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: 21 February, 1971 Label: Straight, Warner Bros. Genre: Hard rock, heavy metal, glam rock Producer: Jack Richardson, Bob Ezrin
Ha HA! Now THIS was unexpected!! (I wonder when I’ll stop saying that..). But like Def Leppard and Kiss beforehand, I was expected this to be a real drag – I’m just not a metal head. But, like before, my impression of metal, or at least this radio-friendly glam style metal, isn’t the reality. This is awesome music : it’s fun, it’s really funny, it probably was shocking at a point in time and it’s there where it’s nostalgic charm lies. Some lyrics are so over the top you can’t help but smile and think about all the moms in the 1970’s, clutching their tea-towels and looking worryingly at their kids’ rooms as this demon music played.
Top tracks: Definitely “The Ballad of Dwight Fry”. Absolutely ghoulish.
Released: August 3, 1987 Label: Mercury (US), Phonogram (original release)
Mercury (2000 re-release) Genre: Glam metal, pop rock Producer: Robert John “Mutt” Lange, Def Leppard
Well, there you go! I learned a couple of things about Def Leppard and the metal music-scape this week – and these are probably things that everyone knows and I’ve just missed somehow, but hey, I’m learning.
So, the first thing is that Def Leppard are a lot less hardcore metal which I was expecting, and a lot more glam-pop-KISS-esque. A pleasant surprise, and pretty fortunate since I’d rather listen to some classic 80’s style big-hair rock than death-metal any day.
Second: Def Leppard are ENGLISH. I just about chocked on my protein shake when I heard this (I’m working out now y’know..). Listening through this album I would have sworn black and blue that Leppard were American – how could they be anything else with a sound like this – but here we are, they hail from Sheffield, South Yorkshire (close to where my parents are from).
The album itself is an absolute corker, and right up there in my new-found appreciation for 80’s glam with KISS’s Destroyer, but technically, and certainly lyrically, a more accomplished record. Made over 3 years plagued by delays, during which Def Leppard’s drummer Rick Allen famously lost his arm in a car accident on New Year’s Eve 1984, Hysteria is pure rock fun.. and more than that, it’s really, really good. This is more than air-guitar shits and giggles: this is pretty special.
And of course I can’t go past mentioning Allen’s famous recovery from the auto-accident, after which he fell into a deep depression believing he would never perform with the band again, and then learnt to play drums again with one arm and his feet. And then go on to make a classic – top shelf. Props too to the artist who did the cover art, which is fricken’ sweet.
Top tracks: The album’s biggest single “Pour Some Sugar on Me” is fantastic, and ‘Love Bites” is all 80’s slow dance power-rock ballad; the protest song “Gods of War” with its samples of Thatcher and Reagan at the end is a stand-out for me – a seemingly rare toe dipped into political/social commentary, and the album is richer for it.
Released: January 1985 Label: SST Genre: Post-hardcore, alternative rock, hardcore punk Producer: Hüsker Dü, Spot
I hadn’t been looking forward to this album thinking that it’d be too hardcore for me, but I’m having a shit time at work lately and listening to something with some more anger in it on my walk in to work has been cathartic. In any case, this wasn’t that hardcore. Maybe it was hardcore at the time but this reminded me a lot of the pop-punk that I listened to in high school, like Australia’s Grinspoon or (a lot on some tracks) like Sweden’s Millencolin. Some tracks are roaring, and some are just good rock songs. Nothing that really touched me, but it’s mighty good punk.
Funnily enough, this list got some legs in my life this week. I was able to chat at length one afternoon this week with colleagues about The Stone Roses who are touring Australia right now (I tried to get tickets), KISS are touring too so I can see what the fuss is now (I’ve revisited that album a lot this week), and I picked out BB King being played in the background in a bar on Saturday night. Class.
Top track: All good. Like I say, I appreciated the anger in here this week. “Celebrated Summer” is great drama.
This week: Just gotta hold on. Work’s hard at the moment, and I need to try and remember everything that I learnt from last year’s meltdown… don’t take work home, it’s just work, exercise, fill your free-time with other stuff, and plan for the future. Change is close. Oh, and calm the fuck down. And we’re starting to think seriously about going to the US for my 30th… this might be the last chance for a while…
Released: March 15, 1976 Label: Casablanca Genre: Hard rock, heavy metal Producer: Bob Ezrin
It’s funny that I had thought ZZ Top previously were a bit of a joke, because I had always thought the same of KISS. A novelty band with big, but silly, rocksongs and makeup, but that’s it. But this was an awesome surprise. The songs are mostly overdone and some of the lyrics are downright laughable, but Destroyer is just so much freakin’ fun. And “Beth” is a beautiful ballad and roots the album giving it some real respect.
Top track: “Beth” is stunning, and “Great Expectations” is over-the-top orchestral splendidness.
This week: There’s something in the water… changes are a foot for both Andy and I…
thehifielective 