No Badger Required – Music. Stories. But mainly music

The Best 100 Albums of the last 25 years – Number 92

The Money Store – Death Grips (2012, Epic Records)

I think its fair to say that it is really hard to categorise the music made by Death Grips. Is it hip hop?, Is it Punk Rock? Is it psychobilly? Is it Horrorcore? To which the only answer to all that is – well its all of that and a load more.

Death Grips are something of an enigma then. They are essentially an electronic act who employ an MC (the wonderful MC Ride). He raps, shouts, yells, jumps about and generally causes carnage wherever he dares to go. The other members of the band (and the actual number changes fairly regularly) make all the noise, which sits somewhere between dance music and industrial noise, and that very depends on what mood the band are in.

Fever (Aye Aye) – Death Grips (2012, Epic Records)

‘The Money Store’ was the bands first proper album (the was a record before this, the self released, mixtape ‘Ex-Military’ – which has long since been missing from streaming services) and it is a mind bending blur of a record. I’d go as far as to say it is an exhausting kind of record, exhausting in a decent way mind you. Musically it is uncompromising – the beats sound exactly what hailstones would sound like it you recorded the noise they make when crashing into a synth. You get percussion that clatters everything regardless if it supposed to and you get a bass that sounds like its had a blanket thrown over it and then attacked by wolves. That, by the way, is more brilliant than you think it is.

Double Helix – Death Grips (2012, Epic Records)

I’ve not even mentioned the vocals, well I have, but in the context of the music, the yelling, the brutal punk rap, makes perfect sense, and to be absolutely fair, it’s the only way they could sound.

Black Jack – Death Grips (2012, Epic Records)

But scrape all that away and underneath all that, there is something else, because right at the start of ‘the Money Store’ you get a glimpse of something else. Because, Death Grips have this track called ‘Get Got’ which knocks on the door of straightforward electropop – ok its electropop with a potty mouth and one that has used the synth as a snowboard for a week prior to plugging it in – but all the same. It’s incredible.

Get Got – Death Grips (2012, Epic Records)

The Best 100 Albums of the last 25 years – Number 93

More Than Any Other Day – Ought (2014, Constellation Records)

In 2012, Quebec in Canada was struck by a series of lengthy and difficult student protests and strikes (the students were protesting about the Quebec governments decision to increase tuition fees by 75%). The students walked out of lessons, and marched through the streets of Montreal, and as they went the students decided to make as much noise as possible, so they grabbed pots and pans and bashed them as they walked.

It was during one of these pan whacking marches that the members of Ought first came together – making them surely, the greatest band to have ever formed during a protest march.

Habit – Ought (2014, Constellation Records)

Two years later and the band’s debut album ‘More Than Any Other Day’ was released and over its eight songs that spirit of rebellion and chaotic abandon is splattered all over it, as the band’s brand of angular and arty post punk thrills the listeners from start to end. At the centre of all this glorious noise is the bands singer Tim Beeler, who spends the album doing passable impressions of Lou Reed and David Byrne. The former from Beeler’s almost conversational delivery of his lyrics. The latter from the way that his lyrics wind themselves up and down across songs – the (almost) title track, ‘Today More Than Any Other Day’ is a prime example of this – the way he repeats almost mantra like the line “We’re sinking deeper” over and over as the songs speeds up around him, is breathtakingly great.

Today More Than Any Other Day – Ought (2014, Constellation Records)

Musically though the band’s influence are also clear, there is the drone of the Velvet Underground via the synths, there is sprawl of Sonic Youth via the guitars and the New Wave strut of Talking Heads via the basslines.

Around Again – Ought (2014, Constellation Records)

It’s a tremendous record, one that talks of joy, fear, chaos, control and life across its 40 odd minutes. Its end brilliantly by the way with a track called ‘Gemini’, which see Beeler ranting away about having the right to be disgusted by everything and then declaring that he is also in love with everything in sight. It’s a fittingly wonky end to the record.

Gemini – Ought (2014, Constellation Records)

The Best 100 Albums of the last 25 years – Number 94

Arular – M.I.A (2005, XL Records)

When ‘Arular’ first reached us back in 2015 it was cloaked in two things. Firstly you had the hype. This was fed by the media and her record label, who marketed her as an urban poet who had lived a slightly troubled past – not in the Dizzee Rascal troubled past way, but in another way. Which is where the second cloak comes in.

‘Arular’ was steeped in controversy, because here was a rapper who spoke of being the daughter of a political insurgent from Sri Lanka and of being a refugee who lived on a South London council estate. That in itself wasn’t the controversy, it was the fact that when Maya Arulpragasam rapped she did so about bombs, terrorism, kidnap and revolution and it got right up the noses of some of the more Conservative elements of society, which just made everyone else love M.I.A even more than they did already.

Sunshowers – M.I.A (2005, XL Records)

Musically, ‘Arular’ is one big bass juggernault, that is littered with beats, sirens, tweaks, glitchy dubby breakbeats and electro funk. It fizzes wonderfully and the reason why ‘Arular’ is so good is because it is just crammed full of musical ideas. It is an album that thought it wanted to be a dancehall album but when push come to shove it decided that it wanted to be an electro dance punk record that gave convention the middle finger.

There are obvious album highlights, the Diplo (who I think she was dating at the time) produced ‘Bucky Done Gun’ for one, with its thumping bass drum and its pastiche of an eighties beat that thrills from the very start. ‘Sunshowers’ is just as terrific, although it was less well received (thanks largely to it namedropping the Palestine Liberation Organsation which blunted its radio appeal).

Bucky Done Gun -M.I.A (2005, XL Records)

Then there is ‘Galang’ , which was the biggest record in the right sort of clubs about a year or so before ‘Arular’ had been released. ‘Galang’ still sounds unlike anything else on earth and it is stll incredible

Galang – M.I.A (2005, XL Records)

‘Arular’ won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. It is at times, quite a taut album that takes ‘dancehall music’ and turns it upside down and shakes the very life out of it, but it’s also excellent, thrilling and one that should be celebrated.

The Best 100 Albums of the last 25 years – Number 95

In Colour – Jamie XX (2015, Young Turks Records)

Jamie Smith (or Jamie XX to us mere mortals) once described this record, his first, or his first proper one at least, as a “kaleidoscopic tribute to raves come and gone”. He is, as you would expect bang on the money, I mean he should be, its his album after all. But with, ‘In Colour’ he did craft something quite incredible. It is a record that takes some of the musical styles from those early warehouses parties that Jamie was probably far too young to have attended (and I’m basing this on the fact that I was too young to attend them and I am much older than him) and he has also captured the essence and actually being at one with the music that is all around you when you are deep in the throng of the club and that is extremely rare.

Loud Places – Jamie XX (2015, Young Turk Records)

At times, ‘In Colour’ is euphorically brilliant, the way, the cowbell tinkles in ‘Loud Places’ just before that chorus rushes in unexpectedly given the way that Romy’s vocals and the music surrounding them are very understated. Or perhaps the way that ‘Gosh’ sounds like an excited seven year old who has just witnessed a thrilling science experiment in which something has gone bang in a way that nothing has ever gone bang before.

Gosh – Jamie XX (2015, Young Turks Records)

And then there is ‘I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times) in which Jamie manages to somehow create one of most laid back party anthems ever recorded and still make it rather essential listening. There may well be good times coming but it’s going to be relatively calm even if you have Young Thug trampling all over the song, that beat remains resolutely relaxed.

I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times) – Jamie XX (2015, Young Turks Records)

Despite those beats and rushes, Jamie can’t quite escape his XX past. ‘Stranger In A Room’ is wonderfully abstract and as close a nod to his band and you are going to get here, then the bass drops, there is a chorus , Oliver Sim sings (beautifully) and then it just ends and the faint beats of ‘(Hold Tight)’ shuffles into place, like the sounds that a loud car stereo makes in the distant – that muffled “Thump” noise that suddenly grows perfectly.

(Hold Tight) – Jamie XX (2015, Young Turk Records)

‘In Colour’ is a truly remarkable thing, not only is it a dance record plays tribute to dance music, raves and all that, without actually being that much of a dance record, but it is one that exists in its own space. Its also an elegant album, there are no electronic squawks here, it doesn’t want to get up in your face and melt your brain. ‘In Colour’ is an intricate masterclass in electronica.

Algorithm Is A Chancer – #7 Best of Grunge

This week with the help of an Amazon sponsored Algorithm we celebrate ‘Grunge’, a genre of music that exploded in the early nineties and saw a whole host of noisy American bands arrive on the scene and sell millions of records and literally take over the festival scene for years to come.

In the late part of 1991 until around the winter of 1993, Grunge was everywhere. It was hugely popular thanks to Nirvana who had listened to a few Pixies and Misfits albums and then made a record that everyone adored. Within weeks of that, they had killed off shoegaze, and after an incendiary performance on Top of the Pops, changed music for ever.

What followed was weird. All of a sudden people starting growing their hair long, wearing plaid shirts and ripped jeans. The Converse trainers that were popular were thrown into the back of wardrobe in exchange for Dr Marten’s boots. Pubs ditched DJs in favour of dirty guitar bands and down at the alternative discos, things had never been as busy.

So, what do we think Amazon will call ‘The Best of Grunge’, well there is only one way to find out – Let’s Press Shuffle.

Crown of Thorns – Mother Love Bone (1990, Mercury Records, Taken from ‘Mother Love Bone’)

Not a great start to be honest. Mother Love Bone are considered to be one of the first grunge bands, hailing as they do from Seattle. In the late eighties they were one of the biggest bands in that early Seattle scene. In 1990 shortly before the bands only album was released, their singer Andrew Wood died and that lead to the break up the band. After Wood’s death three members of Mother Love Bone went on to form Pearl Jam.

‘Crown of Thorns’ isn’t very good to be honest. It’s way more soft rock hell than I remember it being thirty years ago. Next!

Black Hole Sun – Soundgarden (1994, A&M Records, Taken from ‘Superunknown’)

Ah Soundgarden. Now, I’m probably bitter because OPG dumped me for a chap known locally as Mr Goatie who was a massive Soundgarden fan and as such I’ve always an aversion to them and their lukewarm soft rock masquerading as alternative rock anthems such as ‘Black Hole Sun’. The other thing about this song in particular is that about three billion rock covers band include it in their sets and watching them trying to be all emotional as they strain out the lyrics is beyond depressing.

That said ‘Jesus Christ Pose’ remains an absolute tune. So, my advice is to stick that on instead.

Even Flow – Pearl Jam (1991, Sony Records, Taken from ‘Ten’)

Oh God, make it stop please. Awful. Awful. If I offer up a biscuit sacrifice to Kevin, God of Biscuits, do you think I might get something remotely listenable next…? I’ll get the Foxes Ginger Crunches out of the cupboard just in case.

Floyd The Barber – Nirvana (1989, Sub Pop Records)

Well that seems to have done the trick. ‘Bleach’ is a phenomenal record, its raw, it has a distinctive punk edge, and yet it still knows its way around a tune. It took me a long time to realise this, but ‘Bleach’ is a much better album that ‘Nevermind’. For years I would have stuck my nose in the air and refused to talk to you if you even suggested such a thing. The energy and sheer visceral rage that sits in ‘Floyd the Barber’ is incredible and it still sounds as fresh as a daisy (and is easily the best track of the day).

Hip Like Junk – 7 Year Bitch (1994, C/Z Records, taken from ‘Viva Zapata!’)

Probably not big or clever, but 7 Year Bitch is a great name for a band, even if it was a Slade song. Anyway, 7 Year Bitch were also from Seattle and were one of the first bands to be part of the Riot Grrrl genre that sort of spawned out the grunge and late punk scene. ‘Hip Like Junk’ is taken from their second album ‘Viva Zapata!’ which was recorded (in someways) as a tribute to the frontwoman of The Gits, Mia Zapata who was raped and murdered in Seattle in 1993.

Right time for one more,

Rebound – Sebadoh (1994, Sub Pop Records, Taken from ‘Bakesale’)

Most of you probably know the history of Sebadoh – but just in case, they were the band formed by Lou Barlow after he decided that J Mascis had too much creative control in Dinosaur Jr. Sebadoh explored a much more lofi angle than the majority of their grunge contemporaries and as such their sound has a more indie feel to it than the more rockier offerings.

Well, we got there in the end, Amazon’s Best of Grunge Playlist isn’t all bad, it has some great songs on it – but man, it has some dross on it as well. I can only apologise for Pearl Jam.

Nearly Perfect Albums – #193

An excellent guest posting by JC from The New Vinyl Villain

The Midnight Organ Fight – Frightened Rabbit (2008, Fat Cat Records)

‘The Midnight Organ Fight’ was the second album to be released by Frightened Rabbit, on Brighton-based Fat Cat Records, in April 2008. At the time, the band was just beginning to have a bigger impact on audiences outside of Scotland, largely thanks to their June 2006 debut, ‘Sing The Greys’ that had initially only been available through a very small independent Glasgow-based label, having a re-release in late 2007.

I had been lucky enough to catch the band as they made their way up, playing all sorts of small venues in Glasgow, either as support or as headliners. It led to me being able to pick up much sought after tickets for the two gigs which launched ‘The Midnight Organ Fight’ on Friday 11 April and Saturday 12 April 2008, the first at Monorail, the venue attached to the Mono record shop that is part-owned by Stephen McRobbie (aka Stephen Pastel) and the second at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, the venue where Alan McGhee had (in)famously first set eyes on Oasis.

Both gigs, indeed like all Frightened Rabbit shows back in those days, were outstanding and went a long way to me instantly falling for the album. The new songs represented a quantum leap from the debut, of the sort that hasn’t ever been matched in all my years of listening to music and following bands. The debut had been a very fine listen – one that would have scored 8 or 9 out of 10 – but the follow-up turned out to be an album that, even all these years later, I can’t really find the perfect words to describe in the way I want to.

One of the most endearing things about frontman Scott Hutchison was that he had, from the very beginning, given freely of his time to music bloggers, which is why, somewhere in cyberspace there’s a fantastic piece written in 2008 for a blog that no longer exists (and whose name I can’t remember!) in which he broke down the album, song-by-song.

In essence, ‘The Midnight Organ Fight is a break-up album, but kind of unusual in that it isn’t written by the person who been chucked; instead the songs reflect the confused and horrendous emotions Scott was going through once he realised that his decision to bring a long-distance relationship to an end had been a huge mistake, but such was the mess he had made of the break-up that there was no chance of a reconciliation.

The songs, lyrically and musically, are intense and passionate. The Monorail gig turned out to have moments among the most emotionally gut-wrenching I have ever witnessed on a stage, none more so than when the rest of the band left Scott alone to deliver a solo rendition of this:-

Frightened Rabbit – Poke (2008, Fat Cat Records)

Scott’s brother, Grant, was also in the band, as the drummer. All he could do when he stepped back onto the stage was give his sibling a long hug in which they leaned in closely with Grant whispering something that seemed to have Scott believe things were now just a bit better.

Excuse me, it’s got a bit dusty in here just now as I think back to that night.

For all that it’s a break-up album dealing with all sorts of gut-wrenching emotions, there are actually a lot of upbeat tunes on the album. It was only afterwards, when the CD was played back at home, did I pick up that the lyrics encompass just about every emotion that will be experienced during a relationship, including a song, later released as a single, which celebrates fantastic and mind-blowing sex.

Frightened Rabbit – Fast Blood (2008, Fat Cat Records)

I’ve long remembered a quote from Scott which he gave in an interview with a local listings magazine in March 2018 when he was looking back on the album from a distance of 10 years, with plans in place with the band to have a celebratory tour:-

“The process of writing the album was the equivalent of being sick on yourself then picking through the bits of carrot and sweetcorn to find interesting shapes and tiny colourful items that you didn’t know could exist in the bile and lining of a stomach.”

It’s a helluva metaphor, and with hindsight, can be seen that the very idea of the 10^th Anniversary was causing Scott all sorts of mental health issues that he was unable or unwilling to talk about. Fans and critics alike had not stopped raving about the album, with many people actually taking time to tell Scott, in person, how much it had helped them get through difficult break-ups.

Maybe for the first time in a decade, Scott was increasingly thinking back to the events that had caused the songs to be written in the first place, and maybe he was coming to the conclusion that he’d never really get over things.

Two months after that interview mentioned above, he took his own life, choosing to jump from a bridge into the freezing waters of the Firth of Forth, something that he had actually imagined happening when the relationship had broken up and had led to him writing and recording a song whose tune was far from mournful but whose lyric was filled with despair and whose closing lines later became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

‘And fully clothed, I float away
(I’ll float away)
Down the Forth, into the sea
I’ll steer myself
Through drunken waves
These manic gulls
Scream it’s okay
Take your life
Give it a shake
Gather up
All your loose change
I think I’ll save suicide for another year.’

Frightened Rabbit – Floating In The Forth (2008, Fat Cat Records)

I have regarded The Midnight Organ Fight as a masterpiece from the moment I got my CD back in 2008. But since Scott’s death, I’ve only once ever managed to play it in its entirety, and that was when I finally picked up a vinyl copy after it was repressed in 2022.

‘Floating In The Forth’ is the second-to-last song and is followed by a short instrumental number. The needle never reaches those particular grooves nowadays. Maybe one day in the future……

But let’s not leave things on such a downbeat note. The album deserves better.

There’s a song that has nothing to do with love breaking down. It’s one which, without fail, always got the crowds bouncing at live gigs. As can be heard on this version, akin to a Glasgow acoustic hoe-down, recorded in October 2008, at a tiny basement venue in front of maybe 100 fans, with the gig later being released as the album ‘Liver! Lung! FR!’

Frightened Rabbit – Old Old Fashioned (live) (2008, Fat Cat Records)

I make no apologies that this is a much longer piece than is normally found over here at NBR, and I’d like to thank SWC for asking me to contribute to such a fantastic and long-running series. And I never got round to even mentioning the album’s most enduring song, one that with Scott no longer with us, James Graham of The Twilight Sad (with the blessing of the Hutchison family) has added to his band’s setlists.

Frightened Rabbit – Keep Yourself Warm (2008, Fat Cat Records)

Thanks for reading.

SWC adds – I’ve long been a fan of this record and when it came up via the random album selector, I started to write what I thought about it– and not a single word of it was a patch on what JC has written here. Thanks JC for this piece – and for everyone who has not heard ‘The Midnight Organ Fight’ you should rectify that as soon as possible.

The Best 100 Albums of the last 25 years – Number 96

No Cities Left – The Dears (2003, Maple Music Records)

I love ‘No Cities Left’ by The Dears. It is a record that is graceful, unique and delicately sensitive and at the time it suggested that The Dears were going to blossom into a very special (and they sort of did). It arrived when guitar rock had sort of clambered out of the doldrums, helped on by a new raft of intelligent rock stars who reminded us that there is more to indie rock than guitars squalling away.

The Dears came from Montreal in Canada and they were led by a chap called Murray Lightburn who looked and sounded like Marvin Gaye if he suddenly found himself as the front man in Blur and in charge of a songbook of decades old torch songs and in 2003 and for most of 2004 I thought they were the best band in the world.

The Second Part – The Dears (2003, Maple Music Records)

Nearly twenty five years after its release ‘No Cities Left’ the second album by the band is still a dynamic record of indie rock, It is one that not only highlights the smoothness of Murray’s voice but adds a degree of almost theatrical pomp that harks back to the early days of Suede. It will take precisely one listen to ’22: The Death of All the Romance’ and for you to fall for the charms of The Dears all over again.

22: The Death of All The Romance – The Dears (2003, Maple Music Records)

There are so many great tracks on ‘No Cities Left, and the influences for the band are clear to see – the former single ‘Lost In the Plot’ sounds like a long lost Teardrop Explodes single, ‘Never Destroy Us’ sounds like Blur around the time of ‘Sunday Sunday’. ‘Don’t Lose the Faith liberally uses the opening riff from that song about burning down the disco – I forget who sings it.

Lost In The Plot – The Dears (2003, Maple Music Records)

The greatest moment on it though is ‘Warm and Sunny Days’ a song that I once saw Murray Lightburn perform in a church in South Devon lit only by a standard lamp and armed only with an acoustic guitar. It is easily the greatest thing I have ever seen in a religious building apart from the time I saw two monks fighting in a monastery near Guildford.

Warm and Sunny Days – The Dears (2003, Maple Music Records)

The Best 100 Albums of the last 25 years – Number 97

97. Tomorrows Harvest – Boards of Canada (2013, Warp Records)

‘Tomorrows Harvest’, the bands fourth album, arrived in 2013 after an eight year gap from their third one. To date it was (a Peel Session EP, aside) their last release. So I make that two albums and one EP in twenty one years. To call Boards of Canada prolific would be at best be an incorrect use of the word ‘Prolific’.

Based on that, any Boards of Canada releases should be considered something worth treasuring, which is lucky because ‘Tomorrows Harvest’ is definitely an album to be treasured. It is a vast record that sees the band expand on their minimalistic techno sound to include a more expansive almost cinematic sounds.

White Cyclosa – Boards of Canada (2013, Warp Records)

Those cinematic soundscapes start early in this record. Track Three ‘White Cyclosa’, for instance, starts with a noise that sounds like the whirring blades of a helicopter which evoke images in the mind of deserts or futuristic landscapes. The choppy synth and slightly offkey organ drone that follows it bring around a sense of unease. It feels like the score from an old seventies slasher flick.

In fact most of the first half of this record has an air of tension around it, ‘Jacquard Causeway’ sees that off key organ return accompanied by a scratchy drum break (that sounds a bit like Portishead) and some wonky keyboards. It’s the best track on the record as it goes, but its also the most unsettling, a bit like the Aphex Twin at his most unnerving best. Whilst it may not necessarily be a party starter, it is quite brilliant.

Jacquard Causeway – Boards of Canada (2013, Warp Records)

The second half of this record is far less sinister sounding (and we are talking from about track ten onwards here). ‘Palace Posy’ for one, is almost a dance track. Almost. Elsewhere, ‘Nothing Is Real’ is the one track on this record that wouldn’t sound out of place on the bands magnificent debut ‘Music has the Right To Our Children’. In fact ‘Nothing Is Real’ starts a run of five tracks at the end of the album which are as gorgeous as anything the band have recorded before.

Palace Posy – Boards of Canada (2013, Warp Records)

Nothing Is Real – Boards of Canada (2013, Warp Records)

Sundown – Boards of Canada (2013, Warp Records)

‘Tomorrow’s Harvest’ is despite is rather understated nature a vast sounding album that should demand your attention.

The Best 100 Albums of the last 25 years – Number 98

98.Boxer – The National (2007, Beggars Banquet Records)

‘Boxer’ was the first album by The National that I ever bought. It was purchased after reading a review of it which spoke of the “glorious wonder of Matt Berninger’s voice” – it said other things as well, but the sheer wonderment of the writer convinced me to give it a shot.

Mistaken for Strangers – The National (2007, Beggars Banquet Records)

In most ways that review was spot on as well. Matt Berninger’s vocal really is remarkable, a deep baritone that has this richness to it that many have tried (and failed) to replicate. A voice that for some reason sounds even better through headphones. It is the sort of voice that is perfect for singing songs that are essentially about things or people being down on their luck. For some reason, a voice like Berninger’s also makes gloomy songs sound even more special.

Fake Empire – The National (2007, Beggars Banquet Records)

‘Boxer’ isn’t all about Matt though. ‘Fake Empire’ for example is brilliant both musically and lyrically. It starts as almost minimalist piano led track before it charges into a single chord stomp with a brass section that soars the song skyward. ‘Fake Empire’ is incredible.

Elsewhere ‘Squalor Victoria’ sprints majestically alongside some wonderfully rhythmical drumming as a solemn piano riff chimes away in the background and in between all that Berninger’s voice is for once rather understated.

Squalor Victoria – The National (2007, Beggars Banquet Records)

Equally understated is ‘Slow Show’ in which an acoustic guitar is gently strummed as Matt’s voice is more quiet and cracked. Another solemn piano riff comes in and Matt croons about dreaming about someone for 29 years before it all fades away leaving just that piano, it’s a beautiful track.

Slow Show – The National (2007, Beggars Banquet Records)

The thing about ‘Boxer’ is its consistent brilliance – the beauty of ‘Fake Empire’ the triumphant stomp of ‘Apartment Story’, the piano (played by Sufjan Stevens) on ‘Ada’. The preciseness of the drums (and the way that often take the song in a direction), the cohesion of the guitars and of course the voice of Matt Berninger, all of it makes ‘Boxer’ a fine record.

Start A War – The National (2007, Beggars Banquets Records)

The Best 100 Albums of the last 25 years – Numbers 100 and 99

Welcome to the music that has soundtracked my life for the last 25 years. Some days, like today, there will be two albums being featured, other days there will be just the one. We start today with some dreamy electro brilliance from Sweden.

100. Hearts – I Break Horses (2011, Bella Union Records)

You would expect a band name after a Smog song to be full of alt country guitars, emotional lyrics that have a dry sense of humour and be slightly understated in their nature. ‘Hearts’ the debut album by Swedish electro dreampop duo I Break Horses has very little of that. Instead what you get is hazy, heady almost shoegaze that has songs that are sumptuous and finely textured that shimmer majestically.

Winter Beats – I Break Horses (2011, Bella Union Records)

The album’s opener ‘Winter Beats’ sets the scene, it fades in with some bass heavy electronica that gives way to Maria Linden’s dreamy, whispery vocals that are soon accompanied by a synthy snare, its really rather tremendous. That falls away and ‘Hearts’ joins us with the jolt of a glide guitar that sounds like something from ‘Loveless’ (only turned down and properly tuned).

Hearts – I Break Horses (2011, Bella Union Records)

There is a pulse running through this record and that is one of the things that really makes it shine. The music is beautiful and instead of blaring and bleeping the electronica kinds of just steadily thumps – almost giving the impression that it is going to burst but it never actually achieves that instead the songs will fade away rather beautifully instead.

Pulse – I Break Horses (2011, Bella Union Records)

Where this album really shines though, is not with the sumptuous soundscapes that greet you on songs like ‘Load Your Eyes’ and ‘Pulse’ but instead it is the way in which the gentle wash of noise meets the muted rave element of the music. Not many bands do that very well (Fuck Buttons spring to mind as a close comparison) but I Break Horses do it brilliantly and when the do the songs are exquisite. Case in point in the gorgeous, ‘I Kill Your Love, Baby’ in which a wall of melodic guitars melt into this beautiful blend of lofi techno and soft beats. It’s a wonderful track.

I Kill Your Love, Baby – I Break Horses (2011, Bella Union Records)

Next up, some conversational rapping from Long Beach.

99. Summertime ’06 – Vince Staples (2015, Def Jam Records)

‘Summertime ‘06’ was Vince Staples’ first album for Def Jam Records and it is a brilliant album. It is a record that somehow manages to deliver 20 songs in less than an hour and it one that ends in the middle of a sentence – which given the style of the rapping being offered by Staples that is no real surprise. His rapping is at times laid back, at times furious, but nearly always it is conversational, almost like Vince has made a list of things that he wants to talk to you about and he is downloading his inner psyche.

Norf Norf – Vince Staples (2015, Def Jam Records)

‘Summertime’ is split into two very distinct and focused sides (and its marketed as a double album). On side one, Vince will often sound tired and to compliment that the music also sounds heavier – the beats are slower – there are pauses between the verses and on occasion its laid back.

Lift Me Up – Vince Staples (2015, Def Jam Records)

Side one leave you in no doubt that this is not a ‘sunny’ album about the summer. The sound is cold and Staples sounds fragile on some tracks, the bassline (played on a guitar) are fidgety and nervous.

Dopeman – Vince Staples (and Joey Fatts) (2015, Def Jam Records)

Saying that the albums most tender moment closes Side One, ‘Summertime’ is a love song or as close as we are going to get on this record, and when Staples half sings half raps the line

“Look at the sun, all we need to see to know our freedom,” it’s a genuinely grin inducing moment of warmth.

Side Two is more upbeat but its still not “fun” (actually Staples admits that this record was heavily influenced by Joy Division – take a look at that sleeve). There are forlorn sounding melodies that creep in (See ‘3230’ for example) but the songs always managed to keep to the notion of realism that Staples has laid down.

3230 – Vince Staples (2015, Def Jam Records)

That realism is key to this record. Staples raps about his past a lot, ‘Get Paid’ sees him focuses on the adrenaline of a street gang past – ‘Might Be Wrong’ also touches on this but there is no braggadocio from Staples, the attention to details tells you that what he is telling you is real and that explains some of the reflective nature of this album

Get Paid – Vince Staples (2015, Def Jam Records)