How do you follow up a masterpiece?
It’s a question that every artist asks after releasing a perfect work. Some try the same formula again, hoping lighting will strike the same place twice. Others decide to take a major left turn (see: Radiohead). Some have even gone mad under the pressure.
After the impeccable Rumours, the songwriters behind Fleetwood Mac chose option D: all of the above.
As long as I’ve been in the emosphere (read: like 2001 or so), I’ve somehow entirely ignored Japanese screamo pioneers Envy. It’s quite likely that I heard their names thrown around with acts like Orchid and Loma Prieta that I didn’t like at all, and assumed they would carry all of the same abrasiveness.
Had I known though that they leaned much closer to post rock than to hardcore, I wouldn’t have waited fifteen years to listen to this masterpiece.
Given the deep nostalgic ties in the shoegaze, dream pop, new wave, and post punk revivals, it’s little wonder that there’s a fair amount of crossover between them. Hundredth’s RARE drew as much inspiration from New Order as Slowdive. Metallic genre benders like Deftones and Deafheaven have looked to The Cure as much as My Bloody Valentine.
And so, when noted shoegaze revivalists Nothing trade their fuzz pedals for synths and do their best Joy Division impressions, it shouldn’t come as much as a surprise.
(And to be clear, that isn’t an insult).
There was only one record appropriate for this entry. And truth be told, I had to borrow it, bending the rules of the blog for a bit. But given the opportunity at hand, I’m not sure I had another option.
Numerical gimmicks aside, this is my first time listening to this record, or any Iron Maiden record, most of my previous exposure coming from the Iron Maiden pinball machine (though the self-titled track here is my favorite song on that machine).
That said, like most classic heavy metal before it (see also: Black Sabbath), it’s not nearly as evil as the controversy surrounding it would suggest. Instead, it’s just a great album filled with virtuosic performances and surprisingly catchy songs.
As convenient as online shopping has made it to find all the exact records that you’re looking for, perusing a record store can bring gems that you would have otherwise ignored.
Case in point: Song in the Air by Elliott, which I found at Planet Retro in St. Pete while browsing their impressive Punk/Metal section (Kate Bush was in there too, so take “punk/metal” with a grain of salt). Having been tangentially aware of them, I pulled up Spotify and scanned through some of the songs.
What I found was a powerful emo record that gets most of its emotional weight from the intricacy of its songwriting rather than the bombast of its arrangements.
The 1980s saw a lot of rock and roll stalwarts trading in their electric guitars and drum sets for synthesizers and drum machines. Not even hair metal heroes like Van Halen were safe from the new wave revolution.
Even so, it stung a little harder when Electric Light Orchestra traded in their strings and horns for analog synthesizers.
However, it’d sting a whole lot more if the songs weren’t so damn catchy.
Q: What do the Sugarhill Gang and Queen have in common?
A: “Good Times” by CHIC, the rollicking eight-minute disco classic that was sampled for “Rapper’s Delight” and that inspired “Another One Bites the Dust.”
But if you think that that single infectious track is the only thing worthwhile on this disc, you’d be sorely mistaken.
One of my favorite things about music history is that no matter how deep you dig, there’s always another jewel to discover. As much as I love the ethereal, crushing heaviness of bands like Holy Fawn, Spotlights, Palehorse/Palerider, and the throng of other bands often labeled “doomgaze,” I never heard of the apparent pioneers of that sound until last week.
But once I did, their swan song Weighing the Souls with Sand immediately grabbed me with its rich atmospheres and overwhelming heaviness.
Until recently, I had held the narrative that the Alan Parsons Project began as a wonderfully ambitious progressive rock outfit that shifted their sites on middle of the road pop rock as their career went on.
If nothing else, acquiring their entirely discography recently completely demolished that narrative. Chiefly, their tenth and final record Gaudi, which might be one of the most ambitious records of their career.
Read more at ayearofvinyl.com #alanparsonsproject #progressiverock #progrock #poprock #symphonicrock #vinyl
The deeper I get into The Alan Parson’s Project’s later discography, the more I expect each record to disappoint me. For years, the narrative in my head had been that APP peaked hard with The Eye In the Sky and went downhill fast.
When I put Stereotomy onto my turntable, I expected the bouncing metallic synths to finally signal the Project’s downfall into uninspired new wave pastiche. But to my surprise (and delight), what followed was a record that retained the sophistication of the collective’s finest work while adding more electronic elements to their palette.