Suede - "Coming Up" Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, 2014/1996 (Demon Records)

For two decades I had a mental block regarding the British band Suede.   I liked bits and pieces of their songs, but for some odd reason, I had a problem with their image.  All of it seemed borrowed from better sources.  Musically it had traces of Bowie/Bolan glam, but with Roxy Music imagery, due that they used the same visual people as Ferry & company, and when one is approached by this post-modern aspect of Suede, is it important?   On the plus side, I do like Brett Anderson's mannerist vocals as well as Bernard Butler's (and of course Richard Oakes') guitar sound.  Over time, I always found a song here and there, for instance, "Trash."   Again, when I hear that title I immediately think of the New York Dolls' "Trash," which of course within a few years later, Roxy Music came out with their song "Trash."  It's a good title, but surely Suede could have come up with a more original title?  Then again, I don't think Suede is really about originality.   That is actually their charm.

Suede's "Trash" is a fantastic chorus.  As I sit here writing this sentence, I want to get a lighter and wave it above my head.   It's a manifesto set to a melody, and that is something that Suede can do very well.  "Filmstar" is the ultimate glam beat, with again a glorious chorus.  In fact, their third album (and first with guitarist Oakes, as co-songwriter as well) is extremely catchy.  It took me 20 years, but I now appreciate Suede.   Anderson struck me as a writer focusing on the darker aspect of British living, and a guy who read too much JG Ballard, but that's me just being overly critical.  He's actually a very good observer type of lyricist.  An incredibly handsome man, with a good-looking band behind him, Suede is in its essence, a classic pop band that looks behind them as the past's projection, but also re-wiring the Bowie/T-Rex catalog for perhaps their generation.  

Blur and Pulp are the superior bands as album makers and songwriters, still, Suede has a strong presence between those two bands.  Both Pulp/Blur flirt with electronica and glam, but Suede brings a sense of glamour to the over-all British package.    It's like making a map and making sure all the routes are in place, and Suede very much needs to be on that map.  I'm not sure if they are a great band, but their love of the decadent imagery of the glam era, but done in their own fashion, is an important aesthetic.  There is a tad touch of The Smiths, with respect to their attention to the seedy-eyed imagery of the 1970s, but filtered through the 1990s Soho or East London world.  I'm very much interested in reading Anderson's memoir, that just came out in the U.K.  I suspect that it's a good read.  So now, Suede didn't change, but I changed.  I'm happy to be in their world. 

LCD Soundsystem - "American Dream" 2 X Vinyl, LP, Album, 2017 (Columbia/DFA)

To be honest with you, I had a gut reaction or feeling about bands coming from the New York City area in the 21st century.   The feeling is, I've done that and been there.   When I read about bands like LCD Soundsystem, it didn't sound appealing.  Especially when its leader James Murphy started producing bands like Arcade Fire, which is not exactly a passionate love for me, but actually a band I can't stand.  Still, I wonder, is this more of a 'me' problem than an LCD Soundtrack problem.  Listening to their new album "American Dream," I have decided that I'm a music snob, and regional (not) sensitive.  But alas, I have the vinyl of this album, and I blasted it through my speakers, and it's... terrific.

First of all listening to this album, I think of Pulp, David Bowie (Lodger), Talking Heads (Remain in Light), and oddly enough Public Image Ltd.   So yes, in my first listening experience I'm playing the game of 'where have I heard this sound before?"   And it's true, Murphy is obviously a fan of all that I mentioned above, yet, is that a bad thing?   No.  

I can't speak for his other recordings, due that my prejudice stopped me from even hearing one note of the older material.  So "American Dream" is very much the only experience I have with LCD Soundsystem.   First off, this is a fantastic sounding record (on vinyl).   The mix and textures are superb, and Murphy's and the other's melodies are really good.  He doesn't do original, but what he does well is taste.  He has the 'taste' to capture moments from other bands and make it his own, in a fashion.   I do have this snob thing about originality, but fuck that.  I think I found a new category of music that's influenced and very much part of a music's history, but a new work.  It kind of reminds me of how David Sylvian in Japan adopted Erik Satie to one of his songs.  Murphy is smart, and as mentioned, he has a taste. 

The record is also analog-ish, and I suspect Murphy is an instrument junkie. One other thing, even though the inner sleeve shows all eight musicians, this album is basically all James Murphy playing most of the instruments, with maybe two others at a time, helping him out on the recordings.  Nevertheless, there is not a bad cut on the record.   "Call The Police," "American Dream," (especially this song) is good as one can get, and the last track is a sonic beauty "Black Screen" which I suspect is about Bowie's death.  The other groove like here is that three sides have the inner-groove (is that what it's called?) where the song keeps going.  Nice vinyl touch.   Great album. 

Pulp - "Different Class" Vinyl, LP, Album, 2011/1995 (Music on Vinyl/Island)

The perfect storm.  I was standing at the Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo, waiting for the walk sign where thousands are doing the same.  As I looked up, there was this video on the side of the building, and it was Pulp's "Common People."  I stood there and waited till the video was over.  At the time, and it may have been due to jet-lag, but I thought that this was the greatest video I have ever seen in my life time.  The year was 1995.  At that point (and still) whatever is happening in England, Tokyo will have all the recordings at Tower or at the local HMV music shop down the road from where I'm standing. I went to the Foreign music section, meaning English/American pop music, and found Pulp's "Different Class" at one of its many listening stations.  It was the only time in my life where I played the first to the last song, the whole album while standing up and with headphones on at a record store. 

I never heard such pop perfection!  It brought an emotional response from me, due that I pretty much gave up on contemporary pop music in the 1990s.  I was buying music, but it was the peak of the CD re-releases at that time, which means I was buying hard-to-find soundtracks or old Joe Meek recordings on CD.  And since I was in Japan, I was discovering new music to me - the charms of Jun Togawa.  But Pulp brought me back to the present with such force, that while I was in Tokyo, every day I would stop by and listen to the entire album in the listening section of the store.  Eventually, I did buy the British edition at HMV.   Looking through my collection, I have every CD single released from that album as well as a regular CD British release as well as a Japanese special release with an extra CD, full of remixes and b-sides. All excellent. 

What impressed me about Pulp was, of course, Jarvis Cocker, their lead singer, and lyricist. Jarvis at the time reminded me of a combination of Nöel Coward and Ray Davies.  Distantly, also Roxy Music.   One of the great frontmen of a band, Jarvis's take on the world was very focused on the fact that they came from Sheffield and with a strong literary bent he could sketch these incredible narratives about life around him.   In a fashion, he was very much in the tradition of John Osborne and other writers of the Kitchen Sink Realism school of literature.  Pulp although a band in 1995, very much reminded me of the aesthetics of 1966, with a foot in the world of Soho London and more likely specific locations in Sheffield.  

"Different Class" is 12 songs and not one is a loser.  Highly orchestrated in the sense that this is a real band behind Cocker.   Going back to Roxy Music, it seems to me that like Bryan Ferry, he's the architect, but he wouldn't have shit if not for the talented and visionary musicians in the band.  Mark Webber, Russell Senior, Candida Doyle, Nick Banks, and Steve Mackey play a vital role in the makeup that's Pulp.   Also having the great Chris Thomas as the producer is a super plus as well.  With that foundation in place, Jarvis Cocker can shine like the shining star.  All the songs are credited to the band, with lyrics by Cocker.  

"Common People" is the last great pop song.  One of the things why I love that song, and the album is that it doesn't represent the future, but more of the time, place (Tokyo?) and the emotional state that I was in when I first heard this album.   Re-listening to it (many times) as well as watching all the official video releases, and the b-sides, it strikes me as the perfect moment for this band.  I'm also a huge fan of the previous album as well as the two records that followed "Different Class."  So that lineage of albums kept on building till they broke up.  Perfection!

Black Box Recorder - "Passionoia" CD Album

Black Box Recorder – Passionoia

CD Album, UK, 2003

One Little Indian

“British Racing Green” is almost klassic Kinks like, and therefore that alone is worth getting this album. Also sadly this was the last album by Black Box Recorder. It was a series of perfect moments, but with Facts Of Life being their masterpiece. What is interesting is that they're fully 'English' sounding via their lyrics, but musically they strike me as more European sounding. Passionoia is very much a bigger production than the other albums by Luke, Sarah, and John.

Parts of it reminds me of ABBA, which is a good thing. Luke Haines, generally speaking, is always on the tightrope between genius or missing-that-genius-mark. He's such a smart-Alec that it sometimes becomes a wall that one has to climb over to appreciate his music. But then again his stance towards or at the very least, his commentary on the contemporary world is priceless. His (their) tribute to Wham's second partner “Andrew Ridgley” is a good example how his sense of humor is at play. Haines looks at the world in a critical light, and in a way his music is like reading a small essay.

Passionoia is not my favorite album from Black Box Recorder, but still its a gem of a really good piece of work – and Haines is a person someone should follow to the end of the Earth. Also Pulp fans would find his work interesting...