Quadrophenia (The Who) – Album Review (Part 1)

Posted on September 19, 2009 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

The Cover Of The Album

I consider Quadrophenia the biggest cultural contribution The Who ever made. That is a bold statement if we take into account that they also sang “My Generation” and recorded the defining album “Who’s Next“, adding new melodic resources to the world of music as a whole.

When I say that Quadrophenia was (and is) a significant cultural contribution, I take into account the fact that nobody else had taken the time to look back at the mod days and present them in such a representative light. Mod was the one and only aspect of British life in the ’60s that was not absorbed by America. Everything else was. Without Quadrophenia, that knowledge would have been somehow lost. And what was all the more remarkable was that when the album was originally issued the Who’s cohorts were adopting a lyrical posture that was to end up in total disconnection, singing about the dark side of the moon and stairways to heaven. That is, music would begin to lose its immediate link with those that bought it, and that disconnection would end a couple of years down the line in the punk revolution that placed both sides on an equal level. Continue reading →

Mummer (XTC) – Album Review (Part 2)

Posted on September 18, 2009 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Part 1 is found here. It deals with the songs on the original LP.

Like every other XTC album, this was to be reissued in the ’90s. Every single CD comes with additional tracks, and I must tell you that the booklets are uniformly subpar. Upon release, Mummer was quickly (and deservedly) hailed as the XTC album that was bonus-tracked the best.

Six songs have been added. Two are instrumentals from the Homo Safari series, and while they are the weak links they do work. If there is an album where you could throw anything into the mix and get away with it, that is Mummer. The songs would have stood as a sore thumb anywhere else.

The four actual songs that have been added, though, would have worked here, there and everywhere. But in the context of Mummer, they work like a dream. You have two incredibly uplifting numbers in the shape of “Jump” and “Gold”, whereas “Toys” is one of Andy’s most whimsical tunes of the period, but it is absolutely lovable because (unlike the Mummer tracks) he stays more true to the sound that always characterized XTC’s most soaring pop moments. Continue reading →

Mummer (XTC) – Album Review (Part 1)

Posted on September 18, 2009 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

The Cover That Was Accepted By The Record Company. A Cover With The Band In Mummer Regalia Was Rejected.

XTC’s music is characterized by marked twists and turns, both in terms of melody and lyrics. As a new listener of the band, I always knew that any of their albums would be an experience akin to a mystery to be elucidated, and I was ready for anything. I wasn’t, however, ready for Mummer. And the fact that it was one of the last XTC albums I bought makes that all the more significant.

As you probably know, this was the first album to be released after Andy’s nervous breakdown and his decision that the band was to become a studio entity from that point onwards. It was also the first album without Terry – he left the band and moved to Australia with girlfriend Donna (and son Kai), and worked there as a drummer for some time before leaving music behind for good. Also, the ties with manager Ian Reid were to become severed and lead to an exhausting litigation shortly. Continue reading →

RockMy Events – Putting Gigs & Events On The Map

Posted on September 17, 2009 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Name: RockMy Events

URL: http://www.rockmyevents.com

Traditionally, it was always possible to miss on this or the other artist when he or she came to town, even if you were a big fan of music in general. And I am talking about “established” artists. Now, if we were to move into Indie music it was always even harder to know what was going on unless you had some kind of direct connection with the band, or were in their (very) close geographical vicinity.

That is a thing of the past. Now things are far, far removed from that context. I dare say we have gone from one extreme to the other, as services like Twitter ensure that we have access to so much information that picking out which gig to attend can take longer than it took Pete Townshend to present “Lifehouse” to the world as he had originally intended it. Continue reading →

MinimumNoise – Crowdsourcing Music Production

Posted on September 13, 2009 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Name: Minimum Noise

URL: http://www.minimumnoise.com

This site defines itself as a music marketplace that lets people crowdsource music production on the Net. The way it works is really simple: you just create a project and explain how much you are willing to pay for it. Once you have done so, producers can access your project’s page and take part of it by uploading audio clips for you to weigh up. When you come across one that fits what you had originally envisioned, it is a mere matter of transferring the money and receiving the full audio.

When creating your project, you can (and must) include a couple of reference files for the community of producers to easily realize what it is you are after. That is only suitable – it is almost impossible to transmit music verbally, and a short clip is certain to transmit the concept 100 % accurately and in no time at all. Continue reading →

Tumbleweed Connection (Elton John) – Album Review

Posted on September 12, 2009 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

The Original Cover

Released the same year as the superb “Madman Across The Water”, “Tumbleweed Connection” stands as one of Elton’s best-loved albums. No singles were drawn from it, and as a result it is never represented when it comes to “Best Of” packages. This makes listening to it all the more refreshing and novel, especially as more than a handful of compositions are as good (or better) than the albums both sides of it.

This time, there is a concept unifying the songs – they all revolve around the Far West. Bernie always loved the topic, and he concocts together stories of gunslingers, confederates, American natives and furtive love adequately enough. As I said before, it took Bernie some time to get places. But Elton was up to the challenge from day one, and he always managed to give his lyrics the right accompaniment. Leaving aside the lyrically accuracy or lack thereof, “Where To Now, St. Peter”, “Amoreena” and “Country Comfort” are A-side material, and so is “My Father’s Gun”, the song that would be featured 30 years down the line as the key tune to Cameron Crowe’s “Elizabethtown”. Continue reading →

Ophelia (Natalie Merchant) – Album Review

Posted on September 10, 2009 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

The CD Cover - Natalie As Demigodess

I consider Natalie Merchant’s “Ophelia” as the point when her solo career really commenced. She had released an album before (1995’s “Tigerlily”), but that album was more like the closing of a stage than the start of a new one. Conversely, “Ophelia” (released in 1998) is her first truly realized artistic statement, using every device that she wants to use, and letting her own voice and musical vision dominate every single minute of the album.

In actuality, “Ophelia” was a multimedia project – the CD was accompanied by a short video, and stills from the film constitute the artwork of the album. A concept is clearly discernible, although there are songs like “King Of May” that deviate from the overall study of the famed Ophelia, a female figure par excellence, and an obvious choice for Natalie, someone always concerned about the way women are perceived and how these perceptions can end up being lies which are always true.

That is the theme of the album’s eponymous track, and the first thing you listen to when you play the CD. Incidentally, it will also be the last thing you will listen to – an orchestral reprise closes the album. The song studies the character of Ophelia all through history, her feats and the eventual disgraces those achievements were to bring about. The fate of Ophelia reminds me of the words of Yeats: “I’ve grown nothing/being all”. Is Natalie studying the role of women from a perspective that implies so much effort to be regarded as equal did nothing but accentuate differences that were actually small to begin with? And is the result of such a situation that women end up being relegated to submissive romantic roles, such as in the song “Frozen Charlotte”? Continue reading →

Chalkhills and Children (Chris Twomey) – Book Review

Posted on September 9, 2009 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

The Cover Of The Book. The Picture Comes From The "Nonsuch" Photo Shot.

Named after one of Andy’s most ethereal compositions, this book (first released in 1992) stands as a moving portrait of a band that is incredibly cerebral, and yet has the ability to tug at your heartstrings like few bands in history. That contradiction comes as no surprise. The story of XTC involves the clash between ideals and reality, and that is something that comes across very vividly on this book.

The book has 188 pages. It includes 10 chapters, two sections of black & white photographs and a discography at the end. It begins out of chronological order (the first chapter deals with Andy’s breakdown) and then the story properly starts and it is run without detours or digressions. It is also an “authorized” biography – the book was compiled from interviews with the band members and their families. And most key figures like Todd Rundgren and Steve Lillywhite are also among the interviewees. Continue reading →

Greatest Hits Volume II (Linda Ronstadt) – Compilation Album

Posted on September 7, 2009 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

The Front Cover

This is the companion album to the volume I reviewed last week. It basically gathers Linda’s most salient recordings at the time when her sound began diversifying in earnest. As I explained at the end of my review of Elvis Costello’s “Extreme Honey”, when that happens an artist might not make the best choices as regards which songs he or she ends up performing, and the way these are recorded. That was the case with Linda’s albums throughout this particular period, and as such this compilation has the merit of bringing the very best from those years that could be termed a bit spotty. Continue reading →

Greatest Hits Volume I (Linda Ronstadt) – Compilation Album

Posted on September 3, 2009 by Emilio Pérez Miguel