavid’s Walk on By and 19 minute exploration of Jimmy Webb’s By the Time I Get to Phoenix. Strings, horns, sultry vocals, backing singers, stinging guitar when required... An album of cinematic scope. Next: Richard Harris, A Tramp Shining; Robin Gibb, Robin’s Reign; The Bee Gees, Odessa
THE BAND: THE BAND (1969) A group of mostly Canadians with songs about an older Southern America, recorded in a pool-house on Sammy Davis Jnr’s property in swanky Hollywood Hills? But it works. The distinctive voices of Richard Manuel, Levon Helm and Rick Danko out front or in ragged harmony gave the songs – The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, Up on Cripple Creek, the lovely Whispering Pines, King Harvest – soul and heart. Americana before the genre became common. Next: The Band, Music from Big Pink; Levon Helm, Dirt Farmer and Electric Dirt; Black Crowes, Before the Flood... Until the Freeze; Bob Dylan, Planet Waves
DUSTY SPRINGFIELD: DUSTY IN MEMPHIS (1969) She’d reigned in Britain as a great interpreter of a lyric and an unashamed soul fan, so taking her to Memphis to work with Aretha’s producers Arif Mardin and Jerry Wexler seems obvious. In retrospect. But it was risky and courageous but – with great songs by Eddie Hinton, Goffin-King, Bacharach-David etc -- Springfield delivered the defining album of her career. A white soul star. Next: Dusty Springfield; A Girl Called Dusty and From Dusty With Love; Duffy, Rockferry; Aretha Franklin, I Never Loved a Man The Way I Love You and Amazing Grace
SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE: STAND! (1969) Like some socio-political manifesto set to memorable songs this extraordinary group (black/white, men/women) addressed racial issues, hope and psychedelic visions in songs which were funky, folksy, pop-conscious and uplifting. As seen at Woodstock. Times changed rapidly and their essential follow-up two years later was the darker There’s a Riot Goin’ On. Boom-shaka-laka! Next: Sly And The Family Stone, There’s a Riot Goin’ On; The Temptations, Puzzle People and Psychedelic Shack; Funkadelic, Maggot Brain; Betty Davis, They Say I’m Different
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THE SOUND OF THINGS FALLING APART In the half century since their acrimonious divorce, Beatles’ albums have fallen in and out of favour. For a decade after Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in ‘67, it was generally consider to be among the best, if not the best, album of the rock era. However as late-Sixties hippie culture and pop whimsy faded into the past, and an angry new post-punk/New Wave generation came through, it quickly fell down the list. By the end of the Eighties it was considered interesting more than it was essential, although it remains their best seller. Instead its predecessor Revolver (and Rubber Soul of ‘65) rose up the ranks and have remained touchstones in pop-rock, elevated by the Britpop movement of the Nineties. The recent 50th anniversary reissue of Abbey Road shone the spotlight on that rather more slicksounding album. But the Beatles’ album which rewards the most serious attention is their sprawling double The Beatles, widely known as The White Album. Released in ‘68, it’s not the sound of a band but the work of three different songwriters, each sometimes having the others in to perform their material. And sometimes not. Between the blazing pop-rock opener Back in the USSR which borrows from Chuck Berry and the Beach Boys to humorous effect and the final, lushly orchestrated closing lullaby Goodnight (written by Lennon but handed to Ringo), The White Album is a haphazard collection of songs, incomplete ideas, surreal or elegantly simple lyrics (Lennon’s Glass Onion and Julia respectively), beautiful ballads,
The Beatles
parodies, faux-blues and music hall (Yer Blues, Honey Pie), nods to heavy metal (Helter Skelter) and ska (Ob-La-Di Ob La Da) country music (Rocky Raccoon), throwaways (Why Don’t We Do It In The Road, Wild Honey Pie) and more. And the sound collage Revolution 9 was the longest and least listened to thing they recorded. But they did and released it. Many of the songs had their origins in the foothills of the Himalayas where the group – after five years of touring, filming, writing and recording – enjoyed their first serious downtime. And so they wrote: Lennon and McCartney learning finger-picking from Donovan also on the spiritual meditation retreat. Ideas poured out of them, back in England more songs – and Yoko Ono – were added to the mix. Eric Clapton dropped by to play on Harrison’s While My Guitar Gently Weeps. The result was so much music it couldn’t fit on a single record. So there it is, four sides of diverse musical information from the most famous band in the world which could do whatever it wanted, and on The White Album it did. Unlike their previous albums which seemed like road maps, The White Album – Kurt Cobain’s favourite Beatles’ record – was a collection of fascinating and sometimes frustrating cul-de-sacs. Much like the decade they defined, things were falling apart in ‘68... Next: The Beatles, Abbey Road; The Rolling Stones, Beggars Banquet; Jimi Hendrix Experience, Electric Ladyland; Bob Dylan, The Basement Tapes and Self Portrait
“It’s great, it sold, it’s the bloody Beatles’ White Album. Shut up!” – Paul McCartney 11
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1970S CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL: COSMO’S FACTORY (1970) Given CCR cracked such thrilling singles, a greatest hits is essential... but this delivers their vice-like grip on hits: Travelin’ Band, Lookin’ Out My Back Door, Run Through the Jungle, Up Around the Bend, Who’ll Stop the Rain and their courageous but successful 11 minute Heard It Through the Grapevine. Southern swampy funk-rock with soul by a band from LA. Next: Creedence Clearwater Revival, Willie and the Poor Boys and Bayou County; Tony Joe White, Polk Salad Annie and Lake Placid Blues
CAROLE KING: TAPESTRY (1971) Her pop-era hit-writing period in New York with Gerry Goffin seemed like an apprenticeship when she relocated to LA and emerged – after two lesser albums – with this classic where she revisited her earlier Will You Love Me Tomorrow and You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman (hits for the Shirelles and Aretha Franklin) and sensitive or upbeat material (You’ve Got a Friend, Smackwater Jack). And LA became the centre of singer-songwriter movement. Next: John Lennon, Imagine; Joni Mitchell, Ladies of the Canyon and Blue; Billy Joel, Piano Man; Neil Young, After the Goldrush; James Taylor, Sweet Baby James
ELTON JOHN: MADMAN ACROSS THE WATER (1971) We assume Elton’s classic albums Tumbleweed Connection and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road are in your collection so we throw the spotlight on this, which includes the well-known Tiny Dancer and Levon but also has the dark Razor Face alongside the title track and haunting Indian Sunset dramatically orchestrated by Paul Buckmaster (who did the job for Bowie, Nilsson, Stones). One to discover. Next: Harry Nilsson, Nilsson Schmilsson; Elton John, The Captain and The Kid
ROLLING STONES: GOATS HEAD SOUP (1973) Because Exile on Main Street and Beggars Banquet are already on your shelf (or should be) this is one to turn to. The raggedly Exile wasn’t as acclaimed at the time as many think, but this follow-up was accepted as a return to nasty rock-blues in economic songs, let Keith step up again (the junkie-regret’n’reverie Coming Down Again), delivered a hit (Angie) and showcased the synergy between guitarists Richards and the effortlessly fluid Mick Taylor. And it has the menacing Heartbreaker. Next: The Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers; The Faces, A Nod is as Good as a Wink to a Blind Horse; Black Crowes, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion
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1970S STEVIE WONDER: INNERVISIONS (1973) Little Stevie had grown up and, in his early 20s, took stock of a broken America. It came out in songs about drug abuse (Too High), urban decay and poverty (Living for the City), Richard Nixon (He’s Misstra Know-It-All) and aspiration (Higher Ground). And – on album which he did almost entirely on his own – love songs too. Life might be bad but when Stevie sang “don’t you worry ‘bout a thing” you didn’t. Next: Bob Marley, Kaya; Marvin Gaye, What’s Going On and Let’s Get It On; Gil Scott Heron: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised; Stevie Wonder, Songs in the Key of Life; Earth Wind and Fire, Gratitude
BOB DYLAN: BLOOD ON THE TRACKS (1975) Whether it was his coded separation/divorce album or not hardly matters. Because these tightly focused songs – where perspectives and characters change, stories wind around themselves and the lyrics are reflective, angry, elegantly simple or elusive – marked not just Dylan’s return to centre-stage but set a bar for himself and others. Rewarding even on multiple repeat-plays. Next: Bob Dylan, Planet Waves and Rough and Rowdy Ways; Bon Iver, For Emma Forever Ago; Lucinda Williams, World Without Tears and West
JEFF BECK: BLOW BY BLOW (1975) An unusual choice here perhaps? The great guitarist hasn’t made truly satisfying album yet, other than this... with producer George Martin and an astute choice of material which includes Stevie Wonder’s Because We’ve Ended as Lovers and Thelonious, the Beatles’ She’s a Woman and smart co-writes with keyboard player Max Middleton. A tasty and often tasteful instrumental album. Next: Santana, Santana; Roy Buchanan, A Street Called Straight; Mark Knopfler, Local Hero; Jimi Hendrix, Axis – Bold As Love
PINK FLOYD: WISH YOU WERE HERE (1975) Following the blockbuster Dark Side of the Moon must have seemed impossible but for this one where they critiqued the music industry, paid tribute to their fallen founder Syd Barrett and invited in Roy Harper for Have a Cigar, the Floyd machine managed to be dramatic, epic, intimate and Roger Waters’ tone not as cynical as it would become. Their last truly great album? Unless you rate the unremittingly bleak and truly awful The Wall. Next: Pink Floyd, Meddle; Radiohead, OK Computer; Porcupine Tree, The Incident; Steven Wilson, Grace for Drowning
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1970S PATTI SMITH: HORSES (1975) A decade after Bob Dylan puled poetry into rock culture (Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde), Smith launched herself as rock poet drawing on the Rolling Stones as much as the Beat poets and, in jazzlike improvisations, brought the New York downtown scene into the mainstream with this exceptional debut. Next: Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home; Beck, Odelay; Lou Reed, New York; John Cale, Paris 1919 and Music for a New Society
JANIS IAN: BETWEEN THE LINES (1975) A precocious songwriting talent – she wrote her classic Society’s Child about racial discrimination when just 14 – she topped the US charts with this crafted collection of originals which included the wonderful, timeless and award-winning At Seventeen. Adult lyrics (The Come On) delivered straight from the heart and given simple but warm arrangements, and appropriate orchestration where required. An overlooked classic. Next: Joni Mitchell, Blue; Laura Nyro, New York Tendaberry; Michael Kiwanuka, KIWANUKA
BOZ SCAGGS: SILK DEGREES (1976) Hugely popular in its day then faded from view as did Scaggs, but its effortless blend of pop (Lido Shuffle), Allen Toussaint’s Southern soul (What Do You Want the Girl to Do), superb ballads (We’re All Alone, Harbour Lights) and the excellent Lowdown which crossed all genres, A slick, soulful, smart and impeccably played collection,. Enduring. Summer music. Next: Boz Scaggs, Down Two Then Left; Van Morrison, Moondance; Al Green, Let’s Stay Together
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1970S THE EAGLES: HOTEL CALIFORNIA (1976) Astonishingly, as with Dark Side of the Moon and Rumours, this album just keeps selling. Despite more than 30 million people already owning a copy. But its synthesis of country and rock, ta darkness-at-noon vibe of its post-coke comedown, the fat-free songs, Joe Walsh’s guitar and Glenn Frey’s sometimes burned vocals still make for fascinating listening. But you knew that, right? Next: The Eagles, Desperado; Tom Petty, Wildflowers; The Traveling Wilburys, The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1; Neil Young, Harvest and Comes a Time
SEX PISTOLS: NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS (1977) While their phlegmatic anger still comes through, it’s just how poppy these songs are. Verse/chorus never ages and makes for enduring music. If they’d never recorded anything other than God Save the Queen and Anarchy in the UK (both here) they would still have written themselves into history as groundbreaking. A generation furiously announcing it wasn’t going to take it. Next: Green Day, American Idiot; The Clash, London Calling
FLEETWOOD MAC: RUMOURS (1977) Just 45 million copies and counting but, as with Hotel California, there is something oddly attractive about a group polishing smooth songs about their internal tensions. With three writers holding up their own mirrors and each song crafted as a single it’s hard to argue with. Drummer/founder Mick Fleetwood’s said he had the best view because he hadn’t slept with anyone in the group (at that time!)... because the album is about the fracturing relationships of the principals; lovers Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, and the McVie’s John and Christine who had recently divorced. If you don’t have Rumours you are in the minority. Pop wins out. Next: Fleetwood Mac, Tusk and Tango in the Night; Milly Tabak and the Miltones, Honest Woman; Joni Mitchell, Hejira; Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie, Buckingham/McVie
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AVAILABLE FEB 12TH 2021 ON VINYL & CD
GUIDE TO ESSENTIAL VINYL
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1970S CHIC: C’EST CHIC (1978) As it says on the label, this is chic music. Crafted and crafty, a distillation of disco, jazz, soul and light funk by studio musicians under the guidance of Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards who stripped r’n’b, funk and disco back to basics (beat, bass), spaced it across the headphones/ speakers and then threw in a hit (Le Freak) for good measure. Makes you wish you’d been at Studio 54, huh? Next: Diana Ross, diana; The Trammps, Disco Inferno; Silver Convention, Save Me
BEE GEES: SPIRITS HAVING FLOWN (1979) Reviled when punks took control of the zeitgeist, the extraordinary Bee Gees just kept writing hits which have endured, as on this follow-up to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack which includes urgent Tragedy, the ethereal Too Much Heaven, the elevating title track and... dismiss them and their falsettos at your peril, but samplers know better. Next: The Bee Gees, Odessa; Robin Gibb, Robin’s Reign
NEIL YOUNG AND CRAZY HORSE: LIVE RUST (1979) A rare live album entry because this double defiantly embraces Neil Young’s acoustic side (the first side) then gets into the serious headrush of his noisy, dark side with ragged Crazy Horse plugged in. “Rock and roll is here to stay” are words to live by, but the line which follows had more tragic meaning when it appeared in Kurt Cobain’s suicide note. An album, a career summation to that point, freighted with multiple meanings and resonances. Play loud then louderer! Next: Steppenwolf, Steppenwolf; Neil Young, On the Beach, Arc and Le Noise; White Stripes, Icky Thump
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SONGS FROM UNDER THE FLOORBOARDS Imagine for a moment you could do a fly-over of the Seventies, what a strange and diverse landscape there would be.
There were outliers (Warren Zevon, Tom Waits, Rickie Lee Jones), the inexorable rise of the Eagles and country-rock . . .
You’d see heavy metal out of the swamp (Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and others); Led Zeppelin stomping across the fields or flying too close to your wings in their own plane; Jethro Tull and prog-rock; glam-rock spearheaded by T. Rex and David (Ziggy) Bowie; the emergence of reggae with Bob Marley, the first Third World Superstar; singer-songwriters out of LA (Joni, James, Carole etc); soul and funk; the dominance of Michael Jackson and Madonna...
Saturday Night Fever was in cinemas and on dancefloors. And hip-hop arrived to invert and reinvent the song formula.
And that would just be the first half of the decade. The second half saw some unexpected developments which still resonate today; punk and New Wave, hardcore and more. There was an alphabet of hard, heavy and angry bands out of the US who emerged and changed the Eighties: Anthrax, Bad Brains (who arc welded reggae to punk fury), Black Flag, Big Black... And out of downtown New York an oddly diverse set of bands emerged around CBGBs: the New Wave pop of Blondie, reductive rock of the Ramones, the nervous energy of Talking Heads, the angry literate Richard Hell and the Voidoids; Patti Smith the punkpoet priestess; the wire-thin Television . . . There was the return of Iggy Pop, and Bowie shapeshifting from Philly soul (Young Americans) to earnest European (Low, Heroes). Kraftwerk were as big an influence as the Commodores. Donna Summer and producer Giorgio Moroder reshaped sounds for the dancefloor and disco exploded. At the same time in the wake of striped-down pub rock (Dr Feelgood), phlegm-fueled punk exploded out of a tiny corner of London around the Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Damned and others. Their attitude, energy and noise spread to the British provinces where the DIY ethic caught on, and it went global... and to Aotearoa New Zealand. Proudly untutored people took to stages and redefined music in such a way we can only refer to bands like the Slits, X-Ray Spex, Wire, the Birthday Party, This Heat, the Enemy, Suburban Reptiles, the Saints, Proud Scum and a thousand others as “post-punk”. Punk in the UK joined up with rebel reggae – two outsider cultures – and rocked against racism.
Any way you look at it, the Seventies was an everchanging landscape. And in this country we had our own artists adopting and adapting the sounds which would come through more fully in the Eighties, notably with indie rock. How could you even consider just half a dozen essential records from that decade? You can’t, so – without repeating what we have already said – we’re just going to look at that last half and offer...
SIX OTHERS OF THE LATE SEVENTIES Dr Feelgood, Stupidity (1976): Although British pub rock was overtaken by punk, this live album of raw R&B (rhythm & booze) still thrills. Saturday night record. Television, Marquee Moon (1977): Hypnotic for its wire-thin, mercurial guitar work by Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd, and memorable songs which were also wry (“I fell into the arms of Venus de Milo”). Not punk or New Wave but in a category of its own. Donna Summer, Bad Girls (1979): Almost a concept album about ladies of the night which opens with the double-whammy of Hot Stuff and the title track, and is a testament to the production skills of Giorgio Moroder. Impossible to dislike. The Clash, London Calling (1979): Sprawling, overly ambitious, punk mixed with pop, reggae and retro rock’n’roll. Plays like a noisy radio station. Don’t touch that dial. David Bowie, Low (1977): The minimalism of Kraftwerk and Bowie’s pop sensibilities met in contemporary art music and Brian Eno in the company of Bowie’s ever-reliable producer Tony Visconti. Singular. Michael Jackson, Off the Wall (1979): An exceptional marriage of funk, Motown soul, pure pop, ballads, disco and Quincy Jones which paved the way for his total dominance in the Eighties.
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COLOURED VINYL EXCLUSIVE TO JB HI-FI
BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS Kaya
CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL Pendulum
ELTON JOHN Tumbleweed Connection
DISNEY’S FROZEN The Songs
THE KILLERS Sam’s Town
LEWIS CAPALDI Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent
ROBERT PLANT & ALISON KRAUSS Raising Sand
R.E.M. Out Of Time
ROXY MUSIC Flesh + Blood
THIN LIZZY Bad Reputation
THE TRAVELLING WILBURYS Traveling Wilburys
WEEZER Weezer
A V A I L A B L E * L I M I T E D
S T O C K .
C H E C K
N O W I N S T O R E
NEW & RECENT VINYL RELEASES
THE KILLERS** Imploding The Mirage
ARCTIC MONKEYS* Live At The Royal Albert Hall
CHRIS STAPLETON Starting Over
SHAWN MENDES*
KACY & CLAYTON AND MARLON WILLIAMS** Plastic Bouquet
TAYLOR SWIFT
Wonder
Folklore
LEWIS CAPALDI
JUICE WRLD
SAM SMITH
Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent
Legends Never Die
Love Goes
A V A I L A B L E EXCEPT
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- OUT DEC 4* / DEC 11**
GUIDE TO ESSENTIAL VINYL
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1980S AC/DC: BACK IN BLACK (1980) The noisy announcement that new singer Brian Johnson was the equal of the late Bon Scott. Stadium-shaking power courtesy of producer Mutt Lange who steered their previous Highway to Hell and now gave rock its biggest seller. Proof that celebratory noise, life-threatening firepower, a man with leather lungs and a guitarist dressed as a schoolboy was an unbeatable combination. Next: Motorhead, Ace of Spades; Cold Chisel, Swingshift; AC/DC, Black Ice and Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap; Iron Maiden, The Number of the Beast
SPLIT ENZ: TRUE COLOURS (1980) Reissued on its recent 40th birthday in different colour sleeves (as per the original), this was the Enz’ great pop-rock triumph where brother Tim turned up with Shark Attack, the wonderful Hope I Never and Poor Boy, and brother Neil had the catchy hit I Got You. Top of their game where pop and residual elements of experimentation co-existed perfectly. Next: Split Enz, Time and Tide; David Bowie, Scary Monsters; Crowded House, Together Alone; XTC, Black Sea and Skylarking; Elvis Costello, Imperial Bedroom
JOY DIVISION: CLOSER (1980) Released after the suicide of singer Ian Curtis, this dark, demanding, poetic, rhythmically angular and sometimes scouring guitar music was balanced by driving, melodic and pulsing synth-pop. New Zealanders put to number three on our charts, it’s highest position anywhere. We like unease. Next: Joy Division, Unknown Pleasures; David Bowie, “Heroes”; The Cure, Seventeen Seconds and Pornography
MI-SEX: GRAFFITI CRIMES (1980) Few bands managed the marriage of all the threads of the moment: New Wave pop-rock, synth-rock, post-punk... But Steve Gilpin who – Bowie-like, had tried mainstream pop and prog before reading the tealeaves of punk/post-punk and arcade games – leathered up, spun left from Gary Numan and with a tight band pulled off their pop/rock/synth debut Graffiti Crimes. Then did it again with this serious sci-fi futurism, and the icy power ballad angst of It Only Hurts When I’m Laughing. Next: Mi-Sex, Space Race; Gary Numan, The Pleasure Principle; Tubeway Army, Replicas
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1980S EMMYLOU HARRIS: EVANGELINE (1981) Not her greatest album (but at least it’s on vinyl), however this collection of enjoyable session leftovers included two songs with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt, covers of Rodney Crowell’s Didn’t Have to Crawl and Ashes By Now as well as Creedence’s Bad Moon Rising and Gram Parson’s Hot Burrito #2. Rewards attention. Next: Emmylou Harris, Wrecking Ball and Red Dirt Girl; Gram Parsons, Grievous Angel and GP; Dolly Parton, Little Sparrow and Halos & Horns
JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS: I LOVE ROCK’N’ROLL (1981) Curiously sometimes filed alongside glam-rock – she wore black leather, folks – Jett was a pure rock’n’roll spirit, closer to AC/DC than Pat Benatar and was the guitar-slinging leader of her hard rocking gang. Here’s the evidence in pop-length songs on an 30 minute album which was built for loud parties and car radios. Next: T. Rex, Electric Warrior; David Bowie, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars; The Pretenders, The Pretenders II
MADONNA: LIKE A VIRGIN (1984) The controversy has faded so you can hear this Niles Rodgers’ production for what it was, a snappy dance-pop album as a mission statement (Material Girl) and cheeky come on (the title track) of tight hits, and some songs stretching out for the dancefloor (Dress You Up). None of those were written by Madonna but as the vehicle she had sass, the image and self-confidence. Next: Madonna, Like a Prayer; Cher, Believe; Cyndi Lauper, She’s So Unusual
PRINCE: PURPLE RAIN (1984) Because the earlier 1999 and later Sign o’ the Times are in your vinyl collection already – perhaps even in the expanded reissues – we just remind you of the genius at his pop peak on this with its classic singles When Doves Cry, the title track and Let’s Go Crazy. And the controversial Darling Nikki. The studio was his instrument and with The Revolution he played it like a maestro. The start of his, er, purple patch. Next: David Bowie, Let’s Dance; Prince, Diamonds and Pearls
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1980S TINA TURNER: PRIVATE DANCER (1984) With some production by members of Heaven 17, the great R&B belter and agonizing balladeer was repositioned into snappy Eighties electro-pop and contemporary pop-rock with classy, tight songs which included the Mark Knopfler-penned title track, Ann Peebles’ classic I Can’t Stand the Rain, Al Green’s Let’s Stay Together and the storming What’s Love Got to do With It. Her roots in Southern soul were intact but repackaged for a new generation. Next: Eurythmics, Revenge and Sweet Dreams; Aretha Franklin, Who’s Zoomin’ Who?; Dusty Springfield, Reputation
THE SMITHS: THE QUEEN IS DEAD (1986) The Morrissey-Marr songwriting relationship was fraying, bassist Andy Rourke was in the throes of addiction... but the Smiths pulled out this classic full of grandeur and intimacy, nastiness and nice songs, and both singer Morrissey and guitarist Marr were at the top of their game, Morrissey delivering some of his most withering, funny and astute lyrics. In 2013 NME writers voted it The Greatest Album of All Time. Sounds like one you need to have, right? Next: The Smiths, Hatful of Hollow and Strangeways Here We Come; The Associates, Sulk; Morrissey, Viva Hate
JANET JACKSON: CONTROL (1986) The first of her two great albums with producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis (the other being Rhythm Nation 1814 three years later), Control was Jackson’s personal announcement that she would be in charge of her career, and that this fusion of numerous styles (r’n’b, funk, soul, disco and pop) given razor-sharp production was going to be her direction. Aggressive. Next: Janet Jackson, Rhythm Nation 1814; The Time, What Time is It?
NWA: STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON (1987) One of the great and unexpected debut albums, Straight Outta Compton was a blast of ghetto politics and fury, samples, “the strength of street knowledge”, self-aggradising braggadocio and deliberately offensive, attention-grabbing lyrics. It defined the gangsta rap genre and cleared the way for hundreds of others (not the least Public Enemy). Decade defining. Next: Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back; NWA, Niggaz4Life; Ice-T, Power
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1980S PIXIES: SURFER ROSA (1988) While some suggest the Pixie’s follow-ups Doolittle and Bossanova, we default to this raw debut produced by the influential Steve Albini for its uncompromising, visceral sound (drums hammering in your ears). Like Pere Ubu’s cacophonous noise (but with songs), Surfer Rosa bristles with white-knuckle pop and quiet-LOUD rock and lyrics which confront... but are also witty. An influential, challenging game-changer. Next: Straitjacket Fits, Hail and Melt; Nirvana, Nevermind and In Utero; Dinosaur Jr, Bug; Pere Ubu, The Modern Dance; Big Black, Atomizer; Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation
GUNS N’ROSES: APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION (1987) Extravagant, decadent and an unapologetically feral, urban implosion of punk attitude, hard rock, guitar solos and Axl Roses’ yelping but expressive vocals. No half measures, no prisoners taken and a heart behind its leather jacket (the superb Sweet Child o’ Mine). Welcome to the jungle indeed. Next: Guns N’Roses, Use Your Illusion II, Aerosmith, Pump; Motley Crue, Shout at the Devil; Hanoi Rocks, Two Steps from the Move
THE STONE ROSES: THE STONE ROSES (1989) Like looking through a kaleidoscope of classic Beatles-era jangle pop and Motown funk, this debut – one of the great debuts of all time – was a magical, melodic acid-influenced collection of songs which announced the Manchester scene and spawned some very likable imitators and shoegaze bands in the next decade. Next: Oasis, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory; Ride, Nowhere and Going Blank Again; Spaceman 3; Playing with Fire
BEASTIE BOYS: PAUL’S BOUTIQUE (1989) Following up the bratty Licensed to Ill was always going to be difficult, so they didn’t try to replicate it... but in a triumph of production (more than 100 songs sampled across the 14 songs and the multi-part B-Boy Bouillabaisse) and through sonic experimentation the BB’s created a landmark album in not just hip-hop but rock culture, with considerable assistance from the Dust Brothers production. An art statement in a beautiful gatefold vinyl sleeve. Next: Beck, Odelay; Tom Waits, Rain Dogs; De La Soul, 3 Feet High and Rising
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THE TRIUMPH OF EIGHTIES POP AND POMPOSITY If the Seventies announced the music business as a license to print money thanks to volume dealers (Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Rod Stewart, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and all the usual offenders), it wasn’t going to slow down in the cocaine-fueled industry of the Eighties. Despite great left-field post-punk albums and the rise of alt.rock, the biggest selling albums of the decade belonged to a few, some more credible than others in critical circles: Michael Jackson (Thriller, Bad); Bruce Springsteen (Born in the USA); U2 (Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree); Fleetwood Mac (Tango in the Night); David Bowie (Scary Monsters, Let’s Dance); Dire Straits (Brothers in Arms); Paul Simon (Graceland); Madonna (True Blue) and Whitney Houston (Whitney). Oh, and Kylie. When a magazine recently announced the best album of the Eighties was U2’s Joshua Tree there was understandable outrage. Prince fans immediately cited his masterpiece Sign O’ the Times. The college radio/student radio bands (REM, Chills, Verlaines, Replacements, Husker Du, Sonic Youth, Clean and so on) soldiered on to considerable success but, when it came to cash over the counter, the Eighties was where pomp and pomposity reined. Some big names from the previous decades – Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan (until Oh Mercy as the decade closed), Elton John among them – fell by the wayside and it seemed all people wanted was Queen’s greatest hits. Of course, some of the big sellers were terrific. No one would take anything away from Jackson’s Thriller, the Police’s Ghost in the Machine, U2’s Joshua Tree and others. Brothers in Arms was certainly Dire Straits best work.
HOWEVER LET’S DIRECT YOU TO SIX RECORDS BEYOND THE VERY OBVIOUS EIGHTIES YOU SHOULD HEAR AND HAVE: Grace Jones, Nightclubbing (1981): Jones’ aloof and emotionally detached persona sat perfectly within the dubinfluenced disco sound of the reggae master producers/ rhythm team of Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare. Her defining moment where sex, sensuality and style were in salacious harmony. Kate Bush, Hounds of Love (1985): Equally balancing her skewed take on pop (Running Up That Hill, the title track) with straight-ahead material (Cloudbursting) and a suite which takes up the second side, this put Bush into the mainstream without compromising her art. Lou Reed, New York (1989): Although in retrospect his Eighties albums weren’t as disappointing as they seemed at the time, this late entry by the unofficial poet laureate of NYC rehabilitated him with a collection of tight rock’n’roll and a bitter tribute to his city. There was a heart behind the leather jacket. Talking Heads, Remain in Light (1980): African rhythms, jittery-pop, Eno’s production, direct songs (Once in a Lifetime) and interesting guests made for an album of pop/art and one which lead you rather neatly to their follow-up Speaking in Tongues. Tom Waits, Rain Dogs (1985): Always the fascinating outlier in rock culture, Waits here blended sea shanties, spoken word, odd instruments and his customary broken ballads (Downtown Train). Some kinda genius. Tears for Fears, Songs from the Big Chair (1985): In a decade where mainstream pop was polished to breezy shine, this had depth and darkness, but also captured that swaggering mood when everybody wanted to rule the world in the “greed is good” decade.
But let’s also tip the hat to Miles Davis’ Tutu, Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden, The The’s Soul Mining, Elvis Costello’s Imperial Bedroom, Donald Fagen’s Nightfly, David Byrne and Brian Eno’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Black Uhuru’s Sensimilla, Red and Chill Out) and scores more. Tears for Fears
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GUIDE TO ESSENTIAL VINYL
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1990S SONIC YOUTH: GOO (1990) The band which prepared the ground for Nirvana (and got them signed to Geffen), Sonic Youth delivered abstract avant-guitar alongside memorable pop (Kool Thing here features Chuck D of Public Enemy), threw in references to pop culture (Tunic refers to Karen Carpenter’s struggle with body image and anorexia) and signaled not just a great rock album but pointed the way for alt.rock in the following decades. Next: Nirvana, Bleach; Sonic Youth, Washing Machine; Neil Young, Le Noise
JANE’S ADDICTION: RITUAL DE LO HABITUAL (1990) Where hard rock collided with progressive tendencies, and punk energy was handcuffed to flash’n’trash. And with more than a smidgen of funk, a great song in Been Caught Stealing and the epic, tribal prog of Three Days. They possessed such swaggering self-confidence that they could deliver concise alt.rock, psyched-out prog and the ballad Classic Girl in the same 50 minutes and make it all work. Next: Jane’s Addiction, Nothing’s Shocking; Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blood Sugar Sex Magik
THE CHILLS: SUBMARINE BELLS (1990) Chills’ mainman Martin Phillipps may be finicky – hence the revolving door of band members in the Eighties – but this album kicking off Heavenly Pop Hit and including The Oncoming Day was as close to pop perfection as you can get. It set him up for the next album... but then the band was broken up again. Next: The Chills, Soft Bomb and Silver Bullets; XTC, Skylarking and Apple Venus Volume 1; Roger McGuinn, Back from Rio
PRIMAL SCREAM: SCREAMADELICA (1991) Against the odds and out of Scotland, this is the perfect mix of ecstasy, psychedelic trance and dance was where gospel sat alongside samples, Public Image Limited influences and house beats. The sound of a dance party in your head. One of the great albums of the decade. Timeless. Next: Massive Attack, Mezzanine; Khruangbin, The Universe Smiles Upon You; Miles Davis, In a Silent Way
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1990S METALLICA: METALLICA (1991) The massive “Black Album” which was a landmark in disciplined metal with classic songs (Enter Sandman, The Unforgiven, Nothing Else Matters) and moved them from metal acceptance to the mainstream. The album has an almost muscular, physical presence, producer Bob Rock – working with singer James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich – shaped it stadium-sized and Hetfield channels his brutal angst into finely honed and memorable songs. A metal monster. Next: Motley Crue, Dr Feelgood; Anthrax, Attack of the Killer B’s; Megadeth, Rust in Peace; Slayer, Reign in Blood; Motorhead, Ace of Spades
ERIC CLAPTON: UNPLUGGED (1992) Over-familiarity makes it hard to appreciate an album, this a case in point. A muted blues album in places where Clapton pays tribute to his heroes, it also included his own Layla (subtle and nuanced, although most would prefer the blazing emotional tension of the original with Duane Allman) and the heartfelt Tears in Heaven which could have sounded mawkish but is quite sincere. Decades on, this rewards hearing anew. Next: Eric Clapton, Journeyman; Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, Unledded No Quarter; Neil Young, After the Goldrush and Harvest; JJ Cale, Naturally
DR DRE: THE CHRONIC (1992) Hard to think of another album which pays out on former friends and perceived enemies quite like this. Or one so beautifully produced by this one-time member of the short-lived and volatile NWA. But here he had the patent on G-funk with guests Snoop Dogg, Warren G and Jewell, and samples from old school funk and Led Zeppelin, James Brown and classic soul. Aggressive, violent, creatively offensive and seminal stoned beats. Next: Dr Dre, Compton; Snoop Dogg, Doggystyle; Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back; Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III
BREEDERS: LAST SPLASH (1993) Far from a “last”, this was Kim Deal’s major splash outside the Pixies and wove together indie-rock, aggressive pop, mood swings, pop bangers (Divine Hammer), stoner grunge and more. It worked. And the single Cannonball is as effective today as it was almost 30 years ago. Next: Frank Black, Teenager of the Year; Kim Gordon, No Home Record; Bikini Kill, Pussy Whipped; The Beths, Jump Rope Gazers
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1990S WU TANG CLAN: ENTER THE WU TANG/36 CHAMBERS (1993) The album announcing the group and in-house cameos of remarkable (and different) talents: RZA, Ghostface Killah, Method Man, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Raekwon, Inspectah Deck... That rare mix of chronic and kung fu, bragging swagger and bringing the ruckus. Great hip-hop album, among the best debuts in any genre. Inevitably the Clan spawned solo albums and the brand was diluted. But this was their moment.
“A ope ha
Next: Beastie Boys, Ill Communication; Outkast, Stankonia; RZA, Ghost Dog; Ghostface Killah, Ironman
CYPRESS HILL: BLACK SUNDAY (1993) Proof positive reggae didn’t have the lock on stoner grooves, this kicks off with “I want to get high, so high” and then does with the crossover hit Insane in the Membrane. Funny but also weirdly contradictory with gun/violence obsession alongside massive doses of chronic which should have render them comatose. Highs and lows, fun and funk, minimalist and as catchy as a social disease. Next: Geto Boys, We Can’t Be Stopped; De La Soul, 3 Feet High and Rising; Tupac Shakur, Me Against the World
JEFF BUCKLEY: GRACE (1994) In retrospect it seems Buckley knew he was only get one album so put everything into it from Zeppelin-like folk-rock (Mojo Pin, Grace), alt-folk from the cabaret (Lilac Wine), Benjamin Britten’s Corpus Christi Carol and his hymnal treatment of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. With an octave defying voice, interests from alt.rock to devotional qawwali singing by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, this Buckley was a great talent with options. A fully-clothed night time swim in Memphis put paid to that. Next: Leonard Cohen, Songs of Leonard Cohen and Old Ideas; Rufus Wainwright, Release the Stars; Tim Buckley, Lorca and Starsailor
HELLO SAILOR: THE ALBUM (1994) After the glory (and inglorious) days of the 70s, Hello Sailor was reduced to the core songwriting trio of Harry Lyon, Graham Brazier and Dave McArtney – all of whom had enjoyed solo careers in the 80s – for this reunion album where they were supported by a cast which included former shipmate Rick Ball (drums), Dave Dobbyn, longtime fellow traveler/producer Stuart Pierce (Street Talk, Poi E, Shihad etc), Warratah Barry Saunders and more. The Album, according to McArtney’s autobiography Gutter Black, was “a bit polished for Sailor” but it “outsold the Stones’ Voodoo Lounge”. The hit was Brazier’s New Tattoo but the largely overlooked collection deserves a revisit. Next: Hello Sailor, Hello Sailor and Surrey Crescent Moon; Graham Brazier, Brazier; Harry Lyon, “To the Sea”
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BOB MARLEY
HALF SPEED MASTERS “ABBEY ROAD’S world-renowned engineers have been cutting grooves into discs since the studios first opened their doors in 1931. This record was pressed from a master cut using a precision technique known as half-speed mastering. The procedure requires the source master and the cutting lathe to run at half speed on a specially adapted Neumann VMS-80 lathe.
This rare and specialised technique transforms difficult to cut high-end frequencies into relatively easy to cut mid-range frequencies. The result is a cut with excellent high frequency response and very solid and stable stereo images. In short, half-speed mastering produces a master of the highest quality that enables the pressing plant to produce a superlative record.” MILES SHOWELL Mastering Engineer, Abbey Road Studios
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1990S TLC: CRAZYSEXYCOOL (1994) The now familiar collision of producers and writers, intro and interludes, and guests could have made this an unfocused mess, not the least because Lisa “Left-Eye” Lopes was increasingly unstable. But against the odds they presented an album which lived up to its title, had nods to Prince-funk (Waterfalls), steamy MOR ballads (Red Light Special) and an astute cover of Prince’s If I Was Your Girlfriend. Dim the lights. Next: Destiny’s Child, Survivor; Prince, Dirty Mind and Purple Rain; Madonna, Erotica
NIRVANA: MTV UNPLUGGED IN NEW YORK (1994) Even those prepared to dismiss Nirvana as soft-LOUD grunge were taken aback by this muted but passionate delivery of some of their familiar rock songs, Cobain’s sensitive reading of Bowie’s Man Who Sold the World and Lead Belly’s folk ballad In the Pines (the raw Where Did You Sleep Last Night), three Meat Puppets’ songs (with the Puppets’ Kirkwood brothers) and cellist Lori Goldston. Lotta people had to rethink Nirvana on the basis of this. Next: Tom Petty, Wildflowers; Bruce Springsteen, Nebraska; The Beatles, The Beatles
TRICKY: MAXINQUAYE (1995) The classic of British trip-hop, Tricky and co-producer Mark Saunders hooked in the cool voice of singer Martina Topley-Bird (among others) who added a dreamlike, almost dispassionate tone to down-tempo songs which dealt with serious issues (Tricky’s mother’s suicide) and emotional dislocation, yet made the whole conception sound seductive and stoned. Next: Massive Attack, Blue Lines; Portishead, Dummy; Martina Topley-Bird, Quixotic
FOO FIGHTERS: THE COLOUR AND THE SHAPE (1997) The jury will always be out on which is the best Foo Fighters’ album (“most of them” isn’t an answer). But given the self-titled debut was just Dave Grohl in his home studio (with little input from others), The Colour and the Shape – with Pat Smear and Nate Mendel – was the Foo’s debut. Grohl’s songwriting skills kicked up a notch and were given a punchy, pure rock attack. Elements of grunge remained intact (Monkey Wrench) but hard rock, pop and rock ballads were now part of the post-Cobain contract too. Next: Foo Fighters, Foo Fighters and Wasting Light; Soundgarden, Badmotorfinger and Superunknown; Frank Black, The Cult of Ray
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1990S LAURYN HILL: THE MISEDUCATION OF LAURYN HILL (1998) Her only solo album so far, this outstanding blend of Hill’s assured rap, funk grooves, classic R&B, and soul came with guests Carlos Santana, Mary J Blige and D’Angelo, and the former Fugee rightly scooped up awards and accolades. Many soul/R&B albums come off heavy handed when the artists wants to make their grand statement abut peace, racism, family, the hood or whatever, but here Hill is pointed but subtle, persuasive but not lecturing. One of the great albums in any genre. Because it goes beyond genre? Next: Fugees, The Score; Arrested Development, 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life of...
BECK: MUTATIONS (1998) After his breakthrough Loser single and the Odelay album, Beck was in danger of being pigeonholed as an alt.rap-cum-folk slacker. But this diverse album which included sitar, Brazilian tropicalia references, folk rock, country blues and other styles (We Live Again a glorious, melancholy ballad) elevated him to a higher threshold. After this he could go anywhere, and did. Next: Paul Weller, On Sunset; Beck, Sea Change, Morning Phase and Colors
CHE FU: 2B S.PACIFIC (1998) Even without the classic Chains with DLT, this remains a wonderfully soulful, reggae-influenced rap album out of Polynesia with some supple jazz beats and influences behind Che Fu’s achingly sweet and effortless vocals. As with the equally essential follow-up Navigator, there is a sense of upbeat optimism here (even when life is stressful), a purposeful unity and some keen pop-smarts in play where the discreet songs stand on their individual merits. Next: Nesian Mystic, PolySaturated; Che Fu, Navigator; Unity Pacific, Blackbirder Dread; Moana and the Moahunters, Tahi; Mareko, White Sunday; King Kapisi, Savage Thoughts
SHIHAD: THE GENERAL ELECTRIC (1999) Recorded in Canada in the same studio used by Metallica, and with Rage Against the Machine’s producer Garth Richardson, Shihad’s major statement is even now is a superb balance of punishing sound with space for release and a breather. Barbs about consumerism, sport/ religion and more are woven into the links of their chain metal suit. A monster. Next: Blindspott, Blindspott; Rage Against the Machine, The Battle of Los Angeles; Audioslave, Revelations; Wax Chattels, Clot
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HIP-HOP: SELLING OUT AND BUYING IN In the early Nineties when Billboard magazine opted for the Soundscan method of gathering sales data rather than relying on people in shops to tell them what they were selling – a system open to all kinds of manipulation – the game changed.
A few rap artists went the other way, notably RunDMC with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry on their cover of Aerosmith’s Walk This Way. But rap didn’t need to compromise: Soundscan’s survey of those buying rap showed the huge percentage of (often disaffected) urban white kids who felt rap spoke more to them than rock. It had the cachet of being outsider, rebel music.
HD 350BT & HD 450BT
What everyone learned was, contrary to expectation, it wasn’t just mainstream pop and rock which were the big sellers... but rap, country and alt.rock.
Garth Brooks is considered the first Soundscan country artist (three of the top 10 selling albums in ‘92), Nirvana the first in alt.rock (although Nevermind that same year still only a quarter of Garth’s total sales). And rap?
We’ve singled out a few rap albums in the Nineties and more will follow, but here are just three more from the Nineties to check out.
Step up your wireless audio.
Rap albums went straight out the gate and up the charts in the first couple of weeks, but most fell away quickly. However by the end of the decade Eminem’s Marshall Mathers LP outsold Britney Spears, and Dr Dre’s 2001 clocked up more sales than MTV-famous Destiny’s Child. The Nineties was the decade when hip-hop culture diversified and rap production methods changed the nature of pop and R&B And the inversion of standard song structure (where melody was at the top) to making beat predominant also shifted the parameters of pop and rock.
Nas, Illmatic: Nas wasn’t well educated – he dropped out of school – but he was well read and had something to say about where and how he grew up (a bleak housing project in Queens on Long Island, New York City). This collection of 10 pieces in just 40 minutes was more focused than most rap albums. Essential. A Tribe Called Quest, Low End Theory: Slippery bass and laidback rhymes from Q-Tip, hints of cool jazz alongside references to rap culture’s cliches, humour and serious issues... all woven together around that low end of bass and percussion. Addictive.
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Suddenly there was a new genre out there: Nu Metal where rap and hard rock collided, and bands like Suicidal Tendencies, Anthrax and Korn crossed towards rap styles and production.
Neneh Cherry
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Neneh Cherry, Raw Like Sushi: Just as her stepfather Don wasn’t constrained by the “jazz” tag, Neneh rapped and sang, pulled in scratching an beats alongside pop structures and synth-pop, cowrote with 3D of Massive Attack for Manchild and sprung a hit single with Buffalo Stance. Wide, deep and enjoyable.
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2000S EMINEM: THE MARSHALL MATHERS LP (2000) In the late Nineties I saw Eminem in an LA club, came home and told people to watch for him. Why? Because the LA urban crowd was evenly split: male and female; black, white and Hispanic. Anyone pulling that obviously had something. But I was ignored, he was dismissed as some foul-mouth upstart. Then he arrived with this album which included the much misunderstood Stan, The Way I Am and The Real Slim Shady. Good guest list with Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg, Xzibit, RBX and others, produced by Dr Dre... The new decade dawned... and in rap it would be his. Next: 2Pac, All Eyez on Me; Upper Hutt Posse, Against the Flow; The Streets, A Grand Don’t Come for Free
PJ HARVEY: STORIES FROM THE CITY, STORIES FROM THE SEA (2000) After initially challenging albums Dry and Rid of Me, she was the approachable “Polly” parading a raw sexuality, and from the chiming guitar jangle of the openers Big Exit and Good Fortune there was a more mainstream pop-rock ethic in play, and – although she still explored some nooks and crannies – she emerged as a new PJ/Polly, one more comfortable and confident in her own skin. Next: PJ Harvey, Let England Shake; Kate Bush, The Sensual World and The Red Shoes; Mel Parsons, Drylands
FUR PATROL: PET (2000) Fronted by the charismatic, striking Julia Deans, whose vocal power could drive in nails but also drop to a caress, Fur Patrol arrived fully formed in the mid Nineties. All had prior form in bands – Deans in the Irish covers band Banshee Reel – but with the hit Lydia (on this album) they grabbed mainstream attention. Fame, acclaim, Melbourne, more albums, the parting of ways, Deans into a solo career... Great if somewhat typical story, but also this milestone album. Next: Tadpole, The Buddhafinger; Garbage, Garbage; stellar*, Mix
RADIOHEAD: KID A (2000) After OK Computer, Radiohead could go anywhere... and here they went into strange sonics, awkward beats and electronica, dark moods but a weird warmth. An album standing apart from just about everything else, even now a rewarding challenge, and one which blazed a path few went down. Not even Radiohead that much, outside of Thom York’s solo projects. Next: Autechre, Amber and LP5; Wilco, A Ghost is Born; Aphex Twin, Richard D. James LP; Thom Yorke, The Eraser
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www.jbhifi.co.nz THE
2000S ALICIA KEYS: SONGS IN A MINOR (2001) By the new millennium rap and R’n’B albums sometimes seemed less collections of music than aural cinema, or a narrative with intros and outros, interludes, spoken work passages and street samples. Keys’ debut album has some of that in her autobiographical songs, and the assimilation of her classical piano training, Issac Hayes’ sensual soulfunk and gospel into a beautifully produced artistic statement. But it still plays. Next: Marvin Gaye, Let’s Get It On; Teddy Pendergrass, Love Language; Whitney Houston, My Love is Your Love
OUTKAST: SPEAKERBOXXX/THE LOVE BELOW (2003) As above, hip-hop as aural event? This was a massively ambitious, long – far too long -- double CD on release but very much a game of two halves with hip-hop pop, anything else you could imagine... and the hit Hey-Ya! which wasn’t typical of these sprawling contents which can take a very long time to tease apart. The pleasure however is in doing just that. Lotta information here. Patience. Next: Prince, Sign O’ the Times; Fugees, The Score; Arrested Development, 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life of...
GREEN DAY: AMERICAN IDIOT (2004) The punk rock concept album which became a landmark . . . and a stage show? The age of paranoia of the Bush-era has become even more relevant in recent times and the anger, frustration and energy in these tightly-wound songs still resonates. Punk was always political (when it wasn’t a parody of itself) and here Green Day wove it into a narrative about an anti-hero which owed debts to pop-rock, the Who, Bowie and pop-metal... and oddly enough Genesis’ magisterial prog-rock classic Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. This worked. And still does. Next: The Sex Pistols, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols; No Doubt, Tragic Kingdom; Against Me, Transgender Dysphoria Blue
AMY WINEHOUSE: BACK TO BLACK (2006) Has anyone written about their problems – drugs, booze, bad boyfriend – with such spectacularly soulful, emotional soul-baring? Winehouse wrapping it all up in soul-pop, classic R&B, heartbreaking ballads (Love is a Losing Game) just brings this home with heartbreaking intensity. All the more tragic by her death five years later when the troubles had compounded. One of the greatest, gone. Silly, sad and much missed girl. Next: Duffy, Rockferry; Sarah Vaughan, Vaughan and Violins; Dusty Springfield, A Girl Called Dusty; Dionne Warwick, Make Way for Dionne
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GUIDE TO ESSENTIAL VINYL
THE THE
2000S
KIWI KOMPILATIONS FOR YOUR KONSIDERATION In the past decade New Zealand artists have been well served by vinyl issues of their new album (if they went that way), as you can see in the previous pages. But there are gaps in what we might call our “historical record of records”. Which explains why people trawl secondhand bins in search of old Kiwi albums. However a number have been reissued . . . so here we single out 10 Kiwi compilations for you, as a kind of shortcut into the past. The Fourmyula: The Fourmyula: Aka Turn Your Back on the Wind. Not exactly a compilation but their famously late-Sixties unreleased album recorded in Britain which was shelved when Decca Records underwent internal housekeeping and cut costs. Includes the UK version of Nature, tough rock’n’soul (Please Take Me) and the pastoral Wrong or Right? Good essay in the booklet explaining the background to the recordings. Larry’s Rebels, A Study in Colour: Compilation bringing together key singles (I Feel Good, Painter Man, I’ll Make You Happy, Let’s Think of Something among them) with album tracks to capture their tough R’n’B soul and early psyche-pop. Bitch/Cleves, Bitch/Cleves: They started as a folk group the Clevedonaires (straight outta Clevedon), became the more rocking Cleves and when they went to Britain reinvented themselves as the hard rockin’ Bitch. A gatefold double album (liner notes tell the story) and a game of two halves. Fascinating journey. Various Artists, A Day in My Mind’s Eye: Double gatefold vinyl with band/song notes subtitled “the Kiwi Psychedelic Scene” which tells you all you need to know: Human Instinct, La De Da’s, Gremlins, Music Convention... Ray Columbus’ rare wig-out Kick Me here too.
The Fourmyula
has the Scavengers, Proud Scum, Swingers, Toy Love, Suburban Reptiles etc across a double album in a gatefold sleeve with an excellent essay by Kerry Buchanan in the booklet alongside band bios and photos. Essential. Th’Dudes, Bliss on Wax: Remastered single album of 10 classic songs such as Walking in Light, Right First Time, That Look in Your Eyes, Be Mine Tonight, Bliss... Various Artists: The Dunedin Double: Reissue of the famous double album which had a side each by the Chills, Verlaines, Sneaky Feelings and Stones. The cliché of “the Dunedin sound” was probably born here. But the “Dunedin sound” was lo-fi, not any similarity of style. Evidence here. The Bats, Compiletely Bats: Their compilation expanded by a second record of other songs and demos with good liner essay by the late Roy Colbert, a fan and supporter. Lo-fi but beguiling alt folk-pop. Crowded House, Recurring Dream, The Very Best of Crowded House: Double album wrapping up a remarkable career in 19 songs, many of them classics or cornerstones.
Various Artists, Heed the Call: Double vinyl of rare NZ funk, disco and soul 1973 – 83 which includes Dalvanius and the Fascinations, Tina Cross, Ticket, American Herb McQuay (then living here,) Mark Williams and others. Superb liner notes and essay with photos. Interesting more than essential? Various Artists, AK 79: The terrific compilation of Auckland punk and household names [joke!] which
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Crowded House
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2010-2020 ADELE: 21 (2011) Some think an album being popular means the artist has only delivered an obvious crowd-pleaser. 21 reminds you a great voice and excellent songs also find an audience, and the album can be deservedly huge. Adele pulls in pop, soul, dance, powerful ballads and more into her orbit and is utterly convincing everywhere. Pure class. Next: Sam Smith, In the Lonely Hour; Harry Styles, Fine Line; Mariah Carey, Music Box
TOM WAITS: BAD AS ME (2011) Sometimes, idiosyncratic Tom Waits delivers an album which connects. Mule Variations (‘99) did that, and this – his most recent as we write – is another. He dropped in old Chicago blues, rewrote his own take on the Stones’ I Can’t Get No Satisfaction as Satisfaction (with Keith Richards on hand), roared about death, unexpectedly channeled Marvin Gaye/Smokey Robinson, introduced new characters into his oddball cast and in Last Leaf (“I’m the last leaf on the tree”) he delivered a typically gorgeous, cracked Waitsean ballad. Essential. Next: Tom Waits, Mule Variations and Bone Machine; Delaney Davidson, Swim Down Low and Rough Diamond
LORDE: PURE HEROINE (2013) The young woman from Auckland’s North Shore captured the global zeitgeist of kids living ordinary suburban lives but groomed for adulthood by television, bling-covered hip-hop stars, boredom and peer pressure. As poetic and allusive as it was addictive. Inventive, unique and pop genius. Next: Taylor Swift, Lover; Julia Jacklin, Crushing; Fazerdays, Morningside
DAFT PUNK: RANDOM ACCESS MEMORIES (2013) Located along the axis of electronica and disco, soulful pop and a touch of prog-rock, this thoroughly enjoyable album comes with stellar guests: Pharrell Williams, Nile Rodgers, Julian Casablancas of the Strokes, seventy-something songwriter/singer Paul Williams with his show-tune melodrama on the eight minute Touch and Panda Bear of Animal Collective. But stitched together by DP keeping an eye on the mirrorball. A tribute to Giorgio Moroder also. Next: LCD Soundsystem, LCD Soundsystem; Electric Six, Fire; Various Artists, Cat People, Soundtrack
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2010-2020 TAYLOR SWIFT: 1989 (2014) After the fine Red (her transition from country-pop to pop-rock), this signaled Swift embracing electrobeats and Eighties-styled synth-pop. Her signature was intact – those sassy spoken word interpolations – and with the usual tag-team of producers she crafted catchy singles (the addictive Shake It Off). This pointed into the mainstream pop charts. And Ryan Adams’ cover of the album was a genuine tribute which showed how these strong songs could be reshaped. Next: Harry Styles, Harry Styles; Ryan Adams; 1989
CHRIS STAPLETON: TRAVELLER (2015) As with Kris Kristofferson, singer-songwriter Stapleton has “an outlaw state of mind” (a song title here), yet he has been covered by Adele and more than 100 others. He’s written with artists as diverse as Guy Clark, Peter Frampton and Sheryl Crow, and is part of a lineage which includes Waylon Jennings, George Jones, David Allen Coe and Southern country-rock. His songs come with moonshine soul and taut storytelling as this whisky-cured connection between classic country and rock proves. The songwriter’s album. Next: Chris Stapleton, From a Room (Volumes 1 and 2); Steve Earle, Copperhead Road and Transcendental Blues
TAMI NEILSON: DON’T BE AFRAID (2015) Hard to choose between this expat Canadian’s beautifully presented vinyls which ooze humorous self-confidence, and showcase her range from belting soul to country ballads, rockabilly and gospel r’n’b. This gets the nod because of her classic Orbison-styled Lonely (with Marlon Williams), the punchy Holy Moses, the rockabilly-soul of So Far Away, the country weeper Only Tears (co-written with Delaney Davidson) and First Man (“that I ever loved, that ever held me in his arms”) which is a tribute to her late father Ron who left Lonely which Tami and brother Jay completed. Astonishing album. Next: Tami Neilson, Dynamite! Sassafrass! and Chickaboom!; Delaney Davidson, Swim Down Low
KENDRICK LAMAR: TO PIMP A BUTTERFLY (2105) Lamar’s masterpiece where contemporary rap and r’n’b, jazz, Sly Stone funk, Tupac, rap-adelic backdrops and solid soul morph with cool confidence, and braggadocio coexists with soul searching. The delivery mechanism was terrific in memorable songs. Lotta talent imploded here: Snoop Dogg, George Clinton, Ron Isley, Bilal... Anger and optimism throughout. Next: Flying Lotus, Flamagra Instrumentals; A$AP Rocky, Long.Live.A$AP
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2010-2020 BEYONCE: LEMONADE (2016) When Lemonade came out with no fanfare other than hints on social media, Twitter exploded. Beyonce suggested husband Jay Z had had an affair? But with who? The correct answer is, “Who cares?” Because Lemonade – a fully realised album of ambiguity, assertion, social insight and the channeling of universal and personal hurts, with guests Kendrick Lamar, Jack White and James Blake – still stands . . . and the twitterati has moved on. Next: James Blake, James Blake and Overgrown; Justin Timberlake, Justified
50 CENT: BEST OF (2017) The only best-of in our main list because it’s a cracker and it’s on vinyl, unlike Kanye’s Yeezus which it was being squared off against. What this collection proves is the impressive diversity of 50 Cent’s career in great productions by Dr Dre, Storch, Hi-Tek and others with guests Nate Dogg, Mobb Deep, Akon, Justin Timberlake and more. Just about every great single or album track is here among the 18 songs. Summed up his career to date while we wait for his return as an artist away from Dre’s Aftermath and Eminem’s Shady labels. Next: Kanye West, Yeezus and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy; Tinie Tempah, Youth; Grimes, Miss Anthropocene
ALIEN WEAPONRY: TŪ (2018) Metal and kapa haka in the hands of this young trio are a natural marriage where energy and power from each is channeled into powerful political messages (some in te reo Māori) with the impetus and heft of post-colonial anger. Beautiful gatefold sleeve with lyrics and commentary really brought this home as the complete package. Next: The Hu, The Gereg; Cairo Knife Fight, Seven; Heavy Metal Ninjas, Interstellar Abduction
JULIA DEANS: WE LIGHT FIRE (2018) A slow-burner where the former Fur Patrol singer exercises constraint in humid ballads and dreamy chanson, smart pop, folk, throbbing rock and nods to synth-pop. “All I want in this life is a light to relieve me from the cold and the dark ‘til the dawn,” she sings. If you feel like that, here’s your flame. An artist confidently embracing all sides of her personality in astute lyrics and a palette of styles. Here to stay, as she says. Next: Tori Amos, Little Earthquakes; Beck, Colours; Aldous Harding, Designer
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B U R I E D T R E A S U R E S , P R EC I O U S G E M S A N D S P A R K L I N G C O L L EC T I B L E S F R O M T H E WO R L D ’ S FAVO U R I T E S I N G E R -S O N G W R I T E R
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This deluxe vinyl box set features the new 2020 stereo album mix + Rarities & Alternative mixes including three previously unreleased tracks, Scarlet, All The Rage & Criss Cross. Mastered at half speed by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios, London. 8 - D I S C B OX S E T F E AT U R I N G
60 UNRELEASED TRACKS
Also included is The Brussels Affair, recorded live at the Forest National Arena in October 1973 and pressed on 180g vinyl.
Rarities: At last, the much sought after demos from 1965-1971 Deep Cuts: Curated by Elton with a track-by-track commentary Plus B-Sides, an extensive 100 page book, liner notes and more
Available as 4LP, 3LP, 2LP and 8CD sets
ROLLING STONES STEEL WHEELS LIVE
180GM BLACK VINYL 4LP
Having not hit the road for most of the 80s, The Steel Wheels Tour was an astounding return for the Rolling Stones, not least as it was the longest tour they had by that point undertaken. It was also to be their last with Bill Wyman. Steel Wheels Live was recorded towards the end of the band’s 60-daterun through the stadiums of North America, in the second half of 1989. The gate-busting ticket sales were one thing, but the stage and lighting design of The Steel Wheels Tour set the pace for superstar tours as we know them today. Special guest appearances from Axl Rose, Izzy Stradlin, Eric Clapton and John Lee Hooker on this Atlantic City date make this an even more extraordinary document of the band’s return to touring.
METALLICA S&M2
D E LUX E B OX
Limited edition 4LP color vinyl, exclusive photobook, 2CDs, Blu-ray, sheet music, five guitar picks, poster, download card M E TA L L I C A & S A N F R A N C I S CO SY M P H O N Y : S & M 2 L I V E A L B U M A N D V I D EO D O C U M E N T I N G S E P T E M B E R 6 & 8 S H OWS AT S A N F R A N C I S CO ’ S C H A S E C E N T E R
These S&M2 concerts were historic on multiple levels: They served as the grand opening of San Francisco’s Chase Center, reunited the band and Symphony for the first time since the 1999 performances captured on the Grammy-winning S&M album, and featured the first-ever symphonic renditions of songs written and released since those original S&M shows.
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2010-2020 MARLON WILLIAMS: MAKE WAY FOR LOVE (2018) A singer of the old style, Williams possesses a unique and malleable voice and he can sing, not just deliver or declaim. Here he evokes a sense of place (“down on the beach with a pail and spade” on Come to Me, the subtle Pacific sound of the title-track) alongside personal emotions (the single Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore with, and about, his former partner Aldous Harding which has an important quiet coda). Deep immersion music. Next: Norah Jones, Feels Like Home; Bruce Springsteen, Western Stars; Al Green, Let’s Stay Together; Chris Isaac, Heart Shaped World
MEL PARSONS: GLASS HEART (2018) Where her earlier albums were more broadly folk, this collection of intimate, darker country-rock, ballads, spectral soundbeds and hints of Fleetwood Mac’s intelligent pop was a great step up and sideways. The album she was made to make. Next: Lucinda Williams, Good Souls, Better Angels; Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie
AVANTDALE BOWLING CLUB: AVANTDALE BOWLING CLUB (2018) In which Tom Scott – with a group of jazz musicians, including his father Peter among the bass players – brings bluntly autobiographical rap and hip-hop into a unique space between urban honesty and post-bop clubland soul, and bridges emotional dislocation and hurts with a sense of gratitude and being home. The gatefold double vinyl comes with extra tracks also. A rare one. Next: Avantdale Bowling Club, Live at the Powerstation; Kate Tempest, The Book of Traps and Lessons; Tinie Tempah, Youth; Stormzy, Heavy is the Head
TROY KINGI AND THE UPPER CLASS: HOLY COLONY BURNING ACRES (2019) Kingi’s project to release 10 albums in 10 years in different genres hit an award-winning home run with this third release, songs grounded in classic Seventies reggae and dub with lyrics which addressed colonisation, mana, spiritual whakapapa and reached to other First Nation/indigenous peoples for inspiration and reference. Excellent. And important. Next: Herbs, Whats’ Be Happen; Bob Marley, Exodus, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Blackbird
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2010-2020 LANA DEL RAY: NORMAN FUCKING ROCKWELL! (2019) Initially dismissed as a rich kid pretender in pop-rock, Del Ray’s sixth album delivered a carefully crafted, intelligent, mature masterpiece which eye-balled the complexities of our current world along with personal reflections. And pulled it all together in ballads, dream-pop and trip-hop along the lineage between Joni Mitchell and Taylor Swift. Next: Florence and the Machine, Ceremonials; Lana Del Ray, Born to Die
BILLIE EILISH: WHEN WE FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? (2019) Never underestimate the young. Eilish and producer/co-writer brother Finneas from LA delivered this exceptional debut, an intelligently closelistening, largely down-tempo album which shifts from sexual seduction to hip-pop, dub-meets-nightclub and sensitive ballads. Most 17-year old pop stars would have fired out a collection of bangers. Eilish’s album is as exceptional as it is surprising. Next: Benee, Hey u x; Troy Sivan, Bloom
LADY GAGA: CHROMATICA (2020) After a heroically romantic, one minute orchestral scene-setter, this uplifting album wraps up pop and dancefloor styles from Abba and Aqua to Cher, with European motorik and electronica in the mix. Guests are Ariana Grande and Elton, but this is Lady Gaga’s shining pop-star, crowd-pleasing album. Next: Madonna, Like a Virgin and Ray of Light; Lady Gaga, Artpop; Cher, Closer to the Truth
NUBIA GARCIA: SOURCE (2020) The London jazz scene has been where it’s at these past few years. But if it helps, don’t think of it as “jazz” because it is a stew of hip-hop, grime, dub and reggae, classic bebop, Afro-futurism and post-rock. It’s extraordinary, as on this album by saxophonist Garcia (also a member of the all-women Nerija). Here is a journey into a sound and a scene. Next: Nerija, Blume; The Comet is Coming, Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery; Awale Jant Band, Yewoulen/Wake Up
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2010-2020 FIONA APPLE: FETCH THE BOLT CUTTERS (2020) Musically experimental (akin to Tom Waits’ early move from the barstool) but lyrically about female empowerment, questioning and feminist thought. And much of it self-directed as problems and perspectives are worked out. In a year of exceptional albums by women artists this stood out. Next: Bjork, Debut and Vulnicura; Suzanne Vega, Solitude Standing; Jenny Hval, The Practice of Love
REB FOUNTAIN: REB FOUNTAIN (2020) Not some new musical direction but an assured step forward and up by one of this country’s most consistently interesting songwriters constantly challenging herself. Here with the production she deserved for songs exploring country-folk, dramatic pop-rock, piano ballads, spoken word... and a place between the confessional and narrative. In the 2020 Music Awards she was nominated in album of the year, solo artist and alternative categories. She, and this album, defy pigeonholing. Next: Reb Fountain, Hopeful/Hopeless and Little Arrows; Patti Smith, Horses; Laurie Anderson, Homeland and Landfall
NADIA REID: OUT OF MY PROVINCE (2020) After two engaging albums acclaimed internationally, Nadia Reid hit the road on tours and had her eyes and ideas opened by experience. That came through here on mature, sophisticated songs (with strings and horns) which were beautifully intimate but as outward looking as inward. And Oh Canada is a great pop song. Next: Nick Drake, Pink Moon; Helena Massey, Brothers Puffin and Half Skulls; Fairport Convention, Unhalfbricking; Brigid Mae Power, Head Above Water
FLAMING LIPS: AMERICAN HEAD (2020) As an elegant lament for lost innocence and, more subtly, a directionless and damaged America, this Flaming Lips album sings with gorgeous arrangements, its melancholy tone uplifted by strings and gentle psychedelic settings. Sublime. The album of an America lost in 2020. Next: The Beach Boys, Smile; Flaming Lips; Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots; Polyphonic Spree, Together We’re Heavy; Phoenix Foundation, Friend Ship
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David Bowie
Leonard Cohen
THIS IS HOW WE SAY GOODBYE When Warren Zevon was given his cancer diagnosis in 2002 and told he had only three months, he went home and that night wrote the beautiful Keep Me in Your Heart.
the world-weary, ineffably sad, closing ballad I Can’t Give Everything Away, one of his finest songs in two decades – it’s the sonic settings which change the shape of these songs.
And then just kept writing, lived nine months longer than expected and delivered his final album The Wind, a meditation on his life and death. It was released a fortnight before he checked out in September 2003.
It is strange music, even by Bowie’s standards, and unlike anything else he did. blackstar (on vinyl with a die-cut star and gatefold sleeve with a book of lyrics) exists in its own musical and lyrical world.
It wasn’t maudlin or self-pitying, it was just his farewell letter.
Leonard Cohen’s posthumous Thanks for the Dance (2019, gatefold sleeve, lyrics, gold embossed lettering) is very different: it is Cohen in his familiar idiom of speak-sing poetry, understated songs and wry reflection.
Some speak of “the gift of cancer” in that a diagnosis – unlike a sudden and unexpected death – gives you time to take stock, make your peace and say goodbye. David Bowie and Leonard Cohen both left final albums as farewell letters. Bowie’s blackstar was released on his 69th birthday in January 2016 and had been recorded in secret while he was suffering from liver cancer. He died two days after it came out. There are images of death through out – the most obvious being “Look up here, I’m in heaven, I’ve got scars that can’t be seen” on Lazarus – but, like Zevon, Bowie wasn’t wallowing in his grief. There’s sadness of course, but this was a courageous album. The “jazz” word appeared in reviews, however this wasn’t Bowie-goes-bop. The jazz players on blackstar came from the post-hip-hop generation, the sound is built up from drums and bass and, though his distinctive voice might be upfront – gorgeous on
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Here was a man settling into inevitable death and facing it with grace and humility: “Listen to the hummingbird whose wings you cannot see, listen to the hummingbird. Don’t listen to me”. Artists are rarely this self-aware when it comes to aging and death, after all rock’n’roll culture celebrates being forever young. But these two beautifully presented records are well worth exploring. And if, as we might expect – although he’s nothing if not unpredictable – what of Bob Dylan’s majestic Rough and Rowdy Ways double vinyl if that proves to be his final album? There’s mortality there too. Next: Bill Fay, Countless Branches; Leonard Cohen, You Want It Darker
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GRAHAM REID Graham Reid is a self-confessed has-been: He is a former journalist and senior feature writer (New Zealand Herald for 17 years); a music and arts critic; author of two award-winning travel books; a university music lecturer and contributor to magazines such as The Listener and Real Groove in New Zealand and so on. He was this country’s former Billboard correspondent, has written thousands of reviews over almost half a century, interviewed many hundreds of local and international artists and lives with a record collection which includes trash alongside classics. For his considerable sins, he has judged many categories in various music awards, speaks on the radio-wireless when he is (often) invited, buys secondhand and new vinyl when he can afford it... and he really does own a wind-up gramophone on which he plays 78rpm records. For 20 years he has hosted his own labour-of-love website www.elsewhere.co.nz covering music, travel and the arts. And just a bunch of stuff which appeals to him in the hope it might appeal to others. His music taste could charitably be described as “eclectic”. And sometimes a bit dodgy.
SOME SIMPLE STEPS TO MAXIMISE YOUR RECORD ENJOYMENT
Clean your records Those grooves need to be kept clear of obstruction – and even new records may benefit from cleaning. Use a record cleaning machine, or wash by hand using record cleaner and a dedicated cloth. And to keep records cleaner longer, run a carbon-fibre brush over the record every time you play. Replace the inner sleeves After cleaning, avoid cross-contamination by using a new inner-sleeve. Use antistatic inners, or step it up with poly-lined inner sleeves. Keep your stylus clean Regular use of a stylus-cleaning brush and occasional deep-clean with stylus cleaning fluid ensures there’s nothing in the way of the diamond in the groove. Care for the record cover It’s not a disposal wrapper, so you’ll want to keep the cover sturdy and protected from dust and dirt. Easy, use an outer sleeve.
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