The Great Album Diaries (Week 8)

Here we are approaching the end of the second month of the Diaries and I have to say it just gets better and better each week. So far we’ve listened to a total of eighty-nine different albums, and we are well on course to hit the one hundred mark by the end of next week! Please keep your feedback coming, it really means a lot.
So without further ado here’s how this week panned out….

Week 8 – March 21st 2016
Moby – Play

It must be the best part of ten years since I last listened to this album in its entirety and it’s still just as enjoyable as ever. Released in 1999 it’s the fifth album from Richard Melville Hall AKA Moby and it was this record that finally seen him break into the mainstream on both sides of the Atlantic after struggling for recognition as a Techno, Hardcore and even Alternative Rock artist.
He first hit the charts in 1991 with his classic house anthem “Go”, a song which still goes down well whenever you hear it today. Then 3 years later followed the Drum ‘n’ Bass-tinged banger that is “Feeling So Real”, a song that until recently he used to close his live shows with and one which always reminds me of some legendary parties we used to throw back in the day!
The majority of Play then was a complete removal from both of these songs as Moby opted for a more laid back, orchestral sound and it seen a total of six singles released off it, as sales of the album rose gradually over the course of a year due in no small part to every song on here being licensed for use in various commercials and films. It was the first album in history to achieve such a status and went on to sell over 12 million copies, becoming the biggest selling album of all time in its genre.
A lot of the songs on here used short, repetitive samples taken from Alan Lomax’s field recordings entitled “Sounds of The South”. Opening track “Honey” for example uses a line from the song “Sometimes” by the American Blues singer Bessie Jones. Next track “Find My Baby” which was famously used in a Nissan commercial, uses a sample from the song “Joe Lee’s Rock” by the Boy Blue Band.
There’s a similar format used throughout the rest of the record and you will certainly recognise a lot of them unless you were living on a desert island at the turn of this century and speaking of which, anyone who has seen the film “The Beach” starring Leonardo Di Caprio from 2000 will definitely remember the song “Porcelain”, a beautiful piece of downbeat electronica, which Moby described as “a song about being in love with someone when you know it can’t work out.”
One of the more uptempo tracks on here is the brilliant “Bodyrock” which also had a memorable video of a young lad in the street dancing in front of a speaker as Moby stands next to him with a wind machine and flame bar. It uses a sample of the song “Love Rap” by Spoonie Gee and The Treacherous Three and it’s possibly my favourite track on the whole album, although there are a lot to choose from – “Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?” and “Natural Blues” also spring to mind.
I could go on as there is so much more to be said about it but I’ll finish with a quote from none other than Adele, who said this was a major influence on her 25 album, saying, “There’s something that I find really holy about that Play album…The way it makes me feel. Even though there’s nothing holy or preachy about it. There’s just something about it – maybe the gospel samples. But it makes me feel alive, that album, still.” Another rediscovered old favourite.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Listen To: Bodyrock
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Traffic – Traffic

I’ve always enjoyed listening to Stevie Winwood, whether it be his unbelievable vocals for The Spencer Davis Group at just fifteen years old on “Keep On Runnin” or his later solo work and the likes of “Valerie” and “Higher Love”. For some reason though I’ve never had the pleasure of listening to Traffic. That is until I was on my way home from work on Monday evening.
Released in 1968 it’s the second album from the band and on first listen I have to say it’s an absolute cracker. One thing that stood out to me was the fact that the songs on here are either quite Poppy or alternatively, have a Bluesy/Psychedelic sound to them, and on further inspection I discovered that this was due to the fact that the main songwriters for the band took it in turns for each one. Singer/guitarist Dave Mason is the man behind the more accessible chart-friendly efforts, including their biggest hit, “Feelin’ Alright”, which was later made famous by Joe Cocker and also covered by Paul Weller on his Above The Clouds EP, whilst the more experimental stuff was written by the bands other vocalist and keyboard player Steve Winwood alongside drummer Jim Capaldi, with the track “(Roamin’ Thro’ The Gloamin’ With)40,000 Headmen” being their standout number. It’s a song about travelling across the sea on the search for treasure and being followed and captured by the aforementioned Headmen. Unsurprisingly, Jim said it was inspired by “a hash-fuelled dream”.
It was this division in the band that eventually led to Mason being fired from the group not long after this album was released – he had in fact only rejoined the band shortly before this album was made after walking out a year earlier. Unlucky Dave!
I can certainly see myself growing to love this record and I’ll definitely be going back to it in the future.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Listen To: Feelin’ Alright
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Stereolab – Emperor Tomato Ketchup

Now this is the type of thing I was hoping to stumble across when I started these Diaries. There’s no way in the world that I would have heard this album until The Playlist unleashed it on my way to work on Tuesday morning, and I’ll forever be grateful for it doing so!
Look at that front cover, how cool is that? And with possibly the best named album since we began our journey, it’s safe to say I had high hopes for this on its first listen. Thankfully it didn’t let me down as what followed was an absolute sonic-boom of an album containing elements of New-Wave, Art-Pop, Krautrock and even Hip-Hop. Believe it or not, in amongst all this there’s even a nod to the easy-going lounge music of Burt Bacharach on a couple of songs and the band actually credit him as an influence here.
With their mix of Anglo-French vocals I was surprised to learn that Stereolab are actually the brainchild of London’s Tim Gane although it made a lot more sense when I discovered that their lead singer – and Tim’s ex-missus – is the French-born Laetitia Sadier.
Released in 1996, this is their fourth album and it takes its name from the 1971 Japanese film of the same name which tells the tale of a young boy who becomes Emperor of a country where the children have overthrown the adults.
In parts this is a phenomenal-sounding album helped no end by the bands use of vintage analogue electronic instruments such as the Vox organ and Moog synthesiser with Tim saying, “we like the older effects because you can mold them like plasticine into loads of different things.” That’s certainly the case here and couple this with lyrics that have been described as “left-wing” and even “Marxist” in their leanings then what you get is an album right up my street. I enjoyed it so much I even listened to it on my way home from work that very same day, and while its not perfect its yet another new favourite.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Listen To: The Noise Of Carpet
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Talking Heads – Talking Heads: 77

Here we have the debut album from one of my favourite bands of all time, the magnificent Talking Heads. Formed in New York and the darlings of the Punk and New Wave scene in the mid-seventies, they played their first gig in 1976 as support to The Ramones at the legendary CBGB’s and this landmark album was released just a year later.
Never mind Swinging Sixties London, give me 1970’s New York all day. What a time to be alive that must have been. Blondie, The Ramones, and Television to name but a few, and in amongst all that was a geeky-looking, nervous-sounding, mad genius of a man that is David Byrne. Born in Dumbarton, Scotland, but raised in Arbutus, Maryland, here is a man so far ahead of his time he should have been driving a De Lorean. A man I’ve been lucky enough to catch live once in my life in a gig that ended with him playing his encore wearing a pink tutu!
Couple his jumpy guitars and strangled, almost paranoid vocals with the Art-Rock, Avant-Garde sound created by band mates Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and (on this album) Jerry Harrison then you have one of the most original sounding bands of the 20th Century and who’s sound is still replicated to this day by the likes of Arcade Fire.
The obvious standout track on this album is undoubtedly the fantastically funky “Psycho Killer”. How can you not love that bass line? It was written around 4 years previous to the albums release but when it came out as a single in December ’77 it drew obvious comparisons to the infamous Son of Sam murders that were happening in New York City around that time and with its semi-narrative of a killer commiting murders some people said they had a “macabre synchronicity”. Alas it was all just an eerie coincidence.
Years later David said he wrote the song from the point of view of a killer because “Everyone sort of roots for the bad guys. Hannibal Lector and The Joker are much more interesting than the good guys.”
As you can probably tell, I think the world of this band, and this album, and whilst it’s not my favourite by them – that would be Speaking In Tongues – it’s certainly one of the highlights of this week so far. A forgotten favourite.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Listen To: Psycho Killer
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The Kinks – Face To Face

Released in 1966 this is the fourth album from another band that I’m a big fan of. It seen them move on from their early sound and the likes of “You Really Got Me” and “All Day And All Of The Night”, as Ray Davies really began to come into his own as a lyricist, with his songwriting taking on a more observational point of view. This album is the start of what became known as Ray’s, and indeed The Kinks’ “golden period”, during the years spanning 1966 to 71.
Face To Face has been loosely labelled “Rocks First Concept Album” due to the various characters and social observations mentioned throughout, and the band use various sound effects in between several tracks to try and link it all together.
Opening track “Party Line” is a fine way to begin proceedings and you can’t help but go along with Ray and his storytelling ways. I’ve always loved his songwriting and in my opinion he’s up there with the very best that there’s ever been.
“Holiday In Waikiki” is another great song and it bares an uncanny resemblance to The Stones “19th Nervous Breakdown” which was released the very same year. There’s an indication as to how good it sounds.
The standout track for me has to be the fantastic “Sunny Afternoon”, a song written by Ray during a time when he was housebound due to illness, and after listening only to Bach, Sinatra, Dylan and Glenn Miller during this time, he sat up at his newly bought white piano and came up with this little gem. Noel Gallagher gave a nod to it it 30 years later when he wrote “The Importance Of Being Idle”, which is another great tune.
Not only is “Sunny Afternoon” the best song on the album it’s possibly my favourite ever song by the band as a whole and I could listen to this album over and over. A true English classic.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Listen To: Sunny Afternoon
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The Teardrop Explodes – Kilimanjiro

Aside from the brilliant “Reward”, which appears here, I can’t say I’ve listened to anything else from this Liverpool band, although I do love “World Shut Your Mouth”, which was released by their Welsh-born front man Julian Cope some years later.
This is their 1980 debut and I had big hopes for it as I’ve read quite a bit about this band down the years and how important they were in the early 80’s music scene in this city. Julian was a part of the now legendary “Crucial Three” which also included The Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch and Pete Wylie of The Mighty Wah!. The band only lasted six weeks during the summer of 1977 then went their separate ways, each forming their respective groups and all three quite rightly becoming a part of Mersey Music Folklore.
I have to say that this is a fantastic album and not only does it include the bands most famous hit as mentioned above but also includes several other belters – namely “Ha Ha I’m Drowning”, “Treason” and my favourite, “Poppies In The Field”. All of these songs have a similar sound to “Reward”, and with Julian Cope’s unmistakable vocals accompanied by those familiar trumpets punctuating the background it makes for a cracking album.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Listen To: Poppies In The Field
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Kraftwerk – Trans-Europe Express

Here we have an album from quite simply one of the most important bands of the 20th century. A band who’s catalogue I’ve always wanted to delve a little deeper into rather than just their Greatest Hits but never got around to it.
Let’s put these German lads into context – this is their fourth album and it was released in Spring 1977, which means whilst the whole of the UK was riding on the crest of wave caused by The Sex Pistols and the whole Punk Scene, these fellas were already putting in place the building blocks of what was to follow in the next decade. New Romantic, Electronica, Hip-Hop, and even early Acid House can all be traced back to The Kling-Klang Studios in deepest Dusseldorf. Just think about that for a second.
Like I said this is the fourth album from Ralf, Florian, Karl and Wolfgang and it’s been classed as their most accessible one as it seen them change their sound slightly from the more Krautrock-tinged earlier albums whilst really beginning to develop the sound they became renowned for. It’s mechanised rhythms and simple yet catchy repetetive melodies have that uncanny knack of sounding futuristic and retro at the same time. I’d loved to have been around when it was first released, imagine hearing this for the first time back in ’77!
The album cover contains a highly re-touched photo of the band taken in Paris which is supposed to depict them as mannaquins. This theme continues on the record itself with the song “Showroom Dummies”, and Ralf Hütter’s spoken count in of “Eins, zwei, drei, vier….” is a joke at The Ramones expense who were renowned for counting in their songs.
The title track also gives a mention to David Bowie and Iggy Pop and speaks of a meeting which took place between them and the band whilst the album was being made. The two were complimentary of the group and have both stated in the past that Kraftwerk were an influence on their particular sound during that period.
Joy Division have also said they used to listen to this album religiously before every gig and funnily enough their next incarnation New Order actually sampled Kraftwerk on none other than “Blue Monday”.
They’ve also been sampled down the years by the likes of The Chemical Brothers, Madonna, Coldplay and probably the most successful of all, Afrika Bambaataa, who used the title track of this album on his famous hit “Planet Rock” which was one of the first Hip-Hop records.
I was hearing this record for the first time but it certainly won’t be the last. I can’t wait to hear more of their stuff.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Listen To: Europe Endless
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Pink Floyd – Dark Side Of The Moon

“I’ve been mad for fucking years. Absolutely years. I’ve been over the edge for yonks.”
Good Friday? You can say that again. Kraftwerk and now this. My number one, numero uno, most favourite album of all time. A record that means so much to me I’ve even got it’s iconic cover tattooed on me!
Where do I start with this album? I said at the start of these Diaries that one of the reasons for doing this was to try and get back into the habit of listening to albums in their entirety again. Well this is one album I’ve certainly never had that problem with. In fact, I would say it can only be listened to in one whole sitting. All 42 minutes and 49 seconds of it. You can’t pick individual tracks. It would be like looking at a corner piece of the Mona Lisa instead of viewing it in all its glory!
Released in 1973 it’s the eighth album from a band I have my Dad to thank for getting me into. A Walkman and a cassette of The Wall when I was ten years old seen to that. This though I discovered several years later and despite the various stages of growing up and the different types of music I’ve discovered for myself, this absolute masterpiece has remained constant. Like a comfortable pair of old slippers that you always go back to, I must listen to this album in its entirety at least once a month.
The title itself is not, in fact, a reference to astronomy, but more an allusion to lunacy and that theme runs throughout the record alongside Roger Waters’ wanting to express the pressures of life, his struggle with fame and his realisation that he was no longer preparing for anything in life, but at 28 years old he was right in the middle of it. This is probably told best in the fantastic “Time”, which , alongside Nick Mason’s rototom drum solo, features an intro of dozens of alarm clocks sporadically going off one after each other. Believe it or not each clock was recorded separately and timed to go off at a specific point during the recording process. That fact has always bent my head!
Probably my favourite song on here is the Rick Wright opus that is “Us And Them”, a song about the senselessness of war and one he originally penned for the 1969 film Zabriskie Point but was never used in the final cut of the movie.
Also featured is one of the bands most successful singles in “Money”, with its memorable bass line and David Gilmour telling tales of the trappings of fame and all that comes with it, it’s also – for those of us who’ve tried it – the very point during The Wizard of Oz and what became known as “The Dark Side Of The Rainbow” – when Dorothy opens the door to the glorious Technicolor world of Oz and leaves the black and white world behind.
I could go on and on about this personal favourite but I’ll just finish by saying if you haven’t listened to it, then I am insanely jealous as you have the opportunity of hearing it for the first time! Do it. And remember, “There is no dark side of the moon really. As a matter of fact it’s all dark….”
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Listen To: Us And Them
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Fatboy Slim – Better Living Through Chemistry

From playing bass in The Housemartins to becoming a bona fide House Legend, Brighton’s favourite son, Norman Cook AKA Fatboy Slim, took on several guises after leaving the band formed in Hull. He achieved a UK Number One with Beats International for “Dub Be Good To Me”, a Number Three with Freak Power’s “Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out”, and also scored some minor hits using the aliases Pizzaman, and The Mighty Dub Katz. This though, is the 1996 debut album under his now legendary moniker.
It’s more of a compilation album as opposed to a “proper” one as a lot of the tracks were actually well used by Norm a couple of years before they appeared on here but nevertheless they only add to the quality of what is a fantastic Big-Beat album.
It gets its name from an advertising slogan used by the American Chemical Company, DuPont, which was “Better Things For Better Living….Through Chemistry”, and the cover itself is a homage to New Order and the cover to their “Blue Monday” single which famously featured the older style floppy disc.
It opens with “Song For Lindy”, which for those of you with good memories was used as the original theme music for Sky Sports’ “Soccer A.M” (when it was good) and it also samples the much-used piano-riff from the Old-Skool anthem that is “40 Miles” by Congress.
Also featured is the single “Everybody Loves A 303”, which Norm later remixed into the party tune “Everybody Loves A Carnival”, and which samples the Edwin Starr song, “Everybody Needs Love”.
The standout track however is the classic, “Going Out Of My Head”, which sees Norm rework Yvonne Ellimans cover of The Who’s “I Can’t Explain” with Led Zeppelin’s “The Crunge” and turn it into an absolute banger!
I’ve seen Norm live on a handful of occasions and he always brings a party to wherever he’s playing. This album is no exception and I forgot just how good some of his early stuff sounds. Love it.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Listen To: Going Out Of My Head
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Peter Wolf – Sleepless

This was the perfect accompaniment to my lazy Sunday morning, from an artist I was listening to for the first time. It was released in 2002 and is the sixth album from the veteran Bluesman who, on further investigation I discovered was the lead singer of The J. Geils Blues Band from 1967 to 1983 and was also married to the actress Faye Dunaway for five years from 1974 to 1979.
On first listen I can hear traces of Dylan and Tom Waits with some of his spoken vocals, and a couple of tracks are reminiscent of Van Morrison’s “Days Like This” era, which can only be a good thing.
Another obvious comparison that springs to mind is The Stones, so it was a nice surprise to hear Mick and Keith make a guest appearance on a couple of songs here, namely the standout track, a cover of the 1993 song by Country artist Patti Loveless, “Nothing But The Wheel”, and it certainly added to the whole enjoyment of it all.
This was a fine listen, really accessible and a great introduction to an artist I’ll definitely be listening to more of in the future. I’ve added this to my “Sunday Morning Playlist” for future reference.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Listen To: Nothing But The Wheel
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Neil Young And Crazy Horse – Zuma

The last Sunday of the month so, just as we did last month with Prince, we’ve headed over to Tidal to listen to an artist not featured on the Spotify Playlist. Here we have someone I’ve been a fan of as long as I can remember, thanks in no small part to my Uncle Ian who got me into him at an early age.
Released in 1975, this is Neil’s seventh album and is named after Zuma Beach in Los Angeles, where he had recently moved to prior to writing and recording this record. The theme for a lot of the album is of lost-love and moving on from relationships, all the time keeping that raw, unpolished sound that Crazy Horse were renowned for, the only exception to this sound being the brilliant “Pardon My Heart” which has a laid back acoustic feel to it and it’s as good as anything off Neil’s most famous album, Harvest.
The standout track can only be the seven-minute epic that is “Cortez The Killer”, one of Neil’s best known songs. It tells the tale of Hernán Cortés, the Spanish Conquistador who helped conquer Mexico for the Spanish in the 16th Century and features one of the greatest guitar solos of all time -the lyrics don’t begin til well into the fourth minute! If you listen carefully you can hear similarities to the Oasis song “Slide Away”, and that’s because Noel Gallagher used this as one of the inspirations behind his track – the other being “Wild Horses” by The Stones. Didn’t do a bad job either if you ask me!
I hadn’t listened to this album in God knows how long and I forgot just much I loved it. A perfect way to end this week’s proceedings.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Listen To: Cortez The Killer
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That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading. Feel free to click on the link under each piece to listen to every album featured. I hope you find something you love. Here’s to next week….