Sure, artists can produce an acceptable, satisfactory, adequate, reasonable, fair, decent... !quite good! album that one can enjoy for the duration of its play; but to make an album that people are gonna want to keep coming back to again and again because it's just that damn good, is quite the accomplishment. A feat accomplished by none but a few true masters of their craft. Upon listening to some of the albums I always seem to come back to for one reason or another, I figured I'd lay out my thoughts about this. For your ease of reading, I'll section this post into categories, chronicling some of my treasured artists and the one album they wrote that has a special place in my heart, as what I consider some of their best work. Read on for the scoop...
// The Brian Jonestown Massacre: Take It From The Man!
Ah yes the bona fide Godfather of modern psychedelia. Of all the albums I will keep coming back to, this is one piece of underappreciated art I'm grateful to have stumbled upon. It's the BJM with Take It From The Man! Commonly critiqued as the staple of Anton Newcombe and the BJM's discography. I first heard this album when I was maybe 15 years old. A good friend showed a good friend and that good friend showed me. Gotta say, I was hooked from the get go. My wistful and impressionable young mind was subtly raped with egotism and philosophy, while I was force fed Ecstasy and Acid. A sort of hypnotism encroached my very being, upon waltzing to the jovial-melancholic dance with the devil this album toys with. The whole way through, it really takes you on a weird and wonderful ride, as it gives you an unfiltered yet purposefully adulterated, look inside the mind of an evil genius.
There's something in all The Brian Jonestown Massacres albums that is unlike anything else and the fact that each and every one fearlessly treads untrodden ground is pretty incredible. Take It From The Man! is rooted in roughly seamed, DIY Garage Psychedelia but does have elements of other genres at certain points. I like the lo-fi elements of the recording, as it gives the album an authentic old school feel, while the composition is more derivative of a blend of early Rolling Stones and jesting the 90's "Alt Rock scene".
I didn't necessarily want this to be strictly a song for song album review (god knows we've had enough of those), more of a look into what makes an album like this addictive to the audiences it tries to appeal to. So what is it that has me coming back to this album? It's a number of things. Firstly, the pacing is on point throughout. The opening two tracks, "Vacuum Boots" and "Who?", are a riff rife plethora of questions, fueled with a sense that the listener knows less than they ought to about life and love. It's a weird kind of inspirational to me I dunno... It makes you want to continue with the album, if not for the fact that the music is fucking awesome too. With tracks such as "Caress" and "Monkey Puzzle", the album sinks into the proverbial butter. With toasty, layered undertones, reminiscent of the early Stones works (Brian Jones' ghost would approve), it is launched headfirst into the retro-future style BJM's ringleader, Anton Newcombe is known for. My favorite song on the album has always been "Straight Up and Down". There are two versions, one in the middle and the other as the last track, a vivid reminder of the theme of the album - dancing with the devil. Another reason Take It From The Man! works so well is the repetition of this song at the end of the album, in a slightly more downbeat and loose recording. I'm not going to pretend I know exactly what the song is really about. My interpretation of BJM's lyrics has always been that they represent emotions and not particular situations, even if they weren't written with that intention. It could be about his addiction to Heroin, issues with relationships, or joyful moments within a lingering depression.... The fact is, it can mean many things to many people. He admits that anything put through the musical "magic machine" could be "interpreted as anything in their own way" and I take a wealth of influence from that statement.
So I guess the real reasons this album works are because it appeals to so many communities in a multi-generational and timeless way. The music is overtly original, harmonious and addictive. And there really is nothing else like the Brian Jonestown Massacre's Take It From The Man!
// King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard: Float Along - Fill Your Lungs
King Lizard and the Scissors Blizzard are an odd bunch. The Aussie posse consists of two drummers, 3 guitarists, a true wizard on the harmonica and a singer whose go to lyrics when playing live shows are "Yip!" and "Ohkay". They are extremely prolific with writing new material, having released 5 records just last year alone and 14 in total since their debut, which was only back in 2011. I'm a fan of most of what they have released but one album in particular I put on a pedestal. And it is often overlooked/overshadowed by some of their more strictly thematic concept albums. My opinion is that Float Along - Fill Your Lungs has to be one of the best Psychedelic Rock albums in this modern era of music.
The opening track "Head On/Pill" is a 16 minute long barrage of synesthesia inducing madness and that's just the start. From the buzzing sitar, dizzy delay and frequency bursts, to the falsetto guitar and vocal lines, it's a pretty out there and intense start to an album. Not to mention the two drummers keeping the whole thing in check smashing the shit out of their stuff with their niche little fills at every other interval. The musicianship is pretty impressive when you think about all the distinctive improvisational lines that went into producing the dream state aura you tap into with this album on full blast. It's music for meditation, partying, driving fast, or just walking to the store to get some beer, or maybe a salad. (Vegemite?)
After the psychedelic trip through acid market, we are transported to another realm entirely, yet somehow in the same multiverse, with the next two tracks. "I'm Not A Man Unless I Have A Woman" is a more traditional psychedelic tune. With catchy lines and a pretty hilarious interpretation of "woman", it's one of my favourite on the album. The production techniques are what I particularly enjoy. Washy reverb on the voices and interesting placement of the instruments on the audible environment, would trick you into thinking it was produced on a high production budget, or at a major studio. However, from what I've seen, much of the King Gizz philosophy is about doing everything yourself. Using pre-modern, noncommercial recording equipment and techniques, with hours and hours of dedication and creativity, is something I greatly admire and hope to implement into my own recording schedule in the future.
Throughout the album it's just bloody good song one after another. Great stuff. Still not sure if the floaty psychedelic theme of the album is an homage to those in the same vein that came before it, or if it's over the top display of abstract lyricism and hypnotism is, much like the Brian Jonestown Massacre vibe, in jest and slightly taking the mickey out of pseudo hippie culture. Probably a bit of both.
// The Gun Club: Fire Of Love
About a year ago or so, I was doing my usual dive down the YouTube rabbit hole when I discovered a gem. Though they gained a cult popularity over the years, I feel the The Gun Club are the kind of band that few will of ever heard of. Allow me to remedy that! For this band made a record that blows a lot of its contemporary rivals out of the water, in my opinion. They formed in the late, late 70s, led by manic Blondie obsessor, Jeffrey Lee Pierce. With the limited information, video footage and scalding afterthoughts of those who knew the guy, my conclusion was that he was a vastly misunderstood man. A Shakespearean enigma of an artist, much of his lyricism goes above and beyond the excess of familiar talent, lovers of music know about. Let's take a step back though - separate the artist from the music and analyse what makes Fire Of Love a great album.
Fire Of Love is loud. It's proud to be a transvestite. It's coloured every shade of grey and it's not scared of nobody. While I have to say, I haven't looked too deeply into the rest of the Gun Club discography, as it didn't seem to have the same kind of explosive energy I heard in Fire Of Love, this is probably one of my favorite albums now and I'll listen to it again and again for years to come. The opening track "Sex Beat" is the song I wish I lost my virginity to (and that's not just because it's 2 mins and 45 secs long...). The rockabilly rhythms, bluesy tones and post punk attitude make for a compellingly original vibe. It may be a fairly self-explanatory song on the surface but with closer observation, it's clear the dude's had some terrible experiences with love. Fire Of Love is an apt title given the first song is about the negatives of whatever you may think being in "love" is really like. It opens your eyes to the paradoxical element of our emotions. Love is both universal and highly personal. Not that I'm into witchcraft or anything but (at least for me) the first time you hear it, it basically sounds like sex drugs and rock n' roll, so you wouldn't think too hard about the dark connotations of the lyrics on the first listen. Yeah... still a great song to lose your virginity to - I stand by that statement. Just don't curse my love life Jeffrey.
Next up we have "Preach The Blues", which introduces us to the bizarre, wild wailing seen throughout the duration of the album. It's kind of reminiscent of Robert Plant when his voice started to give out. Just me? In the documentary "Ghost On the Highway", there's a quote that he "sang in the key of Jeff". An apt description, it's freaky and out there but pretty badass at the same time. You can also tell where Pixies got their strange vocal style from. *cough* Plagiarism... After preaching the blues, The Gun Club lead us through a profusion of nasty noise and more music for blasting your brain. "She's like Heroin to me. She cannot miss a vein." Simple but powerful and reaffirming of the dark romanticism heard from beginning to end.
Fire Of Love merges many elements into a compound unseen and untapped by anyone else. It's originality and absurdity, both with the music and thematic detail is not something everyone would be into and I wholeheartedly accept that. I do think however, that the fusion of styles and raw energy of the album is pulled off with equanimity and balanced with grace and honesty. Not something many artists can do. It should be up there with the greats I think and I hope opening even a few people's eyes to The Gun Club will help expose a greater appreciation for the fundamental blueprints of what makes art Art.
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