Manic Street Preachers [The Holy Bible]

What an apt title, this is the Manic Street Preachers third album, and it seems that everything they were trying to do was epitomised in this album, their Holy Bible or manifesto, it centres on themes of American consumerism / British imperialism / freedom of speech / the holocaust / self-starvation / serial killers / the death penalty / political revolution / fascism / suicide, sounds bleak as hell!, but is actually in many ways a great reality check, there's swearing on the album, but the whole thing is driven by an incredible Rock sound, deep down it's Punk, after this album they would go on next to record Everything Must Go, their most commercially successful album ever, but i refer to it as 'Everything's Gone'!, it's hard to repeat the caustic sarcasm of this phenomenal disc, one of the greatest albums ever written, plus i think of it as Richey James Edwards album, he's credited with roughly 80% of the songwriting.

The Manic Street Preachers are from Wales, formed in 1986, they're still going strong, on the front cover is a painting called 'Strategy' by Jenny Saville, showing three paintings from different angles of an obese woman, it's revolutionary to to show the track listing on the front cover, but it works greatly, a white background with black lettering, and every 'R' turned around, makes the track Revol make sense, which is of course Lover in reality, or a play on the word 'revolutionaries', which becomes 'loverutionaries'.

All of these tracks hit me, the whole album is so good, but tracks 1-2, 6-9 & 13 were especially good, and i would like to talk about the very best two here,
6 Revol - A political statement, likening love to 'revolutionaries', hence Revol, but of course these Dictators all got it backwards, the first verse lists the Russian six, with each being delivered a damning verdict on their inability to love others, the second verse targets Europe and the rest of the world, with a short introduction, the must just explodes into grunge [0:13+], crunching guitars while Bradfield sings, it really has a powerful magnetism / addiction to it, the chorus is one of those shouty anthem things, lots of German words too, i like the instrumental guitar bridge between the chorus [2:07-2:32], a great little track, best lyric 'Khrushchev - self love in his mirrors'.
13 PCP - The last track on the album, this one starts with a ferocious intro of tribal drums and guitars, but explodes into something so much more stronger and melodic [0:15+], the lyrics have a tendency to be 'preachings' by the wordsmith of the band [no doubt Richey James Edwards], and aren't easy to fit to the meter of the tune, therefore Bradfield has to crunch up syllables at times to get things to fit, plus there's no rhyming as such, in the booklet the lyrics read as a book rather than written in verses / chorus, it can all seem very storylike rather than poemlike, and yet this is the strength of the album, you really have to dig deeper to get something out of it, again the chorus is excellently very anthemic, i like Bradfield's delivery, a nice Punk voice, and just like Revol, there's a short guitar instrumental bridge [2:28-2:40], at the end there's a sort of 'epilogue / denouement' [3:19-3:42], a summation of the songs morals, it ends in Prozac being an amnesiac, and Albert Finney talking about not remembering the first line in Shakespeare's King Lear, best lyric 'Europe's gravestone carved in plastic'.

ClawFinger [Eponymous]

Trawling through YouTube one day, i came across ClawFinger, and straight away i liked them, they're really 'in yer face', they swear a fair deal, so be prepared if that offends you, but their lyrics have some great meaning, ironic one moment, political another, they can have fun too, i would call them a Metal Rap band, now i certainly have a hang up about Rap music, there's so much bad Rap out there, but this album proves there's good stuff too, if only you search for it.

ClawFinger are a Swedish band, now broken up, supposedly they finished last year, after hearing them on YouTube, i thought 'which album should i go for?', and of course i'm always drawn to the visuals, and this one's a stunner, showing the cylinder of a six shooter gun, and one bullet in the chamber on the front, but none on the back, it represents russian roulette, put one bullet in one of the chamber, 'spin the wheel', and point it at your head and pull the trigger, can be 'played' solo, or as a sort of duel, love the visuals and its meaning, nice black / dark grey on white, the ClawFinger logo is great as well.

This is a two disc set, the main album is disc 1, and then there's a bonus album of remixes, the two tracks i enjoyed the most were, 
Do What I Say, on the remix disc, i just love the intro of the young boy singing in a nursery rhyme voice [0:10-0:19], 

when i grow up, there will be a day

when everybody has to do what i say

and this intro comes back a couple more times [1:55-2:29 & 3:24-4:00], but this time he adds the words,

when i grow up, there will be a day

when everybody has to do it my way

with the words 'my way' screamed!, like some sort of kiddie Frank Sinatra!, loved the way parents unwittingly teach their children to be bossy themselves when they grow up!.

I Can See Them Coming, this was my favourite track on disc 1, a guy who's his own number one fan!, love the intro, and the heavy exploding drum beats, seemingly a hitleresque megalomaniac, but in reality sits in a cell with a straitjacket on, some of the lyrics are a peach

i'm the best sex i've ever had

and,

i'm the atom bomb that i'll blow my world

all the way to my kingdom come

at the end it's wickedly funny, a guy going crazy and losing his mind, and mumbles and drools, with a nutty laugh to finish things off! [3:25-3:39].

Almighty [Just Add Life] 

This is a rather unique album, a very different idea where these plastic cases which are transferable and replaceable, actually in this case become part of the cover art in itself, consisting of an opaque green plastic case, where stickers are placed on the front and back, there's no back inlay, but there is a booklet that you can see underneath the plastic, plus the disc itself is bright orange with a red star in the middle, i think it's a great idea and a wonderful artistic statement, but i certainly enjoyed the music even more, this is still a fairly new album, this is the third time i've listened to it, and the second time it's appeared in my Blog [8th December 2010], and i've been looking forward to giving it another spin, i love the cracking drums, crisp and smart, play loud and enjoy!.

The Almighty are a Scottish Rock band, formed in 1988, they have broken up and re-formed at times, i believe they've gone from a quartet to a trio, the front cover artwork [photographs by Tony May & Rupert Truman] consists of nine pictures [3 x 3], all very colourful, though i don't see how they relate to the music, or the title of the album, they made this album in 1996.

It was certainly tracks 1-2 & 10-11 that i just found irresistible, a tremendous amount of energy goes on in these songs, ultimately it's track 11 'Feed The Need' which i found so great, here's a synopsis of this track,
11 Feed The Need - Nice deep bass starts off, and quickly the vibe is taken up by the other instruments [0:04], delicious drumming, nice and hard and loud, this is the music for the chorus, but then a certain Red Hot Chili Peppers funk comes in to the thing for the verses [0:23+], now the chorus is really anthemic [0:50+], with the other guys shouting 'feed the need' as backing vocalists, in the second verse James Taylor comes in on Hammond organ [1:17+], accentuating the funkiness of the verse, there's this certain rising guitar line that i just love, what a great track, best lyric 'all trying to live somewhere that doesn't exist', i've just got this anthemic shout 'feed the need!' stuck in my brain, and the other tracks are really starting to work their way into my skull. 

Here's The Almighty album Just Add Life in full on YouTube, the track 'Feed The Need' is at 33:37, i added a comment with timings that you can click, however they don't list in a proper vertical order, but in a mismanaged clump, just hover your cursor over my comment and the timings open up.

Various Artists [Drive On '36 Classics For The Open Road'] 

I originally bought the double cassette for this is the now defunct Woolworth's, these were the days when High Street shops actually had a selection of CD's, and i must have bought the double disc set in London i guess, there's definitely poorly chosen compilations, and then there's more inspired ones like this, disc one has a tendency to be Indie Rock, while disc two is more Classic Rock, i'm surprised how many of the tracks i really got into, there's a few duds, but on the whole it's crammed full of good rocking songs, a good variety and selection.

This compilation came out in 1997, the front cover is fairly hard hitting, i guess possibly artwork rather than a photo, but it's certainly realistic, the back inlay is great, i love it when each Artist and song are differentiated in coloured lettering, it makes it so much easier to read, plus it looks great.

The best tracks were 3, 5-6, 13, 15, 19, 22, 24, 27, 29, 31-32 & 36, now that's a lot of tracks, if i was pushed to whittle it down to just three to talk about, it would be 6, 24 & 29, and here's a detailed explanation as to why they really got me rocking,

6 Iggy Pop - The Passenger, a surprise inclusion, usually i think this song is fairly average, but today it just rocked, the constant chugging guitar actually works really well, the vocals sound as if they've been poorly recorded, but the whole thing has this 'trashy' feel to it, the song i guess is about a guy travelling as a 'passenger' throughout a city, and sees the underbelly of the bad side, seeing the city's 'ripped backsides', a good description, Iggy Pop gets quite intense towards the end, but it's that constant guitar chug that makes the song, i'm glad that i now don't find this an average song.
24 The Doobie Brothers - Long Train Running, a really funky track, excellent twangy guitar work, the band employ multiple guitars, and they're nicely layered, all working a different groove, but all unified into the song, and there's a nice bubbly use of bongos, the Vocalist [Tom Johnston] is so Bluesy, there's a central harmonica solo [also played by Tom Johnston], his solo is really quite intense and complex, building up quite a steam [1:30-1:53], a nice slice of funky Southern Rock.
29 The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary, for me the best of the three, and the track that hit me the hardest, a spacey intro, with delicious twangy guitar [0:04-0:17], so when the track explodes into action, it's a tremendous kick [0:17], now that's one of the most superb 'transitions' between an intro and the start of a song, it really gets me going, i guess it's a Goth track, and in that sense it's out of place, but it gives the album a real variety, Vocalist Ian Astbury has a certain angry delivery, perfect for the song, lyrics are fairly monotonous, there's no real story there, but it's the delivery that makes the song, a hard hitting simple beat on the drums, there's this gorgeous refrain near the end [3:03-3:17], where the instruments go quiet, so that the opening twangy guitar comes to the fore again, slightly sounding like a sitar, a great idea, the song ends not really on a fadeout, but on some more of that twangy guitar [4:05-4:17], getting nice and lazy, you know i really ought to get into some more of The Cult.

John Mellencamp [Human Wheels] 

A killer of an album, i've tried a number of other Mellencamp albums, his American heartland albums like 'Scarecrow', and his more latest albums, but it's this album that is his masterpiece, there's a certain Hard Rock feel to it, especially on 'Human Wheels' and 'What If I Came Knocking', and i like the way Mellencamp can get angry, he uses female backing singers at certain points, that in certain instances don't stay in the background!, there's a bit of a Gospel feel to things at times, it's a nice brew of a number of things, that really all come together nicely, a lovely album,i played this back when my Blog was fairly new [7th March 2010]. 

John Mellencamp is American, and now 61, all the greats get old eventually, it's not a young guys game anymore, he recorded this album in 1993, the front cover is really poor, not the sort of thing i would have bought, but wow! i liked the music, so it's stuck.

Most of the album i thoroughly enjoyed, tracks 2-4, 8 & 10 were just superb, the real winners were tracks 2 & 10, so incredibly good, here's a synopsis of both, 

2 Junior - In a way the surprise of my listening experience today, the two tracks beside it are stunners, but this really caught my mood today, are hard nice jungle rhythm, Drummer Kenny Aronoff nicely plays bongos, and gives that certain jungle feel to it, he's really quite superb, the chorus brings in a keyboard synth i guess [1:15+], a nice change in attack, the start of each verse brings a nice memory rush, the words to the opening verse return [3:19+], with extra power, a great experience.
10 To The River - This is a Janis Ian song, she entitled it 'All Roads To The River', i remember listening to her version first, nothing really special about it, so i just cannot believe that Mellencamp has transformed this song into something so compelling, it's hard to believe it's the same song, and kudos to Mellencamp in seeing its new possibilities, again Kenny Aronoff comes to the fore, a nice kick of a drum attack at the start and throughout, gives the song that extra oomph, and it's also that instrument at the beginning, maybe an organ, lovely sound, and listen to the rumbling bass during the verses, it really gives it a great vibe, there's so many layers of instruments going on, it's a heady brew of wonderful things, and i just love the way the song quietens down to a stop [2:16], but with one hard hit of the drum off it goes again, Mellencamp's voice is in top form, he really sings so strong, one of the very best songs on the album.

Various Artists [The Chart Show Ultimate Rock Album] 

It's no secret i love compilation albums, however there are so many poor compilation albums out there, and it's very easy to clog up your disc library with albums that have only a few real tracks that you truly want, this double disc set is an exception to that rule, it's packed full of really good 'Rock anthems', plus the rarities on disc are very welcome also, there's some nice gems here, all brought together in one package, that is a joy to listen, throw it on random mode, and sit back and enjoy. 

This compilation was made in 1993, the front cover shows an electric guitar buried in a strata of rock, a guitar fossil if you like, on the back insert the track listing is well laid out, nice and clear and easy to read.

Well lots of tracks really impressed me, i was left constantly thinking 'wow, that's a fantastic track', the tracks that really impressed me were 2, 4-5, 8, 16, 21 & 26, with tracks 2 & 26 the real cream of the crop, and i would like to discuss these two tracks here, 

2 The Waterboys - The Whole Of The Moon - One of my favourite songs, and a real stunner from Mike Scott and the Waterboys, in the background there's this constant piano hammering out chords, the lyrics are great, and slowly the song builds up a real tension, Scott gets the delivery right, 'i was dumbfounded by truth' is staggered out as 'i - was - dumb founded by truth', a great emphasis on 'i was dumb', and 'you saw Brigadoon', 'you swooned', etc etc, i like the way Scott make a rapid list of lovely things, 

Unicorns and cannonballs

Palaces and piers

Trumpets towers and tenements

Wide oceans full of tears

Flags rags ferryboats

Scimitars and scarves

Every precious dream and vision

Underneath the stars

especially 'flags rags ferryboats', the way he has a rhyme within a line instead of at the end of every even line, that works so so beautifully, the song constantly builds up into a real anthem, so what's the meaning of the words?, i think the clue is in the singer 'wandered out in the world for years', while his nemesis 'just stayed in their room', the crux is you don't have to go out into the world to find the meaning of life, it's simply right where you are, like Paul Simon says in 'I Am A Rock', 'i have my books, and my poetry... hiding in my room', i know it's insular, but it strikes a chord with me, the unusual things are found in the usual places, and the usual things are found in the most unusual places, it's not a matter of outer dimension, but the inner dimension, it's a great song. 

26 Manic Street Preachers - Motorcycle Emptiness - I'm not a great fan of early Manic Street Preachers, but this song is an exception, there's a certain vista to the whole thing, it's that constant lead electric guitar that fills in the vocal silences, it works perfectly, and it comes in straight away at the beginning, and its that wailing guitar effect the second time that is really affecting [0:08-0:15], James Dean Bradfield constantly throws in an extra emphasis on the word at the end of every even line, which is excellent, very lyrical, but their next album [The Holy Bible] would plumb the most darkest depths, and would be their masterpiece.

Led Zeppelin [Presence] 

My second favourite Led Zeppelin album [Physical Graffiti is my first], somehow this album is underrated, song are overlooked, this is where the true worth of Led Zep lies, they pull off tremendous songs tucked away on mid side two of albums, even their 'obscure' stuff is excellent, and there isn't a dud on this album at all, they pull off long songs perfectly, mixed with short songs, and mid length songs, they're unlike any other band, the only drawback of this album in a way, is the length, it's short measure at just under 44 minutes, however this was exactly a full album of vinyl music when it first came out, and it would spoil the feel of the album to add more music to it, so it's only a moot point, loved listening to this today.

Led Zeppelin are an English Hard Rock band, active from 1968-1980, 'Presence' was their seventh studio album, the photographs used throughout used photos from the fifties, each with the 'object' superimposed, it's a nice theme with a mysterious twist, even the title gives a sense of intrigue, possibly a play on words [presents?, in both senses of the word], the front cover is wonderful, a family sitting around the table, very dated stylistically, each looking at the 'object', the background comes from the Earl's Court Boat Show from the mid seventies, i'm almost certain that they're two separate pictures merged together, but they work perfectly, it looks like some sort of restaurant at a harbour or marina, upstairs overlooking the boats, i love it, on this album there was no lettering, left blank as part of their style, but i actually don't like this, so i rubbed on some transfers in the place where they are found on certain copies of this album, i think it improves things, i like what i've done.

I enjoyed every single track immensely, my favourite is probably 'For Your Life', though i think 'Nobody's Fault But Mine' is tremendous also, though on this listening i couldn't help but be wowed by track 6 'Hots On For Nowhere', it has such a strong vibe to it, there's this incredible start / stop motion about it, i love the way the guitar and the drums go together, Robert Plant felt that his vocal performance was 'pretty poor, sounding tired and strained', but i think it's so strong and articulate, the way he emphasises words perfectly, usually the last word in the third line of every verse [backbone / matter etc], the chorus is strange in that it's merely 'la la la', but it works so well, coming out of the start / stop verse and into the stronger drum rhythm of the chorus, it's a grooving acceleration force, the lyrics at the start of the third verse are the best, 'As the moon and the stars call the order, Inside my tides dance the ebb and sway', nicely mystic, and yet meaningful too, i like the way he uses imagery to explain things, the start of each new verse brings a degree more frantic than the last, because of the lead guitar in the third verse, it overcomes by filling in the stop / start rhythm, it flows stronger, also in the fourth verse Drummer John Bonham dispenses with the start / stop drumming, also making the verse flow stronger, so the whole song seems to progress harder and more articulate, wow that really gets my vibes going.

Here's Led Zeppelin singing 'Hots On For Nowhere' on YouTube.