Album review- Jack White- Boarding House Reach

Jack White has always been a very interesting melting pot when it comes to incorporating different styles of music together. In his previous band, The White Stripes; had incorporated the spirit and energy of punk with the aggressive guitar style that will be forever associated with blues music.

By the second half of their career, he’d continue this trend by constantly shifting and incorporating different styles of music into his own repertoire.

By the time that The White Stripes had split by 2011, White continued this trend with his solo career. But by far the biggest leap he’s ever taken is on his new album Boarding House Reach.

His first album in nearly four years, it sees White continuing to develop his musical journey but in such drastic measures that haven’t quite been seen before.

First off, the album has a very heavy leaning on electronic music in terms of the keyboards he uses in stuff like synthesisers. It creates a whole other mood in this album that suits it perfectly. It’s like letting a kid hyper on sugar and letting them play a keyboard.  Not by skill set but more in the mentality it comes to when actually playing the instrument.

The first song, ‘Connected by Love’  is very interesting in because it doesn’t really set the tempo for what is going to be felt for the rest of the album. A quite soulful mellow song that proves White hasn’t lost anything in terms of being able to craft a song and the impact that it can have on the listener.

Other songs like ‘Over and Over and Over’ prove that White hasn’t totally abandoned his musical core. It was actually a song that was written by White for The White Stripes and it definitely feels like it could’ve fitted onto their classic album Elephant and along with that ‘Seven Nation Army’ and ‘Hardest Button to Button’ vibe.

Even on the closer ‘Whats Done is Done’ shows how eclectic the music is on the album. A mix between an electronic song with a gospel style in the way of its vocals, piano and organ add a mellow vibe that not only equally meets the opener ‘Connected by Love’ in impact but also in quality.

Even the closer ‘Humoresque’ has similarities with ‘Whats Done is Done’ in that it proves that no matter how loud Jack White is when he is playing, he can have just as much impact playing quietly and softly as he possibly can.

It’s the bit in the middle that is really the interesting part of the album and it may be the only fault of the album. Its a shifting and turning musical journey in the way that the songs cannot sometimes be appreciated because it’s like its always on edge, not wanting to stay on the one course for too long and wants badly to move on to the next thing. So on first listening to its kind of struggle to get into it.

But there’s nothing wrong with that. On first listen or two I felt it was a standard okay album. Probably after the fifth listen it really hit how great the album was. It’s very different to White’s career with The White Stripes because, with their albums, it more or less hit you straight away how great their stuff was, unlike this which is kind of a new thing I found while listening to Jack White’s music.

Overall this is the first great album I’ve listened to of 2018. The album also has White almost semi rapping on ‘Ice Station Zebra’. To know that the guy who wrote ‘Seven Nation Army’ can also spit a few bars then all I can say is what a time to be alive.

Highlights: Connected by Love, Corporation, Ice Station Zebra and Humoresque

Arctic Monkeys- The return

Here is the scene. A band is playing, the crowd is going wild, playing a sellout show, a sense of togetherness one had never experienced before, walking off stage after a good encore and everybody around saying ‘what a gig’ etc. Then, feelings of anxiety and a period of reflection set in. The adrenaline wearing off and something was not quite right. My relationship and view of the Arctic Monkeys had forever changed after their Marley Park gig on that summers day in 2014.

 

They were the first band I could really remember really affecting me and having me hooked on guitar music. Man when I was 9/10 I played ‘When the Sun Goes Down’ into ground. I put more effort into learning that song than basically anything I ever did in 6 years of secondary school. They also had a huge influence of me learning bass guitar/ guitar. Basically their songs were simple but a new appreciation came in because these were simple, which showed you didn’t need to be something musical genius to do.

Mind you I also wore a shirt to the Marley Park gig with ‘Don’t Believe the Hype’ on it because basically I’m cool as fuck.

I kind of feel like this connection to the Arctic Monkeys that I don’t really feel with any other bands. But lately, that relationship with them is more a approving/ disapproving thing.

‘AM’ was really the testing point of this feeling. At the time yeah, I loved that album, not really knowing why but just going with the flow. ‘R U Mine’ and ‘Do I Wanna Know’ standing out but I couldn’t really remember anything else about the album but I let it slide, just basically glad to hear anything that had guitars and was catchy.

But by the time Marley Park came around, my expectations and reality couldn’t have been further apart. The same songs I had heard on AM were not only forgettable, but they seemed to be worse.

The most bland stuff made up about 60% of the show that day, feeling really underwhelmed, but the adrenaline and euphoria of ‘Crying Lightning’ and ‘Fluorescent Adolescent’ basically carried me through. By the end a great feeling excitement had now dropped to disappointment. Something changed that day.

It’s only now when I hear rumors that they finally might be releasing an album this year, I can honestly say that I’m not looking forward to it. Sure, I’ll listen and trust me I want them to prove me wrong, but I just don’t know.

Since ‘Humbug’ things just haven’t been right. The album (their best btw) showed a side that we probably won’t see again. They heavily rhythmic album was underpinned by a  more dark brooding mood. A lot of the songs had more deep meaning to them. Great but dark songs like ‘Cornerstone’ showed a new heightened intelligence that had shown that the band grown since their debut.

However, since then the Arctic Monkeys have been on autopilot. ‘Suck It and See’ was shite, ‘AM’ had some moments but largely forgettable. Something had changed.

This was far away from the cynical smart arses that could make fast, but also at times. extremely catchy music. That basically had a very clever edge to that most of the time doesn’t exist in pop music. They can’t really milk this mellowing thing much longer, or continue to make terrible dance music.

Loads of things have changed since ‘AM’, firstly their audience is going to be totally different. From what I remember at Marley Park and just the whole feel of ‘AM’ was just like a 16 year old girl vibe. That older crowd I’d thought would be there wasn’t really there like I’d thought. So it throws up a scenario of where do Arctic Monkeys, play to their roots or go for this new audience and face tons of competition to achieve attention of an audience that might not even view them as relevant anymore?

There is a side of me that wants them to make a really good album, ala what they used to put out when they were younger but there is another side of me that doesn’t want to get too emotionally invested in case its not only bad, but also forgettable.

So I’m very intrigued/ worried as to what will happen. But more intrigued in the way you see a fast moving bus about to crash and you want to see what you’ll know will happen. Disaster.

 

 

 

 

Gig Review- Peter Hook and The Light

When going to a gig, for me it always treads that line was it really value for money? There have been loads of times when I can remember I just got totally ripped off.

One instance I can remember was where Arctic Monkeys was when it was like 70 quid to see them in Marley Park about 3 years ago and it was bad. I remember them playing nearly everything from AM and it just didn’t work at all. Could’ve spent that 70 quid on like 30 spice bags so I’m always angry when I remind myself of that.

I can gladly always say that Peter Hook and his band The Light are always great value for money. Last time he came in 2015 playing the New Order albums ‘Low-Life’ and ‘Brotherhood’. It was only like 2 quid and he played for like three hours and it was brilliant from start to finish.

The timing at gigs is kinda crucial for me and its a very fine line you have to walk. Play too short and I’m pissed (like at Arctic Monkeys once again) or too long (like several bad opening acts) but Hook always bucks that trend.

By the time I’d enter the venue it was perfect timing as Hooky appeared on stage, ready to basically play for three hours and what three hours they were.

Being my biggest inspiration when it comes to playing bass guitar and trying to endlessly copy his style, seeing Hook in action just playing the bass to the songs was another plus in itself.

Playing the New Order and Joy Division Substance albums, Hook absolutely tore into the songs, showing why Joy Division and New Order are some of the best bands to ever have existed.

The show was split into two completely opposite halves.

New Order’s Substance emphasized the pop and dance aspect of New Order perfectly, with some great moments, especially the performance of the great and overlooked ‘1963’.

By the time he came back on for Joy Division’s Substance, Hook tore the house down with his absolute punk energy, even in moments of the slow songs like ‘Atmosphere’. To go from hearing these songs from the records to the live environment was definitely an amazing moment and makes the songs stand out better.

By the time he’d finished ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’, it was almost like a religious chant or something. This throng of random people just religiously singing the song word for word was an incredible moment.

With his bass playing at the forefront, Hook showed why these songs will always stand the test of time and how he will always be value for money, even at 25 quid.

 

 

Album Review- Rapsody- Laila’s Wisdom

In terms of some criminally ignored artists today, there are quite a few that come to mind.

People like Angel Olsen, Grizzly Bears St. Vincent and other artists have created works that have largely been ignored by mainstream music that are incredible but, they totally exist outside of the mainstream.

An artist recently that comes to mind, is the rapper Rapsody, who recently released her sophomore album ‘Laila’s Wisdom’.

Being honest I wasn’t familiar with her at all. I hadn’t heard of her debut album, ‘The Idea of Beautiful’.

But ever since then Rapsody has been quietly been contributing on other peoples songs, most famously on Kendrick Lamar’s song ‘Complexion (A Zulu Love)’ from his great album ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’.

It was while listening to ‘Laila’s Wisdom’ that i really could see similarities between this and ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’.

But it isn’t an exact copy of Kendrick’s album. The only thing that really reminded me about her and Kendrick’s album was the vibe between the two records.

Both of them feel really free in a sense. What I refer to in this regard is in the instrumentation. In ‘Laila’s Wisdom’ it isn’t as tight or as rigid, like some of the hip-hop I’ve heard. It is quietly confident and exists in its own way which really makes for interesting listens time and time again, which is something I haven’t really been able to say for some albums I’ve listened to recently.

What Rapsody expresses maybe is similar to Kendrick’s album is how they exist in the world in how they see it at the moment. But Rapsody totally fucking owns it when she expresses whatever happens to be on her mind.

Songs like ‘Pay Up’ are really fascinating. It really expresses the materialism that could exist in a relationship. She really nails down today, in some regards that materialism really takes over the importance of a simple gesture that isn’t related to money at all.

The chorus of ‘Pay Up’ expresses this sentiment with “It’s that money that he love, love, love
But, she ain’t got enough, ‘nough, ‘nough
She picked some flowers from the yard, yard, yard
She bought the flowers
But, that won’t win his heart, heart, heart”.

Stuff like that really made an impact and gave me more of an interest in the album.

Another song that really summed up the record for me in one song was ‘Power’, which was also interestingly enough features Kendrick Lamar.

What they talk about in the song, is basically the power to do what you want and freedom that you can get from that.

In the song, Kendrick talks about how “Let’s talk about power
Let’s talk about do’ers and dont’ers” and also “Let’s talk about power
Let’s talk about yours and ours that paid the allowance”. Just getting power from these small things from Kendrick’s point of view are things that should never be taken for granted.

Even Rapsody sums it up with the less is more attitude by just outright saying “I want the power to be able rap ’bout what I rap ’bout”.

When listening to ‘Pay Up again, it sounds really poppy and really catchy and that isn’t a bad thing at all. It’s weird that with songs like this, I would imagine it being played on radio, even with radio being in a absolutely shit state of affairs.

A criminally underrated and ignored album that any lover of hip-hop should really check out.

Album Review- LCD Soundsystem: American Dream

LCD Soundsystem are one of the greatest bands around today. Mainly fronted by James Murphy, are the only artists today who understand the importance of the groove, basing a whole song around a whole groove that last up to 8 minutes.

That feeling of being the outsider, something that has been done before, although set to some great dance beats.

The group had been disbanded in 2011 by Murphy and played their last gig in Madison Square Garden.

When Murphy announced that he was making a new album, I was definitely hyped and interested in what he was going to do.

So, after a heavy night of drinking, at about 3 in the morning I opened Spotify and eagerly played the album.

After the first listen, my reaction was very ‘meh’. Next morning I gave it another listen and still the same reaction. I left it till about next week and while there was the same reaction, there was more intrigue.

The next week on the next listen the music started to sound like it was loosening up to me. It was finally on the fifth listen that is when I finally was starting to enjoy it.

My final opinion of the album is that is good. But whatever the album says it kind of already has been said before.

The first track on the album ‘Oh Baby’ is by far the best song on the album by miles. It opens the album with a very laid back dreamy synth vibe. This relaxed vibe is something Mahoney hadn’t really done before. The closest he had come to this was ‘I Can Change’ although not note for note but similar vibe is there.

That theme of repeating is clear to see on a couple of the songs. One song where it is really clear to see is on ‘Change Yr Mind’. Don’t get me wrong it is a good song, but it’s just a rehash of a far much better song Mahoney did early on which was ‘Losing My Edge’. The same message is applied here, not word for word but basically both songs share that same vibe of ‘I’m not as groundbreaking now as I was when I was younger’, just it was done better on ‘Losing My Edge’.

The album definitely does have its high moments. ‘Tonite’ definitely ranks as one of the better songs on the album. Definitely the line ‘You hate the idea that you’re wasting your youth, but you stood in the background until you got older’ is one of the best that Murphy has ever written.

‘Call The Police’ definitely is another of the stronger songs, but the order doesn’t have as strong an impact as it could have. It is shoved in the middle and its always around the middle where its definitely not the stronger part of the album. If it was say the last song on the album, it definitely would’ve been a better way to end the album.

Another bit I really did enjoy is the guitar work, whether played by Mahoney or guitarist Al Doyle is heavily reminiscent of the guitar work done by Robert Fripp on David Bowie’s album “Heroes”. ‘Black Screen’ bookends the album, showing how heavily Bowie’s influence hung over the rest of the band.

Previous LCD Soundsystem albums were great in the way that they just hit you straight away how great they were. Even their first album is about 75 minutes long and its just full of repetitive grooves and it just hit you how brilliant it was right away.

The thing is as well with this album, it is very dark compared to all their other album. That wouldn’t really deter me from liking the album but I would understand why some people might not like this.

‘How Do You Sleep’ is easily their most darkest song ever. Each synthy bass in the chorus smacks over you like a hammer to the head. The song does really entail that dream quality to it. Like it prevents you from entering a perfect dreamy kind of world with the chorus.

The thing I’ve always loved about Murphy is that he is sometimes unsure of himself, but in the good way. Something I can relate to anyway. I’ve always felt that it always been a huge theme of the whole band in general, something that has made them feel personal to a whole lot of people.

Literally their first song dealt with being out of your prime and being finished. He’s written some great songs out of this mood like ‘Someone Great’ but I’m not sure. With those types of songs you did get a real hopeful feeling and it’s not really here on the album, which isn’t a bad thing don’t get me wrong.

I felt Murphy was trying to just totally deconstruct the band and do something different, but it just doesn’t quite have the impact it should have. Fair play to a guy who did ‘Daft Punk Are Playing At My House’ to doing ‘How Do You Sleep’, kind of shows he isn’t afraid to take chances and maybe fail, Ala like Kanye.

Despite the album at times not living up to its potential, it is still able at times able to strike a powerful chord. Trust me it’s better than nothing, and that is nothing to shake a stick at.

Album Review- The Jesus and Mary Chain- Psychocandy

When examing the time when The Jesus and Mary Chain released ‘Psychocandy’ you have to look at music around the time it was released.

Safe and bland bands like Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet dominated pop music and were creating music of its time. ‘Psychocandy’ was released at this time and sounds 20 years ahead of its time.

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The Jesus and Mary Chain revolutionised a sound that ultimately evolved into the genre of ‘shoegazing’ but ‘Psychocandy’ covers so much ground in terms of its sound.

The underlying sound that drives ‘Psychocandy’ is the tussle between loud ear piercing guitars and a keen sense for pop melodies with a punky attitude.

The earliest offering by the band that showed their talent was shown in their first single release Upside Down which was ultimately an example of things to come.

The album kicks with the best song of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s career, Just Like Honey. The song kicks off with a drum beat straight from the early 60s classic Be My Baby by the Ronettes.

It showed the surprising influence that 60s girl groups had on the band showing that they did have ears for a great hooky melody. The song is probably most famous for its use in Sofia Coppola’s film Lost in Translation.

The group were and have been dominated by the Reid brothers Jim and William. William’s guitar and Just Like Honey is the best guitar sound I’ve ever heard on a song.

The fuzz distortion style is a dangerous style to use as whenever I’ve ever heard a guitarist use this style it’s kinda used as a way of covering their shortcomings. Reid uses style, not as the overall sound as his playing but just to give the songs a little more power to help make the songs stand out.

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Reid’s method is interesting as his playing on a lot of songs sounds like uncontrolled mayhem. Reid goes mental on the song like ‘You Trip Me Up’. The playing on this is the only time it sounds like a person is proper trying to kill their guitar. To me, Reid is one of the most creative guitarists ever.

Jim Reid’s vocal is a key feature that would be used in the shoegazing genre. His whispery and melodic delivery compliments his brother’s guitar playing.

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The rhythm section of Douglas Hart and Bobby Gillespie add a punky approach to the album. Hart (the bassist) was infamous for his approach to his playing. Like cutting two strings off his bass and only playing with two.

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Gillespie (drummer and future frontman of Primal Scream) had a unique set up to his drumming. He only played with a snare and floor tom, rather than a traditional drumkit. His playing really adds a primal edge to the album (pardon the pun).

 

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The only really break from the chaotic noise throughout the album is the surprisingly quiet and gentle ‘Cut Dead’. It’s this type of style that ulitametly expand into their next album ‘Darklands’.

It’s the sound of ‘Psychocandy’ that would ultimately dominate the band’s career for the rest of their career. It’s a great sound to do for only a short amount of time. It doesn’t really last for a long amount of time. After a while its a fine line to walk if you want to become poppier but still retain your credibility.

The Velvet Underground (a huge influence on the band) saw this and by the time of their third album ‘The Velvet Underground, they had moved into a more pop and gentle direction.

It’s a sense of fucked if you do, fucked if you don’t kind of thing. You can alienate your early fans, but while also gaining a new different type of fan that wouldn’t have liked about. I do feel that post ‘Psychocandy’ The Jesus and Mary Chain did have better songs, but they weren’t as revolutionary in sound on their first album.

The lack of its commercial success has always hindered its revolutionary status, but don’t let that get in the way when listening to it. ‘Psychocandy’ is definitely an album that needs to be celebrated a lot more as a unique piece of music.

 

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Artist tribute- Outkast

Hip hop is always a fickle thing to me. I’d say about 90% at least today anyway is just fucking heartbreaking and dreadful. Things like listening to Rae Sremmurd seriously makes me question as to why hasn’t North Korea nuked America yet?

That generic rapping of about money, cars and sex is just so fucking soul crushing and boring.

But that rare 10% of hip hop that is great is absolutely phenomenal. Stuff like Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West and Lauryn Hill are only a few hip hop artists that stand out for me. Those great few groups and artists are nearly some of the most original and inventive musicians in their time.

Outkast is definitely the best hip-hop group for me. Any group that can write lyrical headbangers and party smashers are the best group.

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When looking Outkast, I can safely say that they are on the Velvet Underground territory of being revolutionary. Despite being cast as a hip hop duo they use hip hop as their basis to expand into lots of other music.

When looking at their early work, there is that normal template of early 90s hip hop and in their debut album ‘Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik’ there is a sense that there is something more to this lot than just the boring hip hop tag and how limiting it can be.

After their debut, there is a really quick and rapid evolution over ATLiens that is giving a nod of things to come.

But it’s on Aquemini that their genius is just really obvious to see. This is my favourite album by them. Just track after track is just a prime example of that hip-hop can be the most revolutionary genre out of all musical genres.

On ‘Da Art of Storytellin (Pt.1)’ is easily the best song that Outkast ever did. Big Boi’s and Andre 3000’s delivery is just solid. Talking about a girl named Sasha Thumper and her plights, the duo shows off how their lyrical prowess can be put up against the likes Bob Dylan.

It’s interesting to note the path that both Big Boi and Andre 3000 took after Aquemini. They took a bit more pop influence.

Now whenever a musical group goes down a poppy path, it’s seen as a sign of selling out. I would usually agree with because basic pop is the least most creative genre out there. If you want to still retain that critical acclaim you need to add your personality to the genre. That is exactly what Outkast did.

On Stankonia it provides a big melting pot to allow Outkast with gas and great songs like ‘So Fresh, So Clean’ to really break into the mainstream. While retaining their genesis they started to incorporate more poppy hooks into their songs, especially in the absolute classic ‘Ms. Jackson’.

Even on songs like ‘B.O.B’, there is a really strong punk influence in terms of their delivery, which shows how open they are to other genres compared to other hip-hop artists.

It was in scenarios like these and Andre’s method of wanting to expand the music that it allows Big Boi to show how perfect he can compliment Andre with his rapping and flow, and with Andre, he could compliment Big Boi’s rapping with his newly acquired singing and musicality.

I do hear bands like The Smiths in Outkast’s output, but mostly in Outkast’s later years. They certainly appealed to Andre 3000 more, who’s gone on record as saying that The Smiths song ‘Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me’ was one song that he wished that he’d written.

Andre said of the lead singer Morrissey in a 2004 interview that ‘It’s all about his [Morrissey’s] performance on the records, it’s almost like he wasn’t a singer at all, I guess he was a poet and did a melody on top of a band playing music.

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It’s funny to me, but it’s great that he sings like that. Like he has a book of poems and he goes in and just pulls out a poem and puts it on top of the music because he does the same melodies over and over, I think that’s cool.”

It’s a comparison that could definitely be applied to Andre 3000.

By the time of Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below, Andre had started incorporating more guitar into his music by listening to bands like The Smiths too.

The thinking of The Smiths in that way of it being okay to be a bit odd to venture into really weird and unusual music genres certainly can be applied when Outkast started becoming very experimental in terms of their music.

The only other song by The Smiths that would match the vibe of ‘Hey Ya’ would be ‘Barbarianism Begins at Home’ in terms of having that really funky vibe, similar to other songs like ‘Hey Ya’

It could be mad to say that Outkast was almost a hip-hop equivalent of The Smiths, but I definitely feel like that in terms of both their thinking and how they were trying to go against the typical notions of their respective genres.

Outkast’s music was about 50% sampling, but with 50% coming into the form of creating their own music, something that hip-hop isn’t known and sometimes comes out looking really laughable.

It’s interesting to note the direction that Outkast took on their last album. On Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below this is pop music. The album is basically double album split between Big Boi and Andre 3000 in the form of their debut solo albums.

Andre’s side The Love Below is the closest we’ve ever gotten to an Andre 3000 solo album which is probably a blessing in disguise as he’s actually very anti-rapping past the age of 40.

It’s an unfortunate thing that general music fans lean towards Andre over Big Boi, but it’s probably just due to the fact that Andre actually sang and Big Boi rapped.

I’ve always felt people are going to lean towards singers over rappers just naturally anyway. But if you do listen to ‘Da Art of Storytelling’ Big Boi easily is the best thing about the track but they both complement each other, which is what a duo is supposed to do.

Even on ‘The Way You Move’ from his Speakerboxxx half allows Big Boi to really shine and show he can definitely prove why he is a great rapper.

Even his solo stuff like ‘Shutterbug’ proves that his flow as a rapper can never be questioned.

Since then Outkast has not released another album apart from a soundtrack album and that was in 2006, which in hindsight is probably a good thing because you can only on such a great creative roll for a short period of time before you start to lose your edge.

When evaluating their song catalogue, Outkast’s legacy is really such a strong one that really needs to be appreciated more in my opinion. It’s maybe because of the perception of hip hop and it isn’t ‘real music’ by some fans is a thought that I just hate.

On the surface, they are really good, but if you dig a little deeper they are truly revolutionary, which is a great sign of any artist.

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Does a musician’s death elevate their legacy?

2016 was a crazy year. It seemed like every week that a musician every week was dying and they were having their 15 minutes on the front pages of newspapers.

Accompanied with their deaths, was the customary item of their sales going up like crazy in a way they hadn’t seen before they died. Out of all the artists that died in 2016, it does raise the question will their deaths elevate their legacy?

The first thing that needs to be looked at is the financial aspect of what is involved after an artist dies. It can be said that an artist’s death is an advertiser’s wet dream. This can basically guarantee them with income for the next few years.It also provides them with excuses to reissue albums in highly expensive boxsets.

It can be said that an artist’s death is an advertiser’s wet dream. This can basically guarantee them with income for the next few years.It also provides them with excuses to reissue albums in highly expensive boxsets.

The main example would be someone that I like, Lou Reed. He died in 2013 and immediately his online sales had soared up by 300%. It seemed to support Reed’s mentor Andy Warhol’s quote of “everyone will be famous for 15 minutes”. It set up a platform for everyone to hope on the bandwagon, but by next week these people had moved onto something else.

It seemed to support Reed’s mentor Andy Warhol’s quote of “everyone will be famous for 15 minutes”. It set up a platform for everyone to hope on the bandwagon, but by next week these people had moved onto something else.

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Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge Lou Reed fan, but it wasn’t like he never fulfilled his potential. It hits you like “ah that’s shit” but then you move on.

Reed has a vinyl box set that’s on sale for $149 on Amazon so it does really show that financially, an artist is appreciated.

But now begs the question, are they creatively appreciated when they died? For me, the only death I really cared about was David Bowie, but apart from that, the famous deaths of other artists didn’t just suddenly elevate them in my mind.

Bowie’s artist talent guarantees that his legacy will be celebrated 

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Prince or George Michael I really didn’t care so it wasn’t like they became my favourite new artist. Or the death of Glenn Fry made literally no difference to me, not least because he was in The Eagles, who were fucking awful.

Famously, Bowie and Leonard Cohen’s albums this year are always going to be linked to their deaths.It adds an air of uneasiness when listening to these albums. It showed that an extra layer is added to the album, elevating it to critical acclaim in a way that maybe wouldn’t have existed if they maybe didn’t die.

The only artists to me that are appreciated hugely when they die are the young artists or members of the ’27 club’.

The members of the famous ’27 Club’

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From Ian Curtis to Kurt Cobain, their suicides elevate the artist and creates a ‘cult of personality’around them. A tragic and depressed figure who never fulfilled their creative potential.

These guys have become cultural figures in their deaths due to how young they were when they died. It makes them have an instant connection to younger people, rather than older musicians who fulfilled their potential and had several hit/misses in their music career. are definitely going to be appreciated a lot more.

It’s because of that factor that they are definitely going to be appreciated a lot more.

There is a trend in the general media to hype an artist’s legacy after their death or portray them more than for what they really were.But their deaths aren’t going to elevate their work. If their work was shit before they died, it’s going to shit still after they died.

In ten years time, the musicians that died, their deaths could always remembered as a trend of a certain year or in Bowie’s case, a truly remarkable cultural moment. Which one will be the case? Only time will tell.

 

 

Artist Profile- Johnny Marr

If people can finally recognize you on radio without being told who it is, that’s what you aim for- Johnny Marr

There are very, very few guitarists that really can really deconstruct the stereotypical image of the guitar can do. The ordinary quick chord thrashing sound is what most associated with the guitar.A guitar should always, in my view reflect what your feeling, not being afraid to throw a bit of vulnerability into your playing.

Now I don’t hate that style at all, but it gets tiresome fast. It takes real talent and musicianship to go against that style and develop something that reflects you as a person.

This is seen in the guitarist Johnny Marr, most famously of The Smiths and who is the best guitar player of all time, in my opinion anyway!

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What Johnny Marr can do with a guitar is incredible. Going away from the rudimentary chord playing that most guitarists use, the use of picking in a poppy style quickly highlights Marr the moment the listener his the first few notes of his guitar playing.

Marr always wanted to disassociate himself from that typical image guitar rock sound. One thing that went out was…….. the solo.

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It takes balls to take the standard normal solo out as its almost the basic focal point you are taking away from yourself, so it showed that Marr could have full confidence in what he was doing. It can be most seen in The Smiths song ‘This Charming Man’.

What really makes ‘This Charming Man’ so unique is that it’s almost like a melodic dreamy picture that Marr creates with his playing. Marr creates a heavenly melodic sound that is something that blew my mind when I first listened to it and made me obsessed to listen to everything that The Smiths had ever recorded.

It’s the notion

Marr also had the perfect frontman to compliment his style in Morrissey. The two are greatest songwriting partnerships in the history of music. They blended a perfect style of the alternative and pop music.

Morrissey’s lyrical prowess could really help to add a new edge to Marr’s musical talent. Morrissey typically wrote with the view as the outsider, the unpopular one with an eye for creating great emotional stories. This was used to full effect in ‘There is a Light That Never Goes Out’.

Morrisey and Marr. The most perfect team in music history.

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Marr’s quite gentle guitar playing perfectly compliments Morrissey’s need to be apart of the crowd, almost a desire to be normal like all the other people he wishes to be with. The best music is the music that you can’t exactly describe how great it is but in your mind you could go for days on end about how much you love it.

Marr’s playing also could be heavily grove based as well, something that most guitar players tend to ignore. In ‘How Soon is Now?’, Marr’s swampy groovy playing takes on the quality of an anthemic tone, interspersed with paranoid sounding guitar lines.

The song demonstrates Marr’s ability to take on the role of the one man orchestra. The ability to create specific phrases that come in and out is akin to classical music. The way they repeate themes based on a specific rhythm is the way Marr demonstrates his playing in ‘How Soon Is Now?’.

It showed that Marr was always thinking outside the box, how to top himself and not become cliché, as he continued to experiment with The Smiths from funk in ‘Barbarianism Begins at Home’ and punk in ‘London’.

Marr once said that playing the guitar for him was almost a way turning his daydreams into reality. Not being afraid of conforming to the male macho guitar playing, to expressing the hope and fantasies a guitarist can hold and expressing he feels in certain moments, as Marr himself best describes in this clip about writing The Smiths classic ‘This Charming Man’.

When The Smiths did end, it didn’t mean the end of that style for Marr, even though he would always try and differentiate from what people had known him for.

His solo career has hints of his past work in The Smiths, but he’s developed his music now to be a bit more standard playing through his eyes to represent a punkier kind of vibe.

One example that highlighted his Smiths style was in his later years is ‘Forbidden City’ by Electronic, a supergroup Marr founded with New Order’s Bernard Sumner. It was examples like these that Marr wasn’t always ashamed of going back to what had brought him to the dance to create such a great bittersweet sound.

Johnny Marr’s sense of thinking outside the box, mixed with that perfect pop sense that isn’t really examined when talking about his guitar style, makes him the most perfect guitar player every in my opinion.

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Artist Profile- Strata By Peter Comiskey

Last year as a part of a college assignment I had to go to Whelan’s on a Monday night in order to review ‘Song Cycle’. This is their weekly event “to offer a platform for local and non-local acts to experiment, sing and share in the friendly informal setting of Whelan’s front window”.

Thinking back on that night is how I would imagine former soldiers think about the war. What I witnessed that night would make David Bowie roll in his grave. A seemingly never-ending number of indistinguishable ‘singer-songwriters’ took to the stage, in what appeared to be a showcase of the horrors of Ed Sheeran’s impact on the next generation of young musicians.

That night nearly made me lose hope in the young musicians of Ireland; will we ever have another My Bloody Valentine? Thankfully, however, not every up-and-coming young band in the country is a soulless regurgitation of a bad pop trend. Here’s where we come to one of the most exciting new bands making waves in Dublin; Strata.

“They just wanted Ed Sheeran covers, we were different and they had no interest in us” so recalls Strata’s lead, Dylan Corrigan Forbes, talking about the experience of being on a radio show with young presenters.

Strata, in a very to the point manor, describe themselves on their Facebook page as a “four-piece alternative indie group from Dublin. Airy riffs mixed with heavy guitar”.

Those two sentences sum it up better than I can. There are a series of layers of rock in their influences (presumably the origin of their name), with influences ranging from the indie rock of the Arctic Monkeys to the psychedelic rock of Tame Impala.

Put simply, Strata are not your typical teenage band.

Strata’s line-up consists of lead Dylan, bassist Sarah Garrett, drummer Sarah Farrelly and guitarist Leon Doyle, who only joined the band in August, replacing the former guitarist.

The band came together in late 2015, when Dylan got in touch with Sarah Garrett in order to compliment her on her song covers which she uploads to Facebook. He suggested they do a cover together, and a short while later they had begun dating. They are still a couple.

Dylan later wanted to form a band, so Sarah asked her fellow Artane Band member Sarah Farrelly to be their drummer.

Strata played their first gig together in the Grand Social in January 2016. The gig was not a success. It was a battle of the bands at 1.pm on a Saturday. They had little time to practice together, and Sarah had only been playing the bass for two weeks.

The judges told Strata that they had the most potential out of all of the bands who played, but informed them to write their own music instead of doing covers.

They have since expanded their sound and began working on their own material.

Strata’s self-titled debut EP was release on 25th July and is available on all streaming platforms.

The short and punchy EP consists of just three songs; Wasteland, Everything’s Nothing and RECORDING04. I presumed it was recorded in a studio due to its slick production, until Dylan informed me that it was in fact recorded entirely on his laptop.

The EP begins sounding like Bloc Party and ends with an ethereal instrumental reminiscent of dream pop. In the EP’s short ten minutes, it covers a lot of ground and different genres.

It will be interesting to see which genre Strata will move forward with on their next project, or if they will change their sound entirely. They have an eclectic taste in music which leads to the wide gamut of different sounds they appear to have been influenced by.

However, at only 17/18 years old and currently in their final year of school, Strata have plenty of time to figure out what ‘their sound’ really is. In fact, Farrelly notes that half of them should not even be able to get into the venues they play in: “We’ve never been refused because of our age”, she said, with surprise.

I walked into Sarah Garrett’s house at 9.pm expecting to see Strata hard at work in the middle of practice, however, that was not the case. When I entered the dimly-lit room, the four of them were sprawled across the sofas.

It did not surprise me that Strata play in such a relaxed atmosphere, it shines through in their shoegaze-sounding music.

They claimed to have been practicing before I came and were just “taking a break”. The ambience of the room was so laid-back that I felt like an intruder for showing up and interrupting them with my camera and sheet of questions.

However, seeing as I already knew most of the members I was able to relax and engage in a natural conversation with them. They are a nice and friendly group of people.

I tried not to make my questions sound too forced and let them ramble on between themselves, telling anecdotes from their year together.

Following on from their disappointing first gig, they went on to play Whelan’s before summer. They reached the final of a competition, only to be beaten by a band with a much larger group of friends (it was judged by who earned the loudest applause).

They have since played in The Academy to great success

In the period of only a few months, they vastly improved and came into their own as a band.

When asked about their plans for 2017, Dylan says he wants to “put a single out early next year”, while Garrett wryly claims that she just “wants to complete the leaving cert”.

Dylan also reveals their more ambitious plan to “lock ourselves away in the country for a week with a load of equipment and record a six or eight track album”.

When asked about how far they think Strata can go, Dylan replied “all the way”, without hesitation. When Garrett enquired what exactly “all the way” is, Dylan responded that he wants them to be headlining festivals.

The whole band, but Dylan in particular, seems to have an admirable sense of ambition. They want to go all the way, yet they have also retained a sound distinct from other young bands.

Their unique genre-hopping from one song to the next is tied together by the ever-present pop aesthetic in their music.

Much like Tame Impala, I believe Strata have the ability in them to one day create a catchy hit song without compromising their unusual sound.

I honestly would not be surprised to see Strata get their wish of headlining a festival one day. They are an incredibly talented group of gifted young musicians who will only continue to improve and gain momentum. They are undoubtedly ones to look out for in the future.

Strata just have one more gig left this year, playing in the Gypsy Rose on 23 December. It is currently the only gig Strata have planned, so be sure to check them out if you want your faith in the young Irish music scene restored.