Ten Good Friends (Top 10 Albums)

Member Name: thequy

Product:	Top 10 Albums
Date:	23/06/01 (222 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots - they're the dog's proverbials

Disadvantages: Lots - they're only human...

To describe albums as friends runs a considerable risk of falling off the far end of the ‘cheese-e-ometer’. On the other hand, this analogy holds pretty well so I’m willing to take the plunge. First, the obvious bit – the time you spend together. They console you in times of grief and calm you in times of stress. They get worked up with you in preparation for that big night out and slumber with you as you drift away into comforting sleep. Admittedly not all friends do that last one but it’s nice when it happens.

Before any of that though, you have to be introduced. There are the extreme characters who make their mark at that first meeting - you know for sure you’re going to be best buddies (or the worst of enemies). Others, you’re not that keen on to start with but circumstances force you together and you realise they’re not that bad, developing a grudging admiration for them. Conversely, there are some whose charm proves to be superficial and after a few more encounters, it’s obvious that they’re not for you.

Then there’s parting company – if at all. Should you be separated from your best mates for whatever reason, you will do what it takes to become re-united. In contrast there are acquaintances who gradually fade from view and one day you suddenly realise they’re gone. Should they resurface, it’s smiles all round and the drinks are on you. If you never see them again, it’s not really the end of the world.

This is a review of 10 good friends of mine. They’re a diverse lot, if only to show that friends can come from any background. They’re only human, with vastly different characters and it’s natural that I’m not always in the mood for them. Yet stay away too long and I miss them.

The overall review is long but doesn’t cover half of the things I like about them. It would do but I need you to re
ad my future opinions... At the end is a list of 10 singles that convinced me to buy the album in the hope there would be more of the same. There often was - just not enough to convince me it was ££ well spent vs getting the single. The conniving little so-and-so’s.

In no particular order, allow me to present to you the Roses, Mendelssohn and Bruch (dead for a couple of centuries but don’t let that bother you), Sasha & Digweed, Abba, Axl Rose & friends, Queen, Primal Scream, the Prodigy, IAM and errr... this must be Sasha’s twin brother. Want to get to know them a bit more? Give them a try...

1) The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses
Key Tracks: Made of Stone, I Am The Resurrection

Not so much an album as a collection of singles, this was my introduction to the Stone Roses and I was instantly hooked. In a hypothetical battle of the Manc bands, Oasis score highly with some truly memorable tunes but my overall preference is for the crisper, tighter sound of the Roses. Look no further than the jamming session at the end of I Am The Resurrection.

The Roses write good songs (with the exception of "Don't Stop" every number is just crying out for you to join in) just not as obviously anthemic as those by Oasis, whilst the lyrics can have a surreal edge to them. For example, 'Sugar Spun Sister' which is about him fancying a candy floss seller (I think):

"I've paid, for 15 more
But my gut, can't take anymore
And my hands, are stuck to my jeans
And she knows (she knows) what this means...

Until the sky turns green,
And the grass is several shades of blue
Every member of Parliament trips on glue..."

You what? Not quite 'Lovely Rita, meter maid' but I imagine the intentions were similar.

‘Don’t Stop’ is a funny one, almost as if the recording session got tangled up with some suspiciousl
y hedonistic practices. I’m not sure that I like it but it doesn’t feel right not liking the Roses, so I’m trying my best... Following that is ‘Elizabeth My Dear’, a swift and cheeky dig at the Monarchy to the tune of ‘Scarborough Fair’. Then there's 'Bye Bye Badman' - a boppy little number that has me jigging up and down in my seat just thinking of it.

'Made of Stone' exemplifies their soulful harmonies. I haven’t the foggiest what the words mean here either (pointers would be welcome as this has bugged me in intervals for quite a while) but the chorus is such a triumphant anthem that I don’t care.


2) Bruch Violin Concerto in G Minor/ Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E Minor, Nigel Kennedy with the English Chamber Orchestra,
EMI Records CDC 7 49663 2
Key Tracks: #2 (Bruch: Adagio) #6 (Mendelssohn: Andante)

This CD’s inclusion is stretching the definition of ‘album’. Gatecrashers – what can you do?

The string family mimics the human voice better than any other acoustic instruments and the violin has a particularly bewitching allure to it, whether singing a soul-rendering melody or prancing up and down its large range of notes on a virtuoso run. In the right hands, the violin can make a grown person-that-isn’t-normally-prone-to-crying (how’s that for PC?) cry. In the wrong hands, it causes neighbours to move house and pets to seek new owners. Of course, ‘wrong hands’ may eventually become ‘right hands’, it just takes more time than most can bear.

Nigel Kennedy’s hands certainly count amongst the right ones. His attempts at popular music obscure the fact that he is that rare phenomenon – the prodigy that did not burn out. He was the first person to get a perfect mark for the entry audition to the Yehudi Menuhin School. I would have cheerfully sawn a leg
off to have that on my CV (as long as it was someone else’s).

Both the Mendelssohn and the Bruch are ‘chamber music’ – smaller orchestras than would play e.g. Tchaikovsky - and are light in texture and mood. They follow the standard formula of 3 movements:

1) Big, showy tunes,

2) Slow and thoughtful, possibly romantic,

3) Rousing finale.

Other characteristics the Bruch and the Mendelssohn share are an uplifting vibe and absolutely BEAUTIFUL second movements. Sorry, caps were a bit brusque there but the point had to be made. The sixth minute of the Adagio (i.e. 05:00 onwards) and the last couple of minutes of the Andante defy description – the best I can do is... no, I give up.

This recording also includes Schubert’s Rondo in A (#4 which is why the Andante is #6, not #5). The Rondo only has a string orchestra backing Kennedy which gives a very different sound from the concertos. A dreamy opening turns into a lively canter, goes dreamy again for a bit then finishes with another canter. There, you don’t get much more concise than that.


3) Sasha/John Digweed – Renaissance 1 (more gatecrashers to the meeting of the albums! How much are we paying that doorman?)

This was Sasha and Digweed’s first mainstream release as a duo and is a timeless classic, albeit in a slightly different vein from the previous CD. The first factor is a tracklist that's chock-a-block with classic dance singles:

Leftfield- Song of Life (warranting no less than 3 different mixes)
Bedrock – For What You Dream Of (features in Trainspotting’s soundtrack)
Sunscreem – Perfect Motion
Remake – Bladerunner (with Inner City accapella)
State of Grace – Not Over Yet
M People – How Can I Love You More?
Spooky – Little Bullet
Age of Love – Age of Love (not been to Ibiza yet but th
is must be a corker to watch the sun come up to)
My Friend Sam – It’s My Pleasure

However the whole is surely greater than the sum of the parts - not only do Sasha and Digweed have an uncanny knack for choosing tunes, they fuse them together with a sense of musicality that very, and I mean VERY few other DJ’s come close to matching. All 41 mixes (i.e. 44 tracks on 3 CD’s) are spot-on but for sheer impact, stick on #10 of Disc 2 (Fishbone Beat’s Always). Fast forward to the last minute and focus on the organ riff in the background. Watch the timer and exactly on 00:00 of #11, hear how it gives way to State of Grace’s “It’s Not Over”. If I’d thought of that, I’d be jumping about the room patting myself on the back (a sad and all too common occurrence – the jumping around that is).

The inlay is laughably cheesy with a Reader’s Digest style commentary celebrating Renaissance and the DJs’ legendary status with a total lack of subtlety or wit. Well I suppose if you’re running a club this good you can blow your own trumpet, especially if no less than M People write and dedicate a song to you.

Hint: do not read.


4) Abba Gold (That doorman is fired)
Key Tracks: the lot.

In my first year at Manchester, I fancied the socks off a girl down the corridor. She adored Abba and it made sense that someone so gorgeous must have good taste. Borrowing the CD started off as a classic boy-fancies-girl manoeuvre but I soon got my own copy (though I didn’t tell her until well after).

NB: Going to Club Tropicana, even though only once, was probably a sacrifice too far. I still wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat.

There is a family-friendly ‘clean’ feel to Abba. No smut or sleaze here, just a cheery vibe that ensures they will remain winners with Ritz goers for generations to come.
I don’t mean that in an insulting way - ‘Ritz goers’ in this case are those out to just have a good time and party all night to unashamedly cheesy music – except Abba isn’t cheesy, if you see what I mean. Well, I s’pose they are in a way but they’re still good (he says defensively).

This is one of the few CD’s I possess where every single track is a gem (yes, even compared to other Best Of’s). There’s the singalong ‘I Have A Dream’, the reminiscent ‘Fernando’, the heartstring-tugging ‘The Name Of The Game’ and of course, the ever popular ‘Dancing Queen’. I won’t go through them all but 19 great songs is pretty good value if you ask me.

There is one particular moment in Take A Chance On Me that really hits the spot – when she sings “Cos yoo know I’ve got...” (so much that I wanna doo etc.). They’ve both got fantastic voices anyway but those 5 words ring out with a resonance that makes you wish it were you on the end of the phrase.

This is an album to be blasted on the motorways - and swiftly replaced by Hard Trax Presents Banging Hard House the Hardcore Mix just before you pull into work or outside a mate’s house.


5) Guns & Roses – Use Your Illusion II
Key Track: Estranged

Metal bands are often typecast as a cacophony of drums and guitars. Along with many of my friends (self-perpetuating phenomenon?) I also held this picture in my head. Then I listened to UYI 2 and realised I didn’t know what I was talking about.

Estranged made an immediate impact and remains my favourite on the album. The footnote to its lyrics say “Slash, thanks for the killer guitar melodies.” I would also add “listen out for the killer piano accompaniment.” Not to mention lyrics with a depth to them that I had never credited G&R with the
intelligence for.

“I jumped into the river, too many times to make it home,
I’m out here on my own, and drifting all alone,
If it doesn’t show, give it time,
To read between the lines,
Cos I see the storm is getting closer,
And the waves, they get so high,
Seems everything we’ve known’s here,
Why must it drift away and die?

G&R, on the strength of Estranged alone, I salute you as a great band.

The rest of the album is pretty damn fine too, but Estranged is an absolute stormer. It also made me rush out and get UYI 1 (not that keen on, other than November Rain).

NB: ranting is a popular dooyoo pastime. Check out ‘Get In The Ring’ for the mother of all rants. He must have felt sooooo much better after doing that one. Bob Guccioni Junior, I've never met you but I feel sorry for you.


6) Queen - Innuendo
Key Tracks: Don’t Try So Hard, These Are The Days of Our Lives, The Show Must Go On

I don’t like 25% of this (Delilah, the Hitman and Bijou) but the rest is easily good enough to compensate for it. Queen have evolved considerably since their early stuff and the title song is a good demonstration of their musical prowess. It’s an epic track, changing mood several times and with a clever Spanish guitar solo halfway through. Clever because it’s written in 5/4 (5 beats to the bar) yet the bars aren’t obviously off-kilter. The vast majority of modern music has 4 beats to the bar and you become so conditioned to this that anything else just sounds weird unless it’s really well done.

NB: an excellent piece of non-4/4 music is Pink Floyd’s ‘Money’ which is in 7/4.

Freddy Mercury knew his days were numbered from AIDS when this was produced and there is a subsequent melancholy throughout much of the album - nowhere more so than in ‘These Are The Days...R
17; By the time it was recorded, Mercury was too weak to film a full-on video, hence the extensive use of animatics (very open to correction on that one – I vaguely remember it from something I saw years ago). The words and harmonies are charged with emotion - the verses are a calm sadness that resolves into a declaration of love. Roger Taylor keeps things moving with a subtle and hypnotic pattern on the bongos and Brian May contributes an appropriately poignant guitar solo.

The last song is ‘The Show Must Go On’. It paints a powerful picture of a man coming to terms with his fate, asking possibly the hardest question of all – Why?

“Whatever happens, I leave it all to chance,
Another heartache, another failed romance,
On and on,
Does anybody know what we are living for?

I guess I’m learning, I must be warmer now
I’ll soon be turning, round the corner now
Outside the dawn is breaking
But inside in the dark, I’m aching to be free.

Show must go on (etc)”


7) Primal Scream - Screamadelica
Key Tracks: Movin’ On Up, Higher Than The Sun, Loaded

The soundtrack to a sixth-form on acid. Cheaper and easier to obtain than alcohol (this isn't promoting LSD – I would never touch it again), we got high, we tripped, we thought we were the wild ones of our generation. By far the most psychedelic entry in our meagre music collections, this made it an automatic choice when we started out. I haven’t touched acid for 7 years but often wind down to this (ironically, we used to come up to it).

Funky, soulful, gospel, psychadelic. This is one of those albums with such a unique sound that the band themselves never reproduced it, never mind anyone else.

Higher Than The Sun (both mixes) was the favourite at the time but in more recent years, I’ve grown equally attached to all the other tracks.
><br>
“...I wasn’t born to follow,
I live just for today, don’t care ’bout tomorrow,
What I’ve got in my head you can’t buy, steal or borrow,
I believe in live, and let live,
I believe you get, what you give.”


8) Prodigy – Fat of the Land
Key Tracks: Smack My Bitch Up, Breathe, Narayan

Liam Howlett has always had a talent for music that explodes with energy but Fat of the Land leaves Jilted Generation and the Prodigy Experience standing in its testosterone-charged wake. Their live performances sell out every time and for a very good reason. Buying this album is a very close substitute (no, I don’t get a commission but if I did, I’d be jumping all the way to the bank).

Ignore the words to Smack My Bitch Up (ulterior artistic purpose or just to pee off middle-England? Dunno.) and fast forward to the breakdown with the Eastern sounding female vocal. You can just see one of the nutters from the band revving himself up to jump into the middle of the crowd (don’t know their names other than Liam and Keith, and Liam’s always too cool to stagedive).

What I admire about the Prodigy is how they refuse to be pigeon-holed. Their sound is theirs and no-one else’s. Whilst trance and progressive house took over the dance empire with their repetitive beats, the Prodigy didn’t give a monkey’s and carried on raising the standard in their breakbeat kingdom.


9) IAM – L’école du micro d'argent
Key Tracks: Petit Frère, Demain C’est Loin

After a thoroughly enjoyable year in France, I took measures against the almost inevitable decline in my oral standards and asked a friend to recommend some rap groups (more words to the minute than songs and more interesting than radio weather forecasts), preferably a touch more underground than MC Solaar (talented but bland). I was most
chuffed with the results and this is the pick of the bunch:

IAM (as in English for ‘je suis’ – heh heh, the Anglo-Saxon influence rears its ugly head) have a style that probably sounds dated to most hip-hop fanatics on this side of the Channel. The instrumentals are simpler with more of an acoustic feel whilst many of the lyrics contain a social or moral message (à la Grandmaster Flash: White Lines). There is never the slightest hint of a ‘F*ck da Police, Niggaz in the Hood’ attitude although unflattering references to the authorities are definitely in vogue.

Petit Frère literally means ‘Little Brother’ and is a common term of affection for your younger sibling. The track of that title is a lament for the loss of Petit Frère’s innocence. The rapper remembers growing up with tales such as Snow White to fuel his imagination. His younger brother has Mortal Kombat to keep him entertained. He’s only 13 but skips school, steals cars and carries a gun. Unfortunately, whilst I don’t think this is the norm in all the suburbs of Marseille, it wouldn’t be totally unheard of either.

“Plus de cartable – il ne saurait pas quoi en faire,
Il ne joue plus aux billes,
Il veut jouer du revolver,
Petit frère a jété ses soldats,
Pour devenir un guerrier, et penser au butin qu’il va amasser.”

My translation follows which lacks the impact of rhyming like the original does:
“His schoolbag is gone – he wouldn’t know what to do with it
He no longer plays at marbles
He wants to play with guns
Petit Frère has thrown away his toy soldiers
To become a warrior, thinking of the loot he’s going to gather.”


‘Demain C’est Loin’ is an epic narrative of the dead-end lives and petty drug dealing that awaits those who don't break out from the concrete prison of the suburb
s.

"On coupe, on compresse, on découpe, on emballe, on vend,
Ouais c’est ça la vie,
et parle pas de RMI ici,
Ici, le rêve des jeunes, c’est le Golf GTI"

"You cut, you press, you cut, you wrap, you sell,
Yeah, that’s what life's about,
And don’t talk to us about the RMI,
Here, the aspiration of youth is the Golf GTI"

RMI = revenu minimum d'insertion, a sort of minimum wage that conjures up wonderful images of being inserted into the labour market.

You can actually order this in HMV but you pay a premium. Let me know if you want a free cassette... woah, no pushing at the back there - take a ticket and wait in line. Oh you wanted to get out, not get a recording... suit yourself.


10) Sasha – Global Underground 13 (Ibiza)
Key Tracks: Sander Kleinenberg (My Lexicon), BT (Mercury & Solace)

Since recording the Renaissance mix, Sasha’s sets have become harder and faster. Whereas a lot of the singles in Renaissance oblige the DJ to cutmix, the progressive trance in the Ibiza mix allows Sasha to overlap tunes for much longer and you can barely tell where one track ends and the next one begins.

Favourites on the first of this double CD are My Lexicon and the Breeder remix of Orbital that follows it. Someone once described this as ‘intelligent’ trance which I think is quite apt. I’m not so keen on #11 Kleinenberg (Sacred), probably because the rhythm is deliberately programmed ever so slightly behind the beat, giving it a quirky feel.

The second CD starts with a long steady build-up that announces lift-off when BT mixes perfectly into Bluefish’s One. When the bass kicks in, shut your eyes and you’re almost there – definitely a screams-and-whistles moment. The piano (have I been showing a slight bias towards the piano? Thought I was being subtle about it...) and h
aunting vocals make Mercury & Solace a close runner up to Flaming June as my fav BT track (in the whole wide world - ever).

Things calm down a bit for the next track before you're parachuted into the four-to-the-floor frenzy of Junkie XL’s Future In Computer Hell. The last number is Bedrock’s ‘Heaven Scent’ which was massively hyped and, in my opinion, over-rated. Sure it’s got an anthemic bassline but you couldn't help feeling that a lot of the publicity was due to Digweed’s involvement rather than a genuine cracker of a tune. Digweed is one of my favourite DJ’s so you can imagine how over-the-top it all seemed.


GOOD ENOUGH TO TAKE A CHANCE ON THE ALBUM:
1) U2 - One
Achtung Baby

2) Beautiful South – Prettiest Eyes
Miaow

3) Robbie Williams – Angels (whatever I think of the fella, he’s got a great voice)
Life Thru A Lens

4) Bjork – Crying (so's she)
Debut

5) Brand New Heavies – Dream On Dreamer
Brother, Sister

6) Simply Red – For Your Babies
Stars
(despite dodgy beach attire - no I don't stalk him but Mirror photographers do. No I don't buy the Mirror but they've always got it where I get my hair chopped).

7) Eminem – Stan
The Marshall Mathers LP
(forget the controversy for a minute and listen to the way the lyrics fit together)

8) The Verve – Lucky Man
Urban Hymns
(BBC1 introduced us!)

9) Arrested Development – Mr Wendal
3 Years, 5 months and 2 days in the life of...

10) Jamiroquoi – Virtual Insanity
Travelling Without Moving

Summary: