maanantai 24. maaliskuuta 2014

1988, minus one

For the first time in a really long while, I can get all music worth mentioning in a particular year to fit in a single blog entry. Well, minus one - we'll get to that soon. This entry will be slightly longer than most of the others, but not by that much. And this is not even to say that 1988 is an exceptionally poor year quality-wise: we will be discussing two of the greatest albums of the eighties, and on top of it, the single greatest short song of the decade.


We begin 1988 in a very delicate manner. On 16 February, the debut album of All About Eve, called simply All About Eve, was released. Above, you can listen to Martha's Harbour which is my favorite track on it and was also a moderate hit as a single, reaching #10 on the UK album chart. Why the official music video cannot be found in YouTube, I don't know; I am aware that one at least used to exist since I saw it plenty of times in 1988. Another favorite song of mine on the album is called What Kind of Fool.

All About Eve were a British group playing mostly mellow, acoustic soft rock and pop with noticeable folk influences. The singer Julianne Regan was formerly a journalist. The group went on to release four albums in quick succession between 1988 and 1992; this self titled debut turned out to be their biggest hit, although the second one came quite close.


Next, let's move a couple of weeks ahead. On 1 March, the American supergroup Toto released their seventh studio album, fittingly titled The Seventh One. This was once again proof of the eighties' greatness in the genre of simple pop music. I had been paying close attention to Toto's output already at the end of the seventies, but it wasn't until now that they completed their most satisfying album. The Seventh One is full of quality pop and has the same outstanding production values that the group is so well known for.

By only a very small margin, my favorite track on the album is the rocking Home of the Brave, embedded above. It was not a self evident choice; there are also two near perfect pop songs Pamela and Stop Loving You, as well as a couple of more thoughtful ballads Mushanga and A Thousand Years to choose from. Oh, the quality of the eighties pop was simply incredible. Toto IV (1982) may have been the group's most successful and best known release, but in my mind, The Seventh One is their best.


I associate the Toto album with my final months in the army, and it was only two months later, on 3 May, that I had once again earned my freedom. Soon after that, my adult life began in earnest when I moved to Helsinki and started my first permanent job on Monday, 16 May. Strangely enough, there was very little in the way of great new albums for building a soundtrack for those times. The Toto album had come out on 1 March, and the John Farnham album wouldn't be coming out until as late as 25 July.

So, let's fill that empty space of nearly five months with two mostly instrumental albums of almost incomparable beauty, whose exact release dates in 1988 are unknown to me. If you clicked Saint Tom above, you will already know that Brian Eno created some of the most stunningly beautiful melodies of his career this year. Music for Films III contained also other great tracks such as Asian River and Theme from 'Creation' but Saint Tom is the pinnacle of this particular release. It is the best thing Eno wrote in the eighties - although An Ending (Ascent) topped my short track list the year it was released, and Saint Tom will not.


The other mainly instrumental album I was referring to above is the Irish new age group Clannad's greatest masterpiece Atlantic Realm which in its flawlessness is obviously one of the best albums of the year - yet it has no chance of winning that title or even getting second place in a year like this. In any case, there are really no weak tracks on this atmospheric collection, so I was more than happy to find a video in YouTube that combines two of them. In Flight and Moving Thru are tracks number 6 and 3 in a collection of 13 minor masterpieces.

And then we jump straight to the end of July. It is this exceptional emptiness of significant releases for several months that has allowed me to contain an entire year in a single blog entry, even though it isn't a weak one. I already mentioned pop singer John Farnham above; his album Age of Reason borders on not being worth mentioning at all. But I decided to include him anyway, because his album is a pretty decent pop album and the title track as well as Blow by Blow, Listen to the Wind and Beyond the Call are all high quality eighties pop. Let's not embed anything and move on.


In August, we were treated to a new album by French electronic music composer Jean-Michel Jarre called Revolutions. This is also an album that wouldn't be worth mentioning at all, were it not for its outstanding opening sequence called Industrial Revolution Overture. Embedded above is the entire album: start from the beginning and listen to it as long as you can. It is truly great at the beginning, then slowly peters out to meaninglessness.

I had been aware of the American heavy metal group Metallica for some time now, but had not paid much attention. Before 25 August, I remembered them best for a comment that someone made to me upon hearing the opening riffs of Almost Like Love by Yes: that it was amusing how the progressive rock supergroup suddenly sounded like Metallica. The metal favorites already enjoyed a following that was way too large to be called mere cult. I have heard fans call ...And Justice for All the best album of all time.


I can't quite agree with that claim, but neither can I deny the power of One, embedded above. One of the most impressive anti war statements ever, it became Metallica's first genuine MTV hit, in spite of its extremely grim subject matter. The heavy metal song is simple in structure as well as arrangement, but uses the storyline of the pacifistic film Johnny Got His Gun (1971) to great effect and leaves you both impressed and strongly moved.

Like last year, September of 1988 also brought four noteworthy albums, and even though they weren't, on average, quite as impressive as last year's quartet, one of them did join the ranks of the decade's absolute best. The album in question was not Peepshow, out on 5 September; but it was nonetheless in my opinion the best album by the British goth rockers Siouxsie and the Banshees. They were another group that I had already noticed but had not paid very much attention to until now. The album's opening track Peek-a-boo, embedded below, is one good example of why I was forced to do so.


As good as that song is, it isn't even the best of the album - I just couldn't resist embedding it because it comes with a cool music video. My number one favorite has however always been the atmospheric, icily beautiful Carousel which I suggest you listen to as well. Other highlights on Peepshow include the beautiful The Last Beat of My Heart and the slowly building closing track Rhapsody.

On 16 September, Talk Talk released their greatest masterpiece Spirit of Eden that simply must have come as a complete surprise to others as well as me. Sure, the 1985 Best short track of the year winner Time It's Time did indicate that some kind of transformation was taking place, but how could anyone have foreseen its results? The former melodic pop group had turned into a blossoming art rock ensemble just like that, without any visible effort. The beauty and calm of Spirit of Eden even defies the use of word rock. Instrumentation is that of a rock band but the music defines a genre of its own.


When Spirit of Eden first came out, I was absolutely certain that I had just heard the best album of the year. This wasn't to be: only a little over one month later such a towering masterpiece was released that Spirit of Eden ended up on second place, even though it would have been a deserving winner in almost any other year in the eighties. This was very much like it was with Within the Realm of a Dying Sun by Dead Can Dance last year. Inheritance, embedded above, is a great example of the album's style.

Three days later, two very different albums came out on the same day. Both of them had an impact on me. On 19 September, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds released their album Tender Prey, whose angry opening track Mercy Seat left an indelible impression on me. I wasn't particularly taken with the rest of the album, but this song certainly packs a punch. The album version is perhaps a bit overlong and repetitive at the end, but that is a minor complaint and doesn't even apply to the video embedded below which plays the shorter version.


And then, Enya became a superstar. On the same day with Tender Prey, the Irish singer's breakthrough album Watermark also came out, and what an album it was. The new age masterpiece did not contain many unnecessary tracks, sold millions, and gave us the singer's first major hit Orinoco Flow. This coincided conveniently with the heyday of music video. It was only Enya's second album following her self titled debut that we mentioned earlier. Her third one would be yet another major hit.

The lyrical, lovely music video, embedded below, entered the power rotation of MTV and other satellite channels of the time, playing in the same feed with the works of the era's best known pop stars. It must have seemed a little out of place, but definitely helped a lot in making the singer a household name. I was convinced: here was a major new talent, and her hit song a minor masterpiece. Perhaps we are getting a little too ethereal; next up, something a bit more raw.


I had never been a big fan of metal, even though I had chosen Ozzy Osbourne's classic Bark at the Moon as the best album of 1983. Here, I have already praised Metallica and there is more to follow. On 11 October, another American metal group Ministry released their third album The Land of Rape and Honey which I suppose became their eventual breakthrough. Those who weren't paying attention in 1988, noticed the aggressive masterwork a couple of years later when its opening track Stigmata featured in the science fiction cult classic film Hardware.

Stigmata is a great heavy metal song and there are also several other memorable tracks on the album. But, instead of Stigmata, my favorite has always been The Missing. Clocking just under three minutes, it is a very compact song but manages to do everything a metal track should in that short time frame. Embedded below is how far I have come from the seventies prog days. But this is how it is: the most inspired musicianship can appear in many different genres when times change, and one must always be ready to follow it.


Finally, there are only two album releases left to discuss. We will get into one of them now. Hence the title 1988, minus one for this blog entry. That second album came out on 24 October and easily won the title of Album of the year. And, just as importantly, it opened with the best short track of the entire decade - the one that in my books beat even Ironbound / Fancy Poultry, last year's classic track by Suzanne Vega.

That album, whose name I shall not mention now, will be discussed in the next blog entry and, only after that, we will compile the traditional year end list of all the best songs and albums. This entry will only discuss one more release, which is once again a showcase of high quality pop music of the eighties. The album Everything by Bangles was released on 18 October and contained the chart topping single hit Eternal Flame which even I liked quite a lot.


But, since I always tend to prefer things that the majority don't, I found my number one favorite on the album in the song embedded above. Something to Believe in still gives me goosebumps and remains my favorite among the Bangles' entire output.

perjantai 14. maaliskuuta 2014

1987: August to December

There really are no significant releases from August 1987, at least none that I know of, even though the title of this blog entry seems to imply that. Let's use this opportunity to briefly discuss one more interesting album release whose exact timing is unknown to me.


Suffice to say that some time in 1987, Canadian alternative rock singer Lisa Dalbello released what is in my opinion her best album She. It was her fifth, most fully accomplished collection of new songs. She would go on to release only one more album nine years later. Tango, embedded above, is a perfect example of the new album's sound and style.

As strong as Tango is, it is hardly alone: there are several equally strong tracks on the collection, such as Baby Doll, Body and Soul and Immaculate Eyes. Listening to these songs, you get the impression that comparisons made at the time between Dalbello and Peter Gabriel were not that far fetched, although you could never hear Gabriel use his voice quite as aggressively as Dalbello did, particularly on Tango and Body and Soul. Essential alt rock of the era, with some regular pop thrown in for good measure.


Next comes the incredible September with four noteworthy releases, most of them semi-classics. From the start of the month, the worst was over for me in the army and I strongly associate the next four albums with the relief that autumn's somewhat easier period brought with it. It was grey, somewhat rainy, and the new music was truly great. Let's begin with the least important of the noteworthy September albums.

I already skipped the ludicrous The Final Cut (1983) by Pink Floyd, their weakest effort in a long, long time. On 7 September, its follow-up A Momentary Lapse of Reason came out. The internal fights of the supergroup had been solved by sacking Roger Waters, but while this new music turned out to be a slight improvement over that extremely sorry previous album, it still wasn't really anything special. The only track on the album that I really liked then and still do, is One Slip, embedded above.


Strange as it probably sounds, I actually preferred a pop album that also came out on 7 September, to Pink Floyd's latest - that's how far we have now come from the seventies. Said pop album was Actually by the British pop duo Pet Shop Boys. Sure, more than half of it is rubbish and if I hear It's a Sin one more time I am likely to become physically ill. But there are also moments of greatness on the album too, hidden away on the vinyl version's B side.

Mind you, there are already a couple of truly refreshing pop songs on the A side - I have nothing bad to say about What Have I Done to Deserve This? or Rent - but when the B side opener, Ennio Morricone composed It Couldn't Happen Here fades out in all its majestic sadness, the listener can't help but be completely blown away. And it isn't even the best track on the album; that one comes last. King's Cross, embedded above, is a stunning pop masterpiece and one of the best songs of the entire decade, regardless of genre. How Pet Shop Boys were ever able to create these two downbeat masterworks, I will never know. They were never able to repeat the greatness they displayed here.


Ten days later, on 17 September, a new Yes album called Big Generator came out. I already skipped (not quite as ludicrous as The Final Cut but nonetheless embarrassing) 90125 (1983), one of the group's weakest efforts. Big Generator saw them moving perhaps even further away from prog - but also from the intolerable pop of 90125. New guitarist Trevor Rabin seemed to be influencing the group to develop a more rocking sound than before. This is usually a bad idea for prog bands, but here it works surprisingly well.

Many fans hate Big Generator - I loved it from the first time I heard it. Sure, it is not as good as the seventies output but on the other hand it is one of those all too rare albums that doesn't have a single weak track, and Rabin's gleeful rock riffs are so refreshing and infectious. Shoot High Aim Low, embedded above, is perhaps not the best example to represent the album's overall style (that would be either the opening of Almost Like Love or the title track), but it is overall the strongest song on it. Be sure to hear also the incredible I'm Running, an enjoyably wacky orgy of prog hidden near the end of the album.


Finally, on 28 September, Depeche Mode released their new album Music for the Masses. Anticipation was high following the greatness of their previous effort Black Celebration, Album of the year 1986. Although I have grown to appreciate Music for the Masses, it felt like a slight disappointment at the time. It was in my personal power rotation in any case, but felt a bit cold, distant and alienating.

Never Let Me Down Again, embedded above, was the first single release and a small masterpiece. My other favorites include Behind the Wheel, To Have and to Hold and the instrumental album closer Pimpf. At the other end of the spectrum there were songs like Strangelove and Sacred that to me felt completely pointless and waste of space. For this reason, Music for the Masses doesn't reach my personal top three Depeche Mode albums that consists of Black Celebration and the group's next two albums that will be coming out in 1990 and 1993 and will be discussed then.


Next, it is time to bid farewell to Tangerine Dream, a long standing favorite. Their last truly good release was the soundtrack to the vampire film Near Dark, an early work by Academy Award winning director Kathryn Bigelow. The soundtrack album wasn't released until next year, but I count the movie's US premiere, 2 October, as the first public release of its music, so this is the point in time where it gets its deserved albeit brief mention.

Then, a four week pause followed. After the extremely busy early autumn, only two excellent album releases worth mentioning came out during the rest of the year, and they did so within the space of eight days. First, on 30 October, we received yet another piece of evidence that eighties was the greatest decade for pure, simple pop music. This was when George Michael released his masterpiece Faith, which contained three surprise favorites of mine.


Upon the 25-million copies selling megahit album's release, I particularly enjoyed songs like Father Figure or Monkey - the latter as the original album version, not the vastly inferior remix I've been hearing more recently. But perhaps the most deserving song to be embedded here is Hand to Mouth, which is not only a lovely pop song; it actually has something to say about the society we live in. Hence, you can listen to it above.

All right, this is it. The great music year of 1987 is almost over. It is time to discuss the last noteworthy album of this exceptional period. To do so, we will leave pop music behind and get reacquainted with the eccentric genius of David Sylvian. His artistically ambitious output already reached one landmark with last year's double album Gone to Earth. His new release, called Secrets of the Beehive and out on 7 November, was perhaps not quite its predecessor's equal, but close.


The best track of Sylvian's new album is, in my mind, the stunning Let the Happiness in that has been embedded above, accompanied by a fan made video. On this track, flugelhorn and trumpet are played by film composer Mark Isham. Listening to this peaceful song is a lovely way to end this year. Other highlights include the atmospheric short opening called September, and a longer track called Orpheus that appears in the middle of the album.

Best albums of the year list offers no surprises, as I have already written about the top two separately. Prog legends Yes appear as a close third. The greatest short track is obviously Suzanne Vega's undying classic Irounbound / Fancy Poultry. There are, however, no real candidates for the best long track category, so we will have to leave that one unawarded.

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR:
Dead Can Dance: Within the Realm of a Dying Sun
Suzanne Vega: Solitude Standing
Yes: Big Generator

UNMISSABLE TRACKS OF THE YEAR:
David Sylvian: Let the Happiness in
Dead Can Dance: Cantara
Dead Can Dance: Summoning of the Muse
Dead Can Dance: Windfall
Depeche Mode: Never Let Me Down Again
Depeche Mode: Pimpf
Depeche Mode: To Have and to Hold
Heart: There's the Girl
Marillion: Hotel Hobbies
Marillion: The Last Straw
New Order: 1963
New Order: True Faith
Pet Shop Boys: It Couldn't Happen Here
Pet Shop Boys: King's Cross
Pink Floyd: One Slip
Sielun veljet: Rakkaudesta
Suzanne Vega: Ironbound / Fancy Poultry
Suzanne Vega: In the Eye
Suzanne Vega: Wooden Horse (Caspar Hauser's Song)
Whitesnake: Still of the Night
Yes: Shoot High Aim Low

Best albums of the year, 1967 to 1987:

1967: Pink Floyd: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
1968: -
1969: Procol Harum: A Salty Dog
1970: Genesis: Trespass
1971: Genesis: Nursery Cryme
1972: Yes: Close to the Edge
1973: Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon
1974: Mike Oldfield: Hergest Ridge
1975: Electric Light Orchestra: Face the Music
1976: Genesis: A Trick of the Tail
1977: Yes: Going for the One
1978: Genesis: And Then There Were Three
1979: Robert Fripp: Exposure
1980: Talking Heads: Remain in Light
1981: Camel: Nude
1982: Rush: Signals
1983: Ozzy Osbourne: Bark at the Moon
1984: Rush: Grace Under Pressure
1985: Marillion: Misplaced Childhood
1986: Depeche Mode: Black Celebration
1987: Suzanne Vega: Solitude Standing

Best short tracks (under approx. 12 minutes):

1967: Pink Floyd: Bike
1968: Pink Floyd: Julia Dream
1969: Pink Floyd: Cirrus Minor
1970: The Beatles: The Long and Winding Road
1971: Genesis: The Fountain of Salmacis
1972: Gentle Giant: Schooldays
1973: John Cale: Paris 1919
1974: Mike Oldfield: Mike Oldfield's Single
1975: The Tubes: Up from the Deep
1976: Gong: Chandra
1977: Yes: Going for the One
1978: Genesis: Down and Out
1979: Barclay James Harvest: Play to the World
1980: Saga: Don't Be Late
1981: John Foxx: The Garden
1982: Laurie Anderson: O Superman (For Massenet)
1983: Brian Eno: An Ending (Ascent)
1984: Laurie Anderson: Blue Lagoon
1985: Talk Talk: Time it's Time
1986: Ultravox: All in One Day
1987: Suzanne Vega: Ironbound / Fancy Poultry

Best long tracks (Approx. 12 minutes or over):

1970: King Crimson: Lizard
1971: Van der Graaf Generator: A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers
1972: Yes: Close to the Edge
1973: King Crimson: Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part 1
1974: King Crimson: Starless
1975: Mike Oldfield: Ommadawn, Part 1
1976: -
1977: Yes: Awaken
1978: Popol Vuh: Brüder des Schattens, Söhne des Lichts
1979: U.K: Carrying No Cross
1980: Mike Rutherford: Smallcreep's Day
1981: -
1982: Mike Oldfield: Taurus II
1983: Mike Oldfield: Crises
1984: Jean-Michel Jarre: Ethnicolor
1985: Robert Fripp: God Save the King
1986: The Enid: The Change
1987: -

keskiviikko 5. maaliskuuta 2014

Within the Realm of a Dying Sun, by DEAD CAN DANCE

Year: 1987
Country: Australia / UK


On 27 July, 1987 an album so great was released that it would easily have earned the title of the best album of the decade so far... had it not been for Solitude Standing by Suzanne Vega that was released only four months earlier. Adding insult to injury, this also meant that there was no way this masterpiece could even win the title of Album of the year, even though it would easily have won it on any preceding year in the eighties. Life isn't fair.

We have taken note of Dead Can Dance before. Until now, the art rock group led by Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry had released two full length albums: the self titled record in 1984 and Spleen and Ideal in 1985. Also, there had been an interesting EP in 1984 called Garden of the Arcane Delights. These releases had already shown much promise; in particular, Spleen and Ideal was a truly interesting, if a little sombre album and definitely one of that year's best. However, with the new album Within the Realm of a Dying Sun the group took an unanticipatedly massive leap forward into genuine art of the very highest order.


Dead Can Dance were now working at the peak of their talents. The stunning album opener Anywhere Out of the World is already more than enough to capture the listener's full attention. All tracks on the album are credited to both Gerrard and Perry, but it sounds like they have divided the singing duties in accordance with which one of them is more strongly connected with the material. Like on their later solo albums, the songs Perry sings have a more general art rock feel, whereas Gerrard sings on those that are more ethnic or harder to approach.

On Within the Realm of a Dying Sun, these two main styles of Dead Can Dance have been neatly divided on the two sides of the vinyl disc. Perry sings on side A; Gerrard sings on side B, and there is the occasional instrumental composition in between. Anywhere Out of the World, embedded above, begins Perry's half of the recording, so to speak. It is then followed by a beautiful instrumental that has been embedded below.


As impressive as Anywhere Out of the World is, it was Windfall that truly convinced me back when I was listening to the album for the first time. Yes, the opening track had been great. But the fact that the second track succeeded in even improving on it was an unmistakeable sign that we were now fast approaching Album of the year level excellence. Windfall is simple in structure, but endlessly powerful in delivery. Even the third track In the Wake of Adversity succeeds in being yet another masterpiece. Brendan Perry sings again, and his deep voice brings an atmosphere of its own to the music that has by now established a genre of its own.

Perry and Gerrard, who have come to be known as the faces and voices of Dead Can Dance, were not actually the only members of the group even now that they were in full control of its musical development. There was still a third full member Peter Ulrich, who played timpani and snare drum. There had also been a number of other members on the previous albums, but by now they had all left and following this one, Ulrich would also leave.


Following the outstanding one, two, three, there are finally some minor bumps on the road. The closing track of Perry's A side, Xavier is obviously weaker than the first three, although not a failure by any means. Gerrard's B side opens with an even weaker introduction, Dawn of the Iconoclast, but as it runs for only two minutes, it doesn't take us long to move forward into some of the greatest musical moments of the decade.

The mesmerizing sixth track of Within the Realm of a Dying Sun, called Cantara, is an undying classic that helped me learn an important lesson at the time of its release. I hadn't been paying much attention to ethnicity as an interesting element in music; here, it works wonders. Lisa Gerrard sings, the percussion as well as some of the other instruments bring Near East world music to mind, and the repeating melody that opens the track and carries on throughout is simply lovely.


At the time, I felt that Cantara was the real signature track of Dead Can Dance. Later on, I have actually come to like the next song Summoning of the Muse even better. Like its predecessor, it opens with a memorable melody that carries nearly all the way to the end and is this time played with an instrument that sounds like a bell chiming. Gerrard sings with an angelic voice, with several vocal tracks mixed on top of each other. There is a nice video for this masterpiece embedded further below.

Following all this greatness, it is a slight disappointment that the B side ends a little like the A side did: with a fourth song that is longer than any of the first three, yet not fully satisfying. Persephone (The Gathering of Flowers) is a beautiful song, a little better than Xavier, but not quite as ambitious as the previous two and therefore not as memorable. Gerrard's voice is however again simply divine.