Republica [Eponymous] 

Now this was a wonderful experience today, this was actually from one of my major searches during 2012, where i sought out new musical Artists, searched through Ebay for possible new albums and directions, and bought this album, and this is its first ever spin, and i'm really pleasantly surprised, i didn't really know what to expect, but my guess was right, a Band in the style of Garbage / Elastica / Sleeper / Echobelly, Skunk Anansie to a lesser degree, but they're fairly electronic in some ways, i really like them, and they certainly have a real sense of enthusiasm and power, great tunes and musical ideas, maybe i need to buy another album of theirs.

Republica are an English Indie / Alternative Rock Band, formed in 1994, they are still going [though they broke up between 2001-2008], they made this album in 1996, and the photography throughout is by Kate Garner, the front cover showing Saffron [Samantha Sprackling] dominating the band line up, in focus while the rest are out of focus, scary hair and eye-shadow, down in some tunnel, a good use of shooting a lower hip shot, and the back cover a blurred shot, the track listing is small and hard to read though, but i like the photos.

Usually it takes a few listens before i start to 'get' an album, each time liking it more and more, but this hit me hard on the very first listen, virtually all the tracks were wonderful, but especially tracks 2, 6 & 10, and it's these i would like to talk about,
2 Bloke - A nice chugging intro, that opens out nice and louder with a beat [0:18+], and then satisfyingly even louder still [0:32+], wailing guitars come in, and a nice electronic bleeping keyboard [0:46+], Saffron's vocal delivery is really quite cockney [the band are actually from Windsor], and i just love that bubbly synth as it comes in and out, the chorus just explodes nicely [1:44+], when the second verse comes in [2:13+], it's almost KraftWerk in it's electronica, the synths really work overtime in driving the whole thing, there's a nice instrumental outro [3:54+], though the ending is a little repetitive, favourite lyric 'Fax me lunch Mr 9 to 5'.
6 Drop Dead Gorgeous - Great speed guitar at the beginning, and Saffron pushes the cockney to the limit, one of their most famous songs, and the chorus is so catchy [1:08+ & 2:11], loud and very lyrical, unlike the verses which are quite robotic, the end is singing the chorus again and again, favourite lyric 'Get out, you're walking'.
10 Holly - Similar to track 2, there's a low key intro, which then nicely explodes into a hard beat [0:14+], with a nice percussive clang going on in the background, again the chorus nicely ups the volume [1:08+], a really nice noise, great drumming, the second verse is more intense [1:37+], the fast beat more in your face, yes play real loud, i kept inching up the volume control to achieve maximum power, favourite lyric 'And sweet sweet Marilyn, a streetwise heroine'.

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.

Tennis [Laundromat] 

Here's something different, a disc i bought on Ebay a while back, it looked really good, though the Band name is a bit naff, but this is how i delve into a lot of new music, if it looks really good, then i'll buy it and give it a spin, it's hard to pinpoint their genre, but i would say a sort of Punk Rock, maybe an EMO Band, it's short on quantity, nearly 34 minutes, but it's made up for in quality, a good dose of something different today. 

Tennis are a sort of an Indie Band, with some Punk leanings, maybe we can call them IndiePunk, they brought this album out in 2003, i'm sure they're American, there is another American band called Tennis as well, but don't get them mixed up, they seem more popular, this is a 3 piece Band [Greg Tuohey = Vocals & Guitar, Kris Bauman = Bass, and Jochen Ruekert = Drums], their surnames sound Dutch, like i said, i bought the disc because of the front cover, it's an excellent concept [photography by Joet T], pictures throughout are of a Laundromat, including close-up pictures, all couched in a fluorescent green lighting, the Band logo is excellent also, a great visual product.

The two tracks i enjoyed the most were 5 & 6, here's a synopsis of each,
5 Friend With Benefits - Nice Drum & Bass vibe at the beginning, the drums are nicely complex, and well recorded [0:00-0:22], but it's only further into the track that the lead guitar comes in [1:12+], which helps to open out the track nicely, with only a trio Band you're always going to have a limitation of instrumentation, but it works well for Tennis, i like the way that the opening returns towards the end [2:04+], best lyrics - 'I just fell like a bitter man into the slippery arms of a lie', some inventive guitar work, and the track develops quite an intensity towards the end.
6 Pure Evil - A more poppy track, fairly heavy guitars, the lead Vocalist isn't a perfect singer by far, there's a slight tendency to sing out of tune, i only notice the excellence of the opening when it returns for the second verse [1:26-1:39], a nice infectious bass vibe [1:53+], and the intro comes back at the very end as the outro [2:48-3:15], yes i admit that it's not a great album [at least not on this first listen], but i excited me enough to enjoy and Blog it today.

You can hear the first 30 seconds of each track on the AllMusic website.

Various Artists [Happy Buzzer - Volume One] 

Here's something very very special, a one off disc that i made myself!, yes the history of this disc is that i used to buy second-hand 'Various Artists' discs, and then find just one tremendous song on it, and not liking the studio album that the track came from, what to do?, well make your own compilation disc!, i would buy CD singles also, in the end all the tracks i liked added up to a full discs worth, that's when i recorded my own disc, culled from 19 different discs, this is truly the cream of songs that i couldn't do without, most of the Artists are unknown, except one or two, also i had to design some artwork for the thing, and a couple of pieces of card from cereal boxes were ideal, and i had some transfers to rub on, i decided to call it 'Happy Buzzer' as the two words were in the track listing, in retrospect i would have called it 'Buzzer Freak' now, but i'm in love with this album, i termed it 'Volume One' because there was going to be a second volume, but it never materialized, it's an eclectic mix of off the beaten track and off beat stuff, of course the theme is it's all Bands rather than Soloists, the whole thing works together so beautifully.

I put this disc together in 1998, the visuals are brilliant, each letter on the front cover is written over haphazardly with a colour marker, it gives it a nice rainbow feel, the track listing on the back has tightly spaced letters, divided up by the track listing in a circle, the whole thing just feels great, but the music is out of this world.

So on this listen, the tracks i liked the most were 1, 4-5, 7-8 & 11, and here's a synopsis of each of these tracks,
1 Flyscreen - Choppersquad - The opening track, i purposely put this as the opener, a short pithy Punk song, i take it it's about a 'gang' of young kids on their bikes, the drums have that sharp smack to them, there's a wonderful sneer to the whole song, best line, 'we stopped to throw some bricks in the canal'. 
4 Slowburn - Flesh And Bone - A nice Grungy track, the opening attack of guitars and drums are great, after that it's a soupy mix, including the vocals, it never lets up to the end, i like the shout of 'yeah' at the end of the first chorus [1:13], after a slight let up, the drums really hit hard [2:27+], the vocalist is almost shouting, love it, best lyric is right at the end 'we're just flesh and bone', almost sarcastically spoken.
5 Uncle Violet - Crushed Velvet - A real druggy song, these guys sound like they were high when they recorded it, very Psychedelic indeed, about making drugs out of mushrooms!, weird instrumentation and timings, a good tune is pushed aside for the gain of sheer monotony, the vocalist is so 'who the hell cares anyway', the bit i love the most is the chorus, 'ooohh ooohh ooohh - nana nana nar', and each of these keeps coming back louder and louder, 'ooohh ooohh ARGHH - nana nana NAAR!', there's an extended sort of guitar jam in which takes it to the outro.
7 Rusty - Ceiling - More lyrical than most, a lazy beat on the drums, but it's that hard thud in the background which makes the track, almost as if the drummer couldn't care less, strong American accent, developing into anger at moments, nice use of crunchy guitars, the ending is inspired, half a verse [4:01+].
8 Campfire Girls - Homework - A nice twang on the bass guitar as an intro, but when the song gets going with riffing guitars [0:09+] it's a great moment, there's a nice guitar jam in the middle, that's gets stronger and stronger [1:49-2:08].
11 Stigmata A Go Go - Riotkeeper - Another really strong lyrical track, a fairly trebly recorded track, but it's got a nice riff throughout from the high guitar, with muffled vocals, which tend to growl angry in the chorus, there's an extended instrumental interlude in the middle [1:35-2:05], where the guitar and drums show off their wares, and at the end there's a nice instrumental jam [3:08-3:52].

The Jam [The Sound Of The Jam] 

I got interested in The Jam when i heard The Eton Rifles on the radio, however even though i bought a few vinyl 45 singles, i never delved into an album until much later, and i soon found out that the best way of a disc representing The Jam was in a compilation album, i've always felt that The Jam have a handful of great songs, but then quickly fall away to 'filler', but in listening to this disc today, i find some of the lesser liked tracks to be quite good, probably 'Ghosts' is a good representation of this, a nice disc full of social observation and working class feelings.

The Jam were formed in Woking in the late Seventies, and split up at the end of 1982, they were at the top of their game for five years cruising the singles and album charts, Paul Weller was the brainbox behind the band, being lead singer / songwriter, this compilation brings together a one disc collection of their best material, released in 2002, the front cover [photo by Pennie Smith] is fantastic, a punchy black and white shot, with lettering in shocking pink across the front in a band, the strong colour is at odds with the colourless photo, but these opposites really make a visual statement, The Jam dressed up in their Mod attire, a striped blazer, snake scarf, tartan trousers,  a cravat?, they were smart, not like their Punk cousins who wore ripped jeans an T shirts, Bruce Foxton at the front frames the piece nicely, with his light Jacket and elbows out, but Weller has a scowl on his face, a great visual statement.

The tracks that i liked the best were 3, 5 & 11, and here's a little synopsis of each,
3 The Modern World - Nice and Punky, with an underlying anger in the voice, especially on the words 'nothing / noffing' [0:16 & 0:54], i like the harmony when Bruce Foxton sings [0:33-0:42], the track really explodes into anger when Weller shouts 'this is the modern world!' [1:14-1:30], and the hard guitar instrumental afterwards, and further along the line 'i don't give two fucks about your review' [1:48-1:51], the outro is excellent, 'this is, this is, this is' [2:05-2:10].
5 Down In The Tube Station At Midnight - Probably my favourite Jam song, another song of violence, starts of with a recording of an approaching tube train, and a little girls voice 'the train's coming', or something like that, i like the way that the Drummer Rick Buckler shimmers the cymbals [0:20-0:42], something i haven't noticed before, but really great, Weller is superb in his visualizations, 'Hey boy, have you got ant money?' [1:45-1:49] the gruffness on 'money' is telling, 'they smelt of pubs and wormwood scrubs, and too many right wing meetings' [2:22-2:29], nice rhyming, it's in the third verse where it's sheer genius 'the last thing that i saw, as i lay there on the floor, was Jesus saves by an Atheist nutter, and a British Rail poster read, have an away day, a cheap holiday, do it today' [3:05-3:16] now that's poetry in the highest sense of the art, the reference to the 'Atheist nutter' is a gem, one thing i've never noticed before is the words 'i... thought about my wife, cause they took the keys, and she'll think it's me' [3:16-3:22], sounds like they're going round his house to do his woman violence too, an unsettling but poignant song, really meaningful.
11 The Eton Rifles - 

Paul Weller ['Modern Classics' The Greatest Hits]

Paul Weller's Greatest Hits are certainly a subjective choice, i guess this compilation isn't called 'The Best Of Paul Weller', or it would be even more subjective, who chose this compilation?, i guess it was Paul Weller himself, or rather if they're greatest hits, it's what got into the charts and was successful, but who chose what to throw into the charts?, and of course it's Paul Weller again, i haven't heard every single Weller album, but i was touched by certain songs that aren't included here, plus there's a tendency to send the commercial stuff into the charts, and yet it's a great snapshot of the oeuvre of Weller, i played this just over a year ago [16th March 2011].

Paul Weller is English, born in 1958, he's now 53, this disc was compiled in 1998 [wow! do we need a new Greatest Hits package], i like the visuals that come with this disc, even though the front cover photo is not that great, there's a certain hazy fuzziness to it, a dreamy walking through the wheat fields, the front booklet and back inlay work as one big letterbox picture when the CD case is opened out, and the booklet is full of good pictures, the lettering on the front is great, and the track listing on the back is inspired too.

I really liked listening to everything here, i appreciated a lot of his music that i thought was merely very good before, only tracks 2 & 10 i thought were the weak links, and they were good, it was track 15 'Broken Stones' that i thought was the gem of the bunch,

Here's Paul Weller singing 'Broken Stones' on YouTube.