Released: December, 1977 Label: Red Star Genre: Synthpop Producer: Craig Leon, Marty Thau
Good, maybe great. Moody and throbbing as all hell… the songs are all a bit similar but it’s a consistently awesome sound and man, it does make me want to sway in front of them in a darkened, smokey band room hearing them live.
Oh, and “Frankie Teardrop”? Just don’t try and listen to this at night, alone. Or if you’re on mushrooms or something. Jesus christ… It’s good though.
Top tracks: Easily “Cheree” – apparently about a street person and/or the girlfiend of band member Martin Rev, and the only commercially released single. It’s as hypnotic and dark as the others with an off-putting (or is it comforting?) lullaby like tinkle.
Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Released: 28 August 1978 Label: Warner Bros. Genre: Punk rock, new wave, post-punk Producer: Brian Eno
For fuck’s sake. This is just ker-razy. I had like really been looking forward to listening to Devo. Not just because of “Whip It”, maybe the only song that I actually knew, but just generally because I thought this would be great fun. I like new wave, I love Brian Eno, the title of the album is complete gold, and the band’s ethos is pretty awesome (down to their name even).
But man, on the first few listens this was tough going. It’s all insane time signatures and disjointed vocals. It sort of sneers at you, daring you to bother listening. Without having the luxury of growing up with it, the virginal listen-through was a disaster. This seemed like CRAP: I HATED the cover of “Satisfaction”. I can only imagine parents at the time being disgusted.
But it grows on you. Keep going. It’s funny (it’s actually really funny), it’s cool, it’s punk and it’s actually pretty listenable once you get used to it. I wouldn’t try and make someone else listen to it, it’s an acquired taste, but you can absolutely hear the influence that Devo have had on a lot of music today and the music I like most nowadays. It is a bit same-y, like it goes nowhere, but it is pretty fun. Seminal, if you can get used to it.
Top tracks: “Jocko Homo” (the best name of a song ever), and maybe “Shrivel-Up” which has a slightly different vocal and tempo.
Released: September, 1977 Label: Epic Genre: Rock, hard rock, power pop Producer: Tom Werman
This is pretty classic rock-pop and it’s all pretty good. Hardly offensive (and if there’s a problem, that’s it) but it’s big-haired, blue-jeaned, eye-lined fun and it’s all completely polished and totally clean. If it reminds me of anything so far it’s KISS or Deff Leppard except they do it bigger and glammer, but sillier too – more of a glint in the eye. I’m sure the purists would kill me, but I would have liked some more cheese here because this is all a bit middling.
Top tracks: “Downed” (where Australia gets a mention <3) and the hit “I Want You to Want Me”.
Released: November, 1972 Label: United Artists Records Genre: Soul, funk Producer: Jerry Goldstein with Lonnie Jordan and Howard Scott
A soul and funk album from the 70’s…? Look this was never going to work. The World is a Ghetto topped the Billboard charts and was the best selling album of 1973 – certainly impressive, but totally missed on me. Somehow music like this all sounds like it’s from Sesame Street, and it all sounds strangely similar. The harmonica playing is impressive I guess, though honestly I’m not sure harmonicas need any more prevalence than they enjoy already (i.e. not much).
Released: May, 1976 Label: Capitol Genre: Rock, psychedelic rock Producer: Steve Miller
So here we are in Perth. Of course I’m writing this months later catching up on the list, but I first listened to Fly Like an Eagle when we first got back to Perth, and have come back a couple of times since. I think this is best when they spin more off into psychedelia (at times not unlike My Morning Jacket ) and otherwise this is fairly classic rock but it’s good rock, and the space noises help..
Top tracks: Well, the hits “Take the Money and Run” and “Rock ‘n Me”, and also “Fly Like an Eagle”, and then “Wild Mountain Honey” with it’s sweet, dreamy, modern feel.
Released: 15 January, 1970 Label: Atlantic Genre: Rock and roll, protopunk, hard rock Producer: Jon Landau
This was interesting. I was listening to this driving across WA and expecting some hardcore punk for whatever reason. Imagine my surprise when “Tutti-Frutti” explodes out as the opening track. Things then settle down a bit into a fairly frenetic but totally listenable punk-meets-homage to the 50’s. It’s all over in a flash but it’s a pretty good flash while it lasts.
Top tracks: “Shakin’ Street”, though it’s the most mainstream.
Released: March, 1964 Label: Verve Genre: Jazz, bossa nova Producer: Creed Taylor
This was never going to be pretty – jazz and bossa nova are some of the most bone-chilling words I hope to not hear much of – and it was on the Nullabor, literally at the start of the plain itself, that I started listening to this. But actually it all started pretty well. I was driving out to The Head of the Bight, across an absolutely flat scrub desert, totally Mexican in it’s influence, and the first track – “The Girl from Ipanema”, was a seriously excellent beginning. So silky smooth. So gorgeous. Admittedly a classic.
But then the second track started, and the one after, and the one after, and I’m forgiving myself for not making a distinction between any of the others, because it’s just all the freakin’ same. There’s just no punch to this music, no attitude, no thrust, no point. Elevator music through and through. Jazz. Ugh.
Top tracks: “The Girl from Ipanema” is great, maybe by virtue of the fact it was a hit already, maybe because it was first.
Released: 1 June, 1983 Label: A&M Genre: New wave, reggae rock, post-punk, soft rock Producer: The Police, Hugh Padgham
I came to Synchronicity with a basic dislike of The Police, and especially of front man Sting. I know they were once the biggest band in the world, I could just never understand why – but reggae has never been a sound I’ve warmed to. And I’ve just never loved Sting’s voice (or name), and, well, I just don’t like this band. Pushing through this album isn’t that bad.. and of course objectively it’s good. There’s still too much reggae influence (which I’ve read was actually dialed down for this final record), and the pace is too quick – too many syllables packed into each line of every lyric – and the new wave sound just isn’t new wave enough, and Sting remains an issue in general for me. All that being said, I didn’t hate this like I thought I might, and somewhere one-day, I might even grow to like it.
Top tracks: Of course, the über-creepy “Every Breath You Take”.
Released: 1978 Label: PVC Records Genre: Power pop Producer: Jim Dickinson
Nay, I hadn’t heard of Big Star before this, but I’ve definitely heard their sound before. Recorded and released in the mid-70’s this sounds decidedly 80’s: power ballads, pop, power pop. Lyrically the record is full-on. Reading into it, it’s a record documenting a band falling apart, echoed by the lead singer’s mental deterioration. Reminds me a lot of Mott the Hoople actually. One to revisit.
Top tracks: The cover of The Velvet Underground’s “Femme Fatale” is a fantastic inclusion.
Released: October, 1973 Label: Asylum Genre: Rock Producer: Jackson Browne
OK so here we are: 50 albums down – 1 per week makes for 50 weeks, so at about 75 weeks since I started I don’t think it’s tracking that badly. But whatever, just getting through it isn’t really the point I guess. For Everyman is pretty great – a good light and shade. Vocally Browne is really solid, and lyrically I think there’s a lot to like and lot to unpick. It surprised me to hear The Eagles’ “Take it Easy” on here, which Browne himself wrote. It surprised me more to learn that Bonnie Raitt, Joni Mitchell, Don Henley, David Crosby and Elton John (as Rockaday Johnnie) all appeared.
There’s a nifty cross-fade between tracks 1 and 2 and then 9 and the final track. I love effects like this, and it reminds me of the effect on Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs between “Halflight I” and “Halflight II (No Celebration)” – so good.
thehifielective 