Reviews

Record #338: Fleetwood Mac – Mirage (1982)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald
A lot can happen in ten years. For Fleetwood Mac, between 1972 and 1982, they saw at least four lineup changes, which led to the iconic pairing of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, which became the most celebrated incarnation of the band (and rightfully so). Halfway through the decade, they released Rumours, their undisputed opus, onset by the romantic tension between its bandleaders. In 1981, Stevie Nicks released her first solo record, Bella Donna. So what was next for Fleetwood Mac, five years, one album, and a solo career separated from their most iconic work?
Honestly, Mirage could be a lot worse–they avoid the ill fated synth pop of many of their contemporaries, and nothing on here is terrible (“Diane,” with its doo wop meets island pastiche is the worst it gets), but for the most part, the record is largely uninspired. The sole exception is “Gypsy,” which would fit right on Rumours (it also features one of my favorite guitar solos in all of rock history). Other than that one brilliant track, Fleetwood Mac sounds like they’re in a holding pattern. Nothing outright terrible, but a solid B- from a band who had delivered a perfect album just five years earlier.

Record #337: Fleetwood Mac – Mystery To Me (1973)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald
Record #337: Fleetwood Mac – Mystery To Me (1973)
The strangest thing about Fleetwood Mac is how many incarnations of the band there has been (the Wikipedia page “List of Fleetwood Mac members” features a detailed graph).

Drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie (the eponymous Fleetwood and Mac) played behind five different lead singers before Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks took the helm. This album (with its strange, strange cover—don’t ask me why the ape is crying) features bandleaders Bob Welch and Christine McVie, who would remain a staple in the later, more famous version. 

This disc is only separated from the other pre-BuckNicks album I own (Bare Trees) by a year and another album (Penguin), but this doesn’t sound like the same band at all.

​While Bare Trees was a mostly forgettable blues rock record, Mystery To Me has got some hooks to it. “Hypnotize” rides along a brooding dance rhythm. “Keep on Going” mixes blues with heavy disco strings. The cover of the Yardbirds’ “For Your Love” plays with unexpected song structures, weaving in and out of tempos in a way the group’s early blues rock would never hint at.

​And while Bob Welch would only helm one more album for Fleetwood Mac before Lindsey and Stevie would rocket them to superstardom, Mystery To Me finds Welch and McVie pointing the ship in the right direction for them.

Record #336: Elton John – Greatest Hits (1974)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald
Here’s a safe bet after a string of Swedish bargain bin picks.

I don’t need to tell you how great Elton John is.
You know how great Elton John is.

 And while I don’t usually care for greatest hits compilations (my wife picked this one out, I’m pretty sure), Elton’s singles are among the brightest gems in the classic rock canon. “Your Song’s” delicate country balladeering, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’s” heartwrenching vocal leaps, “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting’s” raucous glam pounding, and “Rocketman’s” spacepop perfection. There’s also “Benny and the Jets,” which is practically the platonic ideal of glam rock. With only the exception of “Daniel,” every single track on here is solid gold. And what else would we expect from Sir Elton

Record #335: Luiz Bonfa & Maria Toledo – Braziliana (1965)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald
Alright, now here’s a Stockholm secondhand record that’s actually pretty great. What I didn’t know when I picked this up is that Luiz Banfa is one of the most acclaimed samba guitarists in Brazil, and this record shows why…
Every track is fresh and light and masterfully performed. Maria Toledo shows up on a few tracks to lend her vocals, but only light Las and Dos—I don’t remember there being any real lyrics on here. But there doesn’t need to be. Luiz’s compositions speak for themselves. This is the music for your next ’60s themed party.

Record #334: Bernt Staf – När Dimman Lättar (1970)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald
Here’s another secondhand Stockholm record. I bought this one (translated as “When the Fog Lifts”) because I thought the photo was cool, and because some old dude saw me pick it up and said, “oooo…Bernt Staf…” I put it on once, and couldn’t get through the poorly song, classical guitar-led first track. I didn’t think I could make it through an entire album of that…
 Luckily though, I don’t have to, because the very next track introduces a funky drum beat, popping bass, and screaming organ, which lends some credence to his reputation (according to the Swedish language Wikipedia) as one of the country’s foremost prog rock musicians. If there was more of that on here, that’d be great. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be the case, because the next two tracks are folk ballads (one with classical guitar, one with a piano and a Dylan impression). Then a weird honky tonk thing? I can’t finish this song.

(flips record)

Another bad folk track. Wait…second track starts with distorted organ, is it gonna be…nope. It’s another folk ballad. Wait, hold up…there’s the drums. Is it gonna get…well…the second side plays a lot more with dynamics than the first.

Where the songs on the first side were either ballad or rock song, almost every song on the second side starts with just classical guitar with the band coming in on the choruses, with shades of Beatles here and there. It’s an improvement, but it’s nothing I’m going to listen to again.
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Ah well. Another souvenir for the shelf. I’m gonna listen to pg.lost for a palate cleanse. Now THAT is some good Swedish music.

Record #333: Alice – Azimut (1982)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald
I picked this up in a discount bin at secondhand store in Stockholm for 10 kroner (about $1.30) because the cover was “omg so 80s,” and I’ve never listened to it. 

​Till now…

Apparently, she’s Italian though, which might explain her overdramatic delivery. It’s not…completely terrible though. There are some good pop moments, even if they are largely lifted from ABBA and 80s lady rockers like Bonnie Tyler. Messaggio closes the first side with the best marriage of Eurodisco and Pat Benatar-esque pop rock you could imagine, which…still isn’t that great.

TBH, this record sitting next in the queue (and a few like it) is what delayed this blog for so long. I just didn’t want to have to sit down with it and churn out a couple paragraphs about it. But I can’t even bring myself to listen the B side. Nothing there will make this record worth my time. It will forever sit on my shelf as a reminder of my wonderful trip to Sweden. 

Time to blast through the rest of this queue. ​

Record #331: Forever Losing Sleep – I Lost Myself Again (2014)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald
One of the more interesting parts of the recent pop punk/emo revival is what other sounds have been appropriated from other scenes. Pity Sex is rife with shoegaze’s jangling walls of sound. La Dispute has the occasional jazz chords.
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In this case, Forever Losing Sleep marries its SDRE-patented soft/loud dynamics and emotive whisper-to-scream vocals with post rock’s ambience. 
My band ( @wearespaceships ) played with them last night, and three of the four giant pedalboards were outfitted with a Strymon Big Sky reverb processor, which were used to great effect in the sparser passages and crushing heaviness alike in a way that is more Russian Circles than Brand New.
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Their live show show is absolutely spellbinding, and the record delivers on that. The production manages to capture every nuance performed by each of the six members as they fiddle with knobs or manipulate feedback without sounding canned. The songs are sequenced perfectly, combining together in a well paced whole. These aren’t only songs as much as they are movements in a larger, masterfully constructed composition.

Record #330: Alcest – Les Voyages de L’Âme (2012)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald
I have written at length about my relationship with metal music (most of those sentiments can be found here), but I’ll sum it up again.
I don’t like a lot of metal (chuggity chugs, show yourself out. You too, obnoxious tapping solos), but the metal that I DO like, I absolutely love. ISIS, Palms, Jesu, Pelican, Russian Circles, Pallbearer, Deafheaven, Thrice (are too metal, shush), Wolves in the Throne Room…
​I’ve joked that I like my metal like Ben Carson: black, not progressive, and kinda sleepy.
And unto that punchline, a friend of mine suggested Le Voyages de L’Âme by blackgaze pioneers Alcest. Hailing from France and grabbing onto the same sort of life affirming sentiment as post rock often does (the title means “Journeys of the Soul”), Neige and Winterhalter (awesome metal name is awesome) ride loud waves of guitars and soaring melodies into one of my new favorite metal records.
Dynamically, there’s a lot of soft/loud changes that black metal rarely gets into (never, if the purists have anything to say about it). Clean guitar lines saturated with reverb (more Perfect Circle or ISIS than Explosions in the Sky) tensely build into frenzied bursts of clanging drums and ripping guitar tremolos.
And while a majority of the album features sung vocals and less extreme drums, there are few moments of sheer black metal catharsis, shrieking, blast beats and all, like the climax of “Là où Naissent les Couleurs Nouvelles” (“Where New Colors are Born”) or the entirety of “Beings of Light” which would be a straight black metal song were it not for the ethereal choir and angelic alto that run through it.
Also, unlike most metal, much of this record plays in 6/8 time, giving a balladic feel even to some of the more aggressive numbers like “Faiseurs de Mondes” (“Makers of Worlds”). Closer “Summer’s Glory” restrains itself, pulling larger portions of cinematic post rock than metal to end the album on as victorious a note as they can muster, and they can muster quite a bit.
All in all, Les Voyages de L’Âme takes the most heartstring-pulling tricks from black metal, post rock, and shoegaze and throws them together in one beautiful, gorgeous whole. There’s not a bad moment on this disc–every second is aurally breathtaking and dripping with joie de vivre. And as someone who loves triumphant, melodic metal, Alcest is a revelation to me.

Record #329: Electric Light Orchestra – Olé ELO (1976)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald
ole elo

As a rule, I usually regard greatest hits compilations as insincere cash grabs by the Suits, entry-level, contextless chop jobs for listeners who can’t be bothered to delve into a band’s actual records, or both.
But Olé ELO has more interesting origins.
As interest in Jeff Lynne’s group began to gain steam with the success of their huge hit Face the Music, United Artists Records compiled a retrospective of their past albums to give to radio stations. These non-retail compilations soon began circulating in the underground with such frequency that UAR had a commercial release.
As is fitting for its initial purpose, this is a little more educational than most compilations. Each track is given a short blurb on the record sleeve explaining its significance in the ELO catalogue.
And being that we’re talking about songs by Electric Light Orchestra, of course the music is great. The tracks are arranged chronologically, moving the album from hugely ambitious prog pop on side one to concise monster pop hits on side two. “10538 Overture,” with its “I Am the Walrus Vibe,” instantly exposes Jeff Lynne’s goal to continue what the Beatles had started by combining classical orchestration with modern rock and roll. And to that end, their eight minute reinterpration of Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven” is a must for a collection like this.
As a big ELO fan myself, I’ve spent most of time with the albums following this compilation. As such, I enjoy this record as a good digest of everything I’ve yet to get into. And if it’s anything like the eleven minute epic “Kuiama,” I have some listening to do.