Author: Michael

Posted in Album Reviews

Trainspotting: Music from the Motion Picture (1996)

Posted on by Michael

Trainspotting based on the Irvine Welsh novel follows the lives of several Scottish mates, most of whom are addicted to heroin. The movie depicts the staggering destruction the drug can do in a person’s life but also mixes in plenty of laughs and one of the best film soundtracks ever.  Mixing alternative classics, Britpop and techno – the soundtrack was massively successful upon release in 1996.  The album starts with the first of two big indie disco night hits with Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life”. Originally released in the late 70s, the song gets a new release on life as a whole new generation discovers the classic drum beat from Hunt Sales.

The album immediately takes it’s foot off the gas for the ambient sounds of Brian Eno and the bubbling dance sounds of Primal Scream. Sleeper performs a very good faithful cover of Blondie’s “Atomic” before the New Order’s “Temptation” sings of “Oh, you’ve got green/blue/grey eyes”.  The album then takes one of the highlights from Blur’s underrated first album with “Sing”.  Lou Reed soundtracks one of the most powerful scenes in the movie when “Perfect Day” plays while Renton (Ewan McGregor) ODs before being revived in the hospital. The song’s deadpan singing of a wonderful day out perfectly fits the harrowing scene.

Originally a b-side, Pulp makes an appearance with “Mile End”, a fitting track that describes an unlivable flat in London that captures the domestic lives of the characters. Nearly bookending the album, Underworld’s smash techno crossover hit “Born Slippy .NUXX” appears. Playing in the final scenes of the movie, the song with it’s “lager lager lager” lyrics is regarded as a landmark electronic track. 

Arriving a few years before Napster and online streaming, the Trainspotting soundtrack plays like an excellent mixtape that people used to pass on to one another. While the segue from Iggy Pop to Brian Eno is an odd one, several of the tracks flow nicely from one track to the next.  Like any good mixtape, it has well known favourites and a few unknown gems for listeners to discover.  Like the movie, the Trainspotting soundtrack still holds up 25 years later.

9/10

Posted in Album Reviews

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Endless Rooms (2022)

Posted on by Michael

The third album from Australia’s Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever arrives with their familiar three guitar attack.  Several of the tracks have an environmental bent including the chiming “Tidal River” that strips everything back in the refrain and the midtempo “Dive Deep”. The crisp drumming of Marcel Tussie stands out on third single “My Echo”.  

There is a driving beat on “Blue Eye Lake” with its “you can ride the back of a star and go anywhere” lyric.  Likewise, “Saw You at the Eastern Beach” has an atmospheric, celestial effect. As with the first two Rolling Blackouts C.F. albums, there are a few songs that float by without leaving much of a mark.  On Endless Rooms, those moments are fewer and the songs that do resonate, really cut through to make a very good guitar rock record.

7.5/10

Posted in Album Reviews

Radiohead – Kid A (2000)

Posted on by Michael

For a band like Radiohead, coming off the staggering success of 1997’s OK Computer, generally regarded as one of the best albums ever, following it up was going to be a challenge.  It was a situation that nearly broke the group as they struggled for what direction to take. In the end, Kid A released in 2000 was a monumental shift for an arena rock band to take even if some of the groundwork had already been laid.  Led by singer Thom Yorke, the band went down a path of adding the techno sounds of WARP records acts to their repertoire that would see some fans/critics rejoice in their newfound creativity and others regard the album as too far in left field for their tastes.

The minimalist “Everything In Its Right Place” opens the album with it’s distinctive synthesizer sound and robotic singing of “Kid A, Kid A”. The first sounds of a rock band appear on third track, “The National Anthem” that rides a repetitive bass riff and drums of Philip Selway. A saxophone jazz freakout helps make the song sound like an alien rock band beamed down to earth on a dark, windy night.  Thom Yorke punches through the icy synths and electronic drums of “Idioteque” with repeated lines of “women and children first” with an “ice age coming”.

A warmer synth and Yorke singing the falsetto “release me” adds a human element to “Morning Bell”, a track that includes the haunting lines “cut the kids in half” which has made many wonder if it’s a divorce song. An acoustic guitar leads the atmospheric “How to Disappear Completely” as the downbeat chorus goes “I’m not hear/this isn’t happening”.  A Jonny Greenwood lead string section brings even more of a human element to one of the finest songs on the album.  Originally written the same day as “Creep”, “Motion Picture Soundtrack” adds a finality to the album, with a harmonium effect that sounds like it’s from a different time.

With production from Nigel Godrich, the entire band shifted their way of recording and writing songs in order to break free of the constraints that they felt the band was under after a string of successful 90s albums.  No singles were ever released from Kid A, an album that has gone on to be regarded as one of the finest albums of the 21st century.   Today, Kid A still stands as a remarkable achievement from one of the biggest bands in the world.

10/10