Michael

Bob Marley & The Wailers – Legend (2002 Edition)

Posted on November 2, 2024 by Michael

It’s been well over 40 years since Bob Marley died of cancer at the far too young at the age of 36 yet his profile in pop culture has barely diminished. The biopic movie One Love released earlier this year grossed $180 million at the box office, his posters adorn college dorm rooms, and his face can be seen on t-shirts around the world . Originally released in 1984, Bob Marley & The Wailers’ greatest hits album Legend has been a best seller since its release. It’s the one album that even non reggae fans will have in their collection, the songs it contains are absorbed just by living.

Reviewing Legend in 2024 holds no mystery – it’s a 10/10 and one of the greatest albums of all time. While everyone has their favourite tracks, these are mine…

As the first track on the album, “Is This Love” immediately pulls the lister in with a gentle reggae vibe mixed with some soft rock guitar. “Could You Be Love” was a smash success, going top 10 across Europe when released in 1980. A funky guitar lick rides under the joyous singing of the I Threes vocal trio on both the verses and the classic chorus.

With the US election just a few days away, tensions on both sides are running high, soundbites bleeding into newscasts across the world, especially here in Canada. The central theme of “Three Little Birds” to “Don’t worry about a thing, Cause everything gonna be alright” is a welcome message of positivity. The seemingly simple mantra carries a lot of sunny heft. Surprisingly, “Buffalo Soldier” did not appear on an album until posthumously released on Confrontation in 1983. A fascinating phrase used to refer to Africans stolen from their homeland, brought to America who end up becoming soldiers.

Like Bob Dylan in the 1960s, Marley is often viewed for being of the people, for the people through political songs like the classic “Get Up, Stand Up”. Legend does a very good job of showing different sides to the man on tracks like “Waiting in Vain”. A midtempo track with a terrific percussion breakdown that tells of someone longing for the love of a woman. It’s not for the masses, it’s a personal struggle but one that everyone can identify with.

While the nitpicking on an album like Legend are fairly minor, one of the gripes would be this. “Redemption Song” is a spine-tingling acoustic song that incorporates parts of a Marcus Garvey speech. “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery/none but ourselves can free our mind”. Marley’s raspy voice is powerful, a true folk classic that is impossible not to join in when he asks, “Won’t you help to sing/These songs of freedom?”. How this does not close this majestic album is a mystery.

Legend is record that I only came to recently. As mentioned, the songs are everywhere, I suppose I never felt the need to hear it as I always hear it just by living. That was a mistake on my part. In his book, All-Time Top 1,000 Albums, author Colin Larkin did not allow greatest hits to be included but in the year 2000 version of the list, there at #60 sits Legend. It received so many votes as one of the greatest albums of all time that it could not be ignored and had to be included. An album whose legend keeps being discovered by a new generation of fans every year.

10/10

Album Reviews

The Last Dinner Party – Prelude to Ecstasy (2024)

Posted on October 23, 2024 by Michael

The ladies of The Last Dinner Party were already living out rock fantasies before releasing a note of music. Opening slots for The Rolling Stones and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds would be the pinnacle for most bands, not the starting point. Prelude to Ecstasy is full of sweeping cinematic drama, the theatre kids have made an album. A galloping drum in the chorus as singer Abigail Morris sings “You think it’s romantic… we’re both just addicts”. An expansive vocal performance and drums power “The Feminine Urge” on a track about mother/daughter relationships that “nurture the wounds my mother held”. Heady stuff.

Produced by producer of the year, James Ford, the album has thus far yielded a staggering seven singles including “Beautiful Boy” about the ease in which pretty young gents can move through life. The quintet’s twin guitar attack gets turned up on “Sinner” that also adds dissonance on “My Lady of Mercy” on an otherwise clap happy pop song.

The highlight of the album is first single, “Nothing Matters”. An expression of love with nothing held back. The group singing in the chorus lifts the song into an anthem when they sing, “And I will f*** you like nothing matters”. It’s a powerful moment on an album full of them. At times, Prelude to Ecstasy can be a bit tiring, like a precocious teenager who is mostly clever but hasn’t figured it all out yet. It’s a minor gripe, the debut from The Last Dinner Party is full of histrionic outbursts of great songs.

8/10

Album Reviews

David Bowie – The Gouster (2016)

Posted on October 14, 2024 by Michael

When David Bowie released the second boxset in a career spanning history, Who Can I Be Now (1974-1976) in 2016, the set also included The Gouster. This album was never released but eventually came in out in a revised form as the Young Americans LP. The two albums share four tracks in common, all in alternate forms including the sax driven “Somebody Up There Likes Me”. It also contains the track of the same name as the boxset, a midtempo piano driven track with a lot of horns as well.

The Gouster contains two future singles. The first being “Young Americans” that brims with Philadelphia soul and the second being “John, I’m Only Dancing”. The disco soul number would eventually be released in 1979 in edited form. The version here clocks in at 7 minutes, a true disco dancefloor edit. Leaving off a few upbeat numbers from Young Americans, The Gouster is a slower take on what eventually would become a big album hit for Bowie in 1975.

7/10

Album Reviews

blur – Leisure (Expanded Edition) (2012)

Posted on October 7, 2024October 7, 2024 by Michael

1991 saw the release of the debut album from London’s blur. The prevailing music trends at the time – baggy Madchester beats, shoegaze and grunge all helped form the songs on Leisure. Led by 3 singles, the first being the stoner indie rock with a slight Manchester feel of “She’s So High”. The track adds a swirling keyboard and psychedelic guitar from Graham Coxon while bassist Alex James keeps the low end in a constant groove. The song scraped into the UK top 50 singles chart.

Building on that success, the band released one of their finest early singles in “There’s No Other Way”. A UK Top 5 hit, the distinctive guitar opener from Coxon is added to with an organ line and dancefloor filling beat from drummer Dave Rowntree. The band’s fortunes sagged with third single “Bang” that didn’t hit the top 20 and has been largely disowned by the band. While not as strong as the other singles, the bored slacker lyrics from Damon Albarn and inventive drumming from Rowntree does make it a decent track.

The most distinctive song on Leisure was never released as a single. Later rescued by the Trainspotting OST, “Sing” is a surreal atmospheric track that manages to be both experimental and tuneful. 30+ years on, “Sing” is still a band and fan favourite. Another atmospheric track closes the album with the grungy guitar driven “Wear Me Down”. Albarn’s vocals sound otherworldly with an excellent layered vocal chorus.

In between these tracks, the foursome assembles a decent set of it’s time indie dance rock with “Bad Day” and “Fool” being particularly upbeat, catchy album tracks. Like the single “Bang”, the band has doesn’t have much good things to say about this album as they would strive for far greater heights in just a few short years. Like other blur fans, I have a soft spot on this album after discovering it a few years after release. It was a regular pregaming disc to blast in my bedroom while getting ready for a night out. While lyrically slight and following rather than leading on the music side – Leisure does boast several banging tracks to listen to while downing the first lager of the night.

When blur released their blur 21 boxset in 2012, they included bonus discs with each album featuring b-sides, rarities, and extended tracks. “I Know” appears in extended form and is memorable number while the band’s remix of “There’s No Other Way” adds some spacey atmosphere in a dubby like sound. “Luminous” has a dreamy guitar and “Explain” might be the best of the bunch. Unlike contemporaries Suede, there are no early lost gems or should have been singles. The band picked the best of the bunch that made the actual album.

Leisure – 8/10

Expanded Extras – 5/10

Album Reviews

Fontaines D.C. – Romance (2024)

Posted on September 30, 2024 by Michael

For their 4^th album in 6 years, Fontaines D.C. enlisted arguably the producer of the year in James Ford. Several of the tunes take on a gothic feel including the title track where singer Grian Chatten comes on like a louche vampire as he sings that we’re “into the darkness again”. “Desire” adds strings on a track where “they drown their wishes in the fountain like their fathers before”.

“In the Modern World” is mostly just a guitar with strings that adds a stellar chorus, sometimes it’s the quieter songs that grab the attention on one of the album’s highlights. On the flip side, the listener doesn’t know what they are in for as the elegant piano tickling of “Starburster” gets pushed to the background when the drum kick of Tom Coll takes centre stage and Chatten spits out rhymes with an MC’s energy on one of the songs of the year. As the fog starts to lift, second single “Favourite” closes out the album on a happier/poppier track. The band planned this all along, take the listener through a dark journey and ending in the light.

Romance sees the Irish lads incorporate several different styles as they continue to be one of the hardest working bands around. Leaving room for songs like “Bug” which is a more straightforward rock song about being in a relationship that easily mixes in with their darker, more complicated songs. Fontaines D.C.’s debut album Dogrel got rock fans of all ages excited and it’s thrilling to see the band continue to impress four albums later on a standout album.

8.5/10