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'.

Gorilla [Obliterator]

I found this while scouring a second-hand shop in London in 2002, one of those discs where i thought 'hey, this looks really interesting', the cover caught my eye, i knew nothing about the band or the music, only what i could visually see, and since it was a ridiculously low price, i took the risk and bought it, well it's American Punk, quite fast, the singer Dan Merrick has an interesting voice, not lyrical at all, can be gruff and a bit out of tune [but that's good for Punk!], and then when he tries to sing louder, his voice gets higher and more nasally, i like that a lot!, their songs are usually quite short, 14 tracks for 40 minutes gives you an idea, each song initially sounds quite similar, they don't seem to have a real range of musical weaponry, but when you get into them you realise that the songs are really quite different, there's great ideas going on in there, i'm glad i took a chance with this disc, this is the way to discover new music.

Gorilla are a Seattle based Band, formed i guess in the early nineties, i don't think they're still going today, they shouldn't be confused with another group that also call themselves Gorilla, a PsychoBilly Band from Hungary, of course a major influence in buying this disc was the front cover [by Scott Larson], showing a goldfish in a blender, i think visually it's a great idea, a blue / mauve background, but otherwise very black & white, and it's the orange goldfish that stands out, i like the way they slant things on the back inlay, the lettering / numerals stand out and are easy to read, a great product all round.

On this listen i loved tracks 1-3, 5-6, 8 & 14, well that's half of the album, the best two tracks were 5 & 8, and here's a little review of each,
5 Slot [2:21] - A nice three chord ding dong of an intro on the guitar, then the vocals come in really fast, he almost stumbles over the lyrics, the lead guitar really pulls the tune, towards the end the organ swirls in, a great track.
8 Snag [2:47] - The intro isn't all that inspired, but when the singing comes in, the song goes up a couple of notches, the guitar chugs in the background, and it's easy to notice the organ keys, quite a long instrumental middle section, the lyrics leave a bit to be desired, but it's lovely Punk.

Here's samples of this album on the AllMusic Website.

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].

Yes [Going For The One] 

This is the only Yes album i own, and i'm sure it's the only Yes album i will, i've tried countless other Yes albums, and i've always come away disappointed, i remember listening to 'Wonderous Stories' on the radio at work, the first job i ever had, wow those were the days, i was just getting into LP Vinyl then, this was one of those albums i bought, i got rid of all my Vinyl albums in 1985, and i re-acquired this on disc in 1983, by today's standards 39 minutes is a short album, but then that was a standard full LP then, and certainly this disc is almost over before you know it.

Yes are an English Rock band, formed in 1968, they're still going today over 40 years later, though shorn of some members, they recorded this album in 1977, the album cover art is by Hipgnosis, who did lots of album art during the Seventies, a nice idea i guess, notice the clever Yes logo in the sky.

Well listening to this again today, i was struck by how varied the album is, and apart from 'Parallels', all the songs are great in their own way, the longer songs take more time to learn to love, but it's the shortest song that entranced me this time, and one of their rare outings into the singles market, 'Wonderous Stories' was a top ten hit, but even more surprising was the fact that the album reached No1 in the charts, the song has whiffs of the Harpsichord on it, but in fact the keyboardist Rick Wakeman plays a Polymoog Synthesizer, the Harpsichord effect comes from Steve Howe's Vachalia, a Portuguese type of Lute, but it conjures up a feeling of Bach and the old world, and with Jon Anderson singing ghostly high lyrics, the scene is set for a great song, the ethereal opening words cast a perfect vibe,

I awoke this morning

Love laid me down by the river

Drifting i turned on up stream

Bound for my forgiver

in the chorus Wakeman uses a gorgeous trill, really adds to the piece [0:35-0:39], Wakeman also gets an extended solo after the second chorus [1:29-1:54], and Howe gets to twang his Vachalia [2:09-2:15] just before the third verse, with lots of background vocals ['hearing'...], and some nice guitar by Chris Squire.

Here's Yes playing Wonderous Stories on YouTube.

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 - 

The Muffs [Blonder And Blonder]

I can't believe that this is the first time that this disc has appeared in my Blog, it's a mammoth chunk of Powerpop Punk, one of the very best albums to ever grace the genre of Rock, think of a bubblegum version of the Sex Pistols fronted by a girl!, it's a crime that they're still fairly unknown, with 35 minutes and 14 tracks, that's between 2 and 3 minutes per track, nice small slices of 'in yer face' snarl, it's a shame their other albums lack the creativity of this gem, i took this disc over the park while there was still sunlight, a nice dose of walking and music.

The Muffs are a three-piece Band formed in America in 1991, fronted by Kim Shuttuck, their lead singer and songwriter, wow i can't believe she's now 48, she's nearly as old as me, they recorded this album in 1995, the front cover shows a very tight cropped portrait of the trio [photography by Alberto Tolot], with each one missing a part of their head, and yet they're all sharply in focus, big bold colours splashed on the front, and the back inlay is excellent too, a black and white full length shot of the trio, and the track listing is presented clearly with great lettering.

Track after track after track, The Muffs reveal their lyrical genius, they have so many excellent songs on this album, and only a couple that are merely good, it seems to be the mid odd numbered tracks that i liked the most, and here's a synopsis of those tracks i liked,
5 What You've Done - with one sharp crack of the drums [Roy McDonald] we're away, and with a bubbly incessant use of the bass guitar [Ronnie Barnett], this creates the verses that Shattuck sings over, the chorus has her lead guitar come bursting in, and it's so good to hear the second verse revert back to the restrained first, The Muffs like using these middle sections to sing differently [0:58-1:11], using variety as a great tool, with a nice throaty whoa! from Shuttuck to end the song [1:48].
7 End It All - Restrained and jangly guitar to begin with, only in the left channel, and then bursts into life, when the vocals come in it's a nice jangly loud soup [0:07+], the song is short [1:47], and lots of ideas are crammed into this small box, Shattuck begins a strong jangly loud guitar solo [0:51-0:58], but almost as an afterthought decides to cut it short [great anyway], it's a lovely burst of the more lyrical side of The Muffs.
9 I Need A Face - Lovely machine gun attack of the drums at the beginning, and Shuttuck comes straight in singing strong, and then you get those strong shouts on the word 'face', there's a central section [1:11-1:25] that sounds in a higher key, giving a nice musical variety, great swampy guitars. 
11 Funny Face - Nice and loud!, the guitar tune squeal at the beginning is great, and again a great sharp attack from the drums, the verses are slightly restrained, but the chorus is one hell of a jangly noise [0:37-0:59], and then another central section [1:46-2:00] where Shattuck changes tack, there's a certain degree of hate and revenge, the guitars afterward are so anthemic [2:02-2:16], a superb song.