It's been a while since i've written here and as i've finished university for the year I figured i'd return to this blog as I did enjoy writing here.It was quite theraputic and enjoyable, unfortunatly not quite like this album.
Don't get me wrong I love Joy Division, a fantastic band that met the most tragic of ends far to soon. What I meant was with Joy Division, your never going to get a Kaiser Cheifs happy go lucky catchy album, instead a very dark depressing album.
Closer is the second, and final album composed under Joy Division, before their totured genius of a frontman tradgically committed suicide after a battle with epilepsy, divorce and depression.
The album reads so strongly like a suicide note it's impossible to see how no-one suspected the end coming so soon. His lyrics throughout are such a cry for help that the event which would place them in music memoirs everywhere is so forseeable.
The track opens with "Atrocity Exhibition" a dark industrial 6 minute track which swirls under powerful drums and synths to curtis proclaiming "this is the way step inside" repeatedly over the top. It picks up where Joy Division last left off on Unknown Pleasures.
The album then takes an electronic turn in the brilliantly dark, but danceable "Isolation" where Curtis's tortured lyrics ring through the audience showing his suicidal side so to speak through incredibly heartfelt and honest lyrics " I'm doing the best that I can/I'm ashamed of the things I've been put through/I'm ashamed of the person I am." This song also gives off an early new order feel which suggests that with or without curtis, the band would of persued an electronic sound in the future, further shown in the track "Heart & Soul."
The album has such a sparse feel to it that it's doom and gloom feel is hightened to an almost spooky degree, further adding to the impeding message that this album would constantly reflect in the future.
The album is a brilliant coherent listen that stays with you long after you listen to it. There is not a poor track on the album, each one is a classic in it's own right and although we would give anything for them to have recorded more albums under Joy Division, Closer is an album which most bands would never hit the hights of in a lifetime, let alone two albums in and therefore by no means a bad album to finish on.
This album will always be tied down to is the demise of Curtis. From the bleak lyrics, sparse melodies and the unfortunate gravestone artwork, it shows the artist at the end of his rope, but my God did he display it in a fantastic art form.
JOY DIVISION: CLOSER
SCORE = 8.9/10
Track Scores
1.Atrocity Exhibition = 1
2.Isolation = 1
3.Passover = 3/4
4.Colony = 3/4
5.A Means To An End = 1
6.Heart & Soul = 1
7.Twenty Four Hours = 1
8.The Eternal = 3/4
9.Decades = 3/4
KEY TRACK: Isolation
p.s you may have noticed that I didn't do number 70. It was an awful jazz record which I felt was not worth writing about so I skipped it and wrote about something far more interesting :)
Monday, 3 May 2010
Thursday, 25 March 2010
69. Sex Pistols: Never Mind The Bollocks: Here's The Sex Pistols
Well. Let me just start off by talking a bit about Johnny "Rotten." I developed a little bit of a interest in him as a person as i'd heard so much about him. I still am slightly intrigued by him though it's only because of one thing he said and that was " we tell the truth, and thats something that people don't do." I don't know whether this is entirely true but there is a certain amount of truth as in he doesn't bullshit people by talking around his point, but at the same time the "truth" he speaks of is purely his own opinion.. Apart from this I found him to be a pretty vile, desperate individual who cannot bear to see himself be forgotten in the public's eyes so he continues to do controversial and ridiculous things, one such incident which involved become a certain special ambassador, to a certain special butter company...
Anyway The Sex Pistols! THE punk band. You know, the one with the guy who killed his girlfriend but doesn't remember doing it and then killed himself? It's in the book so I thought I may as well listen. What I found was something pretty pleasing. It was an amusing album and unlike anything I've ever heard. It sounded like a demo, it clearly wasn't polished completely and Rotten hisses and spits over the mike in quite a comical fashion.
The album is not a complex one, but then again punk isn't a complex genre of music. It starts out fairly well with "Holidays In The Sun" "Liar" and "No feelings" which embody the message of punk clearly through the lyrics, but it doesn't truely get gouing until the middle of the album, where the big numbers come out. "God Save The Queen" "Anarchy In The UK" and "Pretty Vacant" all smash the the rest of the album into pieces except for the very taboo and slightly farcical "Bodies" written about abortion. I thought it was probably the best song on the album with Rotten shouting in the middle "Fuck this and fuck that. Fuck it all and fuck that little brat" pretty deep, sensitive lyrics there from the man himself.
Overall I felt that although it was a stripped down, basic album, it really did give a strong representation of what punk was like at the time. They didn't care about anything and the record really gives this feeling, from the subject matter, to the demo like recording of the songs. An essential punk record.
It's a shame how their front man has disgraced the name and legend of The Sex Pistols and punk as a whole. Oh well at least he wasn't on I'm A Celebrity..
NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS: HERE'S THE SEX PISTOLS
SCORE = 8.3/10
Track Scores
1.Holidays In The Sun = 3/4
2.Liar = 3/4
3.No Feelings = 3/4
4.God Save The Queen = 1
5.Seventeen = 3/4
6.Anarchy In The UK = 1
7.Bodies = 1
8.Pretty Vacant = 1
9.New York = 3/4
10.Problems = 3/4
11.E.M.I = 1
12.Submission = 1/2
1= 8.33
Anyway The Sex Pistols! THE punk band. You know, the one with the guy who killed his girlfriend but doesn't remember doing it and then killed himself? It's in the book so I thought I may as well listen. What I found was something pretty pleasing. It was an amusing album and unlike anything I've ever heard. It sounded like a demo, it clearly wasn't polished completely and Rotten hisses and spits over the mike in quite a comical fashion.
The album is not a complex one, but then again punk isn't a complex genre of music. It starts out fairly well with "Holidays In The Sun" "Liar" and "No feelings" which embody the message of punk clearly through the lyrics, but it doesn't truely get gouing until the middle of the album, where the big numbers come out. "God Save The Queen" "Anarchy In The UK" and "Pretty Vacant" all smash the the rest of the album into pieces except for the very taboo and slightly farcical "Bodies" written about abortion. I thought it was probably the best song on the album with Rotten shouting in the middle "Fuck this and fuck that. Fuck it all and fuck that little brat" pretty deep, sensitive lyrics there from the man himself.
Overall I felt that although it was a stripped down, basic album, it really did give a strong representation of what punk was like at the time. They didn't care about anything and the record really gives this feeling, from the subject matter, to the demo like recording of the songs. An essential punk record.
It's a shame how their front man has disgraced the name and legend of The Sex Pistols and punk as a whole. Oh well at least he wasn't on I'm A Celebrity..
NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS: HERE'S THE SEX PISTOLS
SCORE = 8.3/10
Track Scores
1.Holidays In The Sun = 3/4
2.Liar = 3/4
3.No Feelings = 3/4
4.God Save The Queen = 1
5.Seventeen = 3/4
6.Anarchy In The UK = 1
7.Bodies = 1
8.Pretty Vacant = 1
9.New York = 3/4
10.Problems = 3/4
11.E.M.I = 1
12.Submission = 1/2
1= 8.33
68. Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited (Album)
I've started at 68 as I didnt realise that doing a blog would be the best way to document this, and I thought it may be a bit of fun.
Firstly I have a ratings system for albums. I write out each song in a little book (a little sad i know) then give each song a mark out of 1. 1 being a great song 3/4 being a good song 1/2 being ok and 1/4 being pretty poo. 0 is a rarety that most songs will never experience as I'm not that critical. I then divide the album by the number of songs e.g 100/12 = 8.33, therefore each "1" scored equals 8.33!
It's a little complicated I know so i'm just going to start talking about the album
BOB DYLAN. Folk Legend. Most of you know of him. He's a pretty cool cat. This was the first Bob Dylan album i listened to since deciding to do the list, the second of his overall (i listened to "the freewheelin bob dylan" a year and a half ago and I thought it was quite good!) Anyway i'd listened to "Highway 61" a little bit in the past and it's been on my ipod for ages so I felt I should give it the time of day.
The first two songs enter in a swirling 12 minutes of folk rock, two brilliant powerhouses of songs in "Like A Rolling Stone" and "Tombstone Blues" the former most people will have heard of before as it is a classic, classic song but I was still so very impressed with "Tombstone Blues," a kind of ramshackle of a song which has a choatic theme to it, especially with the lyrics and the fast-paced nature of the song. It has a few lyrical gems in it with perfectly non-sensical lines like "the sun's not yellow, it's chicken!" Classic Bob Dylan.
The album then moves into a slightly slower pacing with "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry" and the next two songs "From A Buick 6" and "Ballad Of A Thin Man" the last one being a slow paced burner of a song which cuts to the heart of you over a the length of the song, as if Bobby is toying with you, before punching you in the face so that you suddenly think "MY GOD THIS SONG IS REALLY GOOD!" which he tends to do throughout the album.
There is but one blip of a song on here in "Queen Jane Approximately," a normal, folk song which doesn't really hit home like the other tracks. The final, fantastic song "Desolation Row" an 11 minute hollywood film of a folk song in which it's grim but brilliant lyrics lift it superbly into a class above almost all other folk songs.
The album as a whole was definitely a fantastic album, one that almost kept the attention up all the way through but it wore ever so slightly at the end unfortunatly and it lost it a bit but still the transformation of Bob Dylan from folk singer to rock and roll icon is completely appitomised is this album, possibly one of the greatest career changing albums i've ever heard.
SCORE= 8.6/10
Track Scores
1.Like A Rolling Stone = 1
2.Tombstone Blues = 1
3 It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry = 3/4
4.From A Buick 6 = 1
5.Ballad Of A Thin Man = 1
6.Queen Jane Approximately = 1/2
7.Highway 61 Revisited = 1
8.Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues = 1/2
9.Desolation Row = 1
1= 11.11
Firstly I have a ratings system for albums. I write out each song in a little book (a little sad i know) then give each song a mark out of 1. 1 being a great song 3/4 being a good song 1/2 being ok and 1/4 being pretty poo. 0 is a rarety that most songs will never experience as I'm not that critical. I then divide the album by the number of songs e.g 100/12 = 8.33, therefore each "1" scored equals 8.33!
It's a little complicated I know so i'm just going to start talking about the album
BOB DYLAN. Folk Legend. Most of you know of him. He's a pretty cool cat. This was the first Bob Dylan album i listened to since deciding to do the list, the second of his overall (i listened to "the freewheelin bob dylan" a year and a half ago and I thought it was quite good!) Anyway i'd listened to "Highway 61" a little bit in the past and it's been on my ipod for ages so I felt I should give it the time of day.
The first two songs enter in a swirling 12 minutes of folk rock, two brilliant powerhouses of songs in "Like A Rolling Stone" and "Tombstone Blues" the former most people will have heard of before as it is a classic, classic song but I was still so very impressed with "Tombstone Blues," a kind of ramshackle of a song which has a choatic theme to it, especially with the lyrics and the fast-paced nature of the song. It has a few lyrical gems in it with perfectly non-sensical lines like "the sun's not yellow, it's chicken!" Classic Bob Dylan.
The album then moves into a slightly slower pacing with "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry" and the next two songs "From A Buick 6" and "Ballad Of A Thin Man" the last one being a slow paced burner of a song which cuts to the heart of you over a the length of the song, as if Bobby is toying with you, before punching you in the face so that you suddenly think "MY GOD THIS SONG IS REALLY GOOD!" which he tends to do throughout the album.
There is but one blip of a song on here in "Queen Jane Approximately," a normal, folk song which doesn't really hit home like the other tracks. The final, fantastic song "Desolation Row" an 11 minute hollywood film of a folk song in which it's grim but brilliant lyrics lift it superbly into a class above almost all other folk songs.
The album as a whole was definitely a fantastic album, one that almost kept the attention up all the way through but it wore ever so slightly at the end unfortunatly and it lost it a bit but still the transformation of Bob Dylan from folk singer to rock and roll icon is completely appitomised is this album, possibly one of the greatest career changing albums i've ever heard.
SCORE= 8.6/10
Track Scores
1.Like A Rolling Stone = 1
2.Tombstone Blues = 1
3 It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry = 3/4
4.From A Buick 6 = 1
5.Ballad Of A Thin Man = 1
6.Queen Jane Approximately = 1/2
7.Highway 61 Revisited = 1
8.Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues = 1/2
9.Desolation Row = 1
1= 11.11
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