Cracks

Vincent Gallo - When (2001) ***

Nominated by: Alex

Music club: MNAC

MNAC playlist addition:  My Beautiful White Dog

Alex is true to form - supplying another album/artist that I've never heard of before. 

I found a lot of the album startling, in that the plinking minimalist piano and noodling guitar sounded quite proggy in places and Gallo's vocals sound like a torch singer baring their soul (sort of).

I'm not sure if Gallo plays everything or not, it sounds like he does. The stop start drums on My Beautiful White Dog sound like he's on the kit (sampled and then repeated I'm guessing) but maybe not. I really like this track as it unwinds and fuses all sorts of swirly sounds together.

In fact, it's the instrumentals I like the most, I think. Maybe it's that jazz/prog noodling that gets me. Although When is fascinating and hooks me every time as well. Interesting.

Not an album I'd ever come across without the assistance of MNAC. Thanks for broadening my outlook Alex.

Yes I do

L.A.B - IV (2020) ***

Nominated by: GK

Music club: Wander to Wozza's

Playlist addition:  Yes I Do, No Roots

First of all and I struggle to get past it - what's with the name? It makes no sense. It's not an acronym for anything and why punctuate it that way? Stoopid.

Okay, I can move on now. Luckily, it's very easy to like the music made by L.A.B because it's an amalgam of successful antecedents - Motownphilly, reggae and blue eyed soul.

The strengths are obvious - great singer, excellent production, catchy songs, proficient playing. There's nothing much original about it all, instead you can just relax and groove along and it all seems somehow familiar.

The first half of the album is top notch. The second half (from Operator onwards - those disco strings jar and seem out of place) is patchy with only My Baby matching the first 7 songs.

The decision to finish with two versions of one song (Natural) is plain bizarre. It's an okay song - surely it would have been better to leave the acoustic version for a B side of a single or something.

So - mighty fine - three stars for me (that originality thing and the patch second half).

I struggle to differentiate the albums btw - I have the first four and they each travel the same musical road (those influences). Enjoyable fersure, but where to from here for L.A.B? More of the same, I guess - and why not - it clearly has given them a big audience in Aotearoa.

Thanks for a pleasant blissed out week with L.A.B GK.

Soul rebels

The Gladiators - Trenchtown Mix Up (1976) ***

Nominated by: Lewis

Music club: MNAC

MNAC playlist addition:  Soul Rebel

The Gladiators' debut album in 1976 completely passed me by in 1976 and in the subsequent years until 2023!

I have a dozen or so reggae compilations and not one of them features The Gladiators. That's strange. They must be relatively obscure then.

While I enjoyed the experience of listening to it, I couldn't help but wonder why, of all the reggae albums out there by the heavy hitters, he chose this one as MNAC's debut reggae album.

To my ears it sounds older than it really is, as in - it wouldn't sound out of place on a compilation of sixties reggae recordings from Studio One. Maybe it's the decision to cover a couple of Bob Marley's older songs, or else it's the dated sound. Not sure. Maybe it's just that they didn't move on from their sixties sound.

In comparison, Bob Marley released Rastaman Vibration in 1976 - a modern reimagining of reggae.

I can't help compare the too, and The Gladiators invite the comparison by taking on Soul Rebel. Why? They don't change it at all and don't improve on the original.

Although there's nothing to dislike on the album, there's also nothing making me rush out and search for other Gladiators' albums. Believe I'll be sticking to The Heptones instead.

 

Highest branch on the apple tree It was my favourite place to be

Crowded House - Together Alone (1993) ****

Nominated by: Kevvy

Music club: Wander to Wozza's

Playlist addition:  Private Universe, Together Alone

This one is world famous in New Zealand. I've written about it on my music blog before - see this link on  Goo Goo G'Joob.

So, I'm on record as saying this is my favourite Crowdies album:

Fourth album... is my favourite - mainly because of the enormity of the stand-out tracks: Pineapple Head; Private Universe; Distant Sun and Together Alone, but also because it feels like a proper album, rather than some great songs mixed with other songs.

Kudos to Youth and Bob Clearmountain for their expertise in making these songs sound great!

So there it is! I stand by those comments.

I've also written about the Distant Sun single when I did a run down of all my singles. Go here for that one.

I summed up that song with:

Distant Sun sounds like a Macca outtake circa Red Rose Speedway. That's a good thing btw. It's a cool song and a stand out from Together Alone.

Again, I stand by that. But what about the album as a whole?

Well, there's a palpable darkness and sense of loss to these songs that is kind of appealing. The cheeky chappy Crowdies of the earlier albums are replaced by something different this time out. If I didn't know better I'd say Neil suffered some traumas as a child that surfaced in his writing during Together Alone: 

• We're standing in a deep dark hole beneath the sky as black as coal (In My Command)
• You my companion run to the water on a burning beach (Nails In My Feet)
• To the depths of despair you will crawl (Black and white Boy)
• There is time yet to fall by the way from the cradle to the grave from the palace to the gutter (Fingers Of Love)
• If you choose to take that path I will play you like a shark (Pineapple Head)
• The view when I look through the window is an altarpiece I'm praying to for the living and the dead (Locked Out)
• It's a tight squeeze but I won't let go, time is on the table and the dinner's cold (Private Universe)
• I will run for shelter (Private Universe)
• At odd times we slip slither down the dark hole (Walking On the Spot)
• An eerie shadow falls (Walking On The Spot)
• Will we be in our minds when the dawn breaks? (Walking On the Spot)
• Lounging on the sofa maybe see the living room die dishes are unwashed and broken all you do is cry (Walking On The Spot)
• As time slips by, and on and on (Distant Sun)
• Bad moon is rising again (Catherine Wheels)

That's a fair dollop of bad juju right there.

Given those lyrics and themes, I'd assume some purging of bad experiences was taking place, however, I know Tim and Neil and their two sisters had a great childhood in Te Awamutu, and that Dick and Mary were terrific parents. 

So what's going on?

I guess you could put a lot of this down to poetic license, but it does seem like Youth unlocked some weird and wonderful lyrics in Neil. Maybe it was all the electric puhu that they were smoking! Maybe it was the isolated location in their hired house and the eventual cabin fever. Maybe Nil decided to unleash his visceral Lennon  side. Or maybe he was channeling Tim's darker persona. Who knows. No one's saying.

There's also a great sense of experimentation going on in the music on this album. Mark Hart brings a lot to the party. And Youth's hippie presence and tendency toward wild abandon helps tracks like Black And White Boy, and Locked Out take on U2 style guitar edge (see what I did there?). Generally though, it appears they all went a little bat shit crazy in KareKare.

What I also love about the album is the unified sense of love for place and person that bookends things.

Opener, Kare Kare, is all about celebrating the place where the album was recorded, and final song Together Alone is surely about brotherly love in general and Tim/Neil in particular. The use of Maori choir, brass band and Pasifika log drummers are great touches. They throw everything at this song and everything works. It could only ever be the final track.

The parting words of the album are all about an enduring love that the brothers share (and by extension their parents):

Rangi the sky-father is above/ The earth-mother is below/ Our love for one another/ Is everlasting.

It's not perfect as an album, so it gets 4 stars from me. A couple of the tracks (Nails In My Feet and Fingers Of Love) I find either unconvincing or too Nil Funn mannered in the vocal inflection department to really enjoy whole heartedly.

But, that's nit picking really, as this is, overall, an outstanding achievement from an outstanding band.