Urban Hat€monger ?

Right-Tracks little nod suggesting that an updated version of this planted a seed in my brain that seems to have grown & grown until I suddenly thought to myself "Why not , I need a break from kissing Mark E Smith's arse it'll be nice to write about some other bands for a change"

Also the Urban 100 that I posted here was my 2nd attempt , my first being written on some other community that has long since vanished 3 years previous to that one.
And now it's approaching 3 years since I started the one I did here so the time feels right to do it.

I will be making some changes with this one , most notably .....

* More than one album per artist
* I will also be including compilations , bootleg albums and live shows I have recordings of.
* The reviews won't be as structured as they were last time. On the last list as the countdown got nearer to number one the reviews got longer.Because the reviews for the top rated albums got covered so extensively in the original list i'll probably just give a brief overview stating why I've rated it higher or lower than last time.
* No albums by The Fall , they're in a class of their own and just as John Peel put all his Fall records separate from his record collection my Fall albums get their own thread. When I listen to The Fall I get into a kind of zone where only music by The Fall will do. I find it hard to listen to music by anybody else just because they have a habit of making all other music sound redundant. Therefore it would be unfair to include them here.
And it's because i've already written 2 reviews for Live At The Witch Trials on this forum , I couldn't face doing it AGAIN.

At some point I shall also cover the albums that got dropped on this list that were included in the original 100 and state why they got cut.

Now i'm off for a long think.

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jackhammer

I am looking forward to more hidden gems among your top 100.

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Urban Hat€monger ?

I have those in abundance

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pheurton

Good luck

sleepy jack

C'mon Urban we know the real reason the Fall isn't included is because when the list hit 40 it would just be Fall albums from then on out.

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right-track

Seriously though...I know exactly what Urban means.
I'm the same with Northern.
I have music, then I have my obsession.
Same (in that music is music)...but different completely.

Good to see this happen again Urban.
Get crackin' lad.

swim

Yay!

I've been trying to do one of these since I read your first one but my tastes are constantly changing and growing that a week later I'd think it's stupid and redo it with like results.

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http://nakednaps.bandcamp.com/

Urban Hat€monger ?

100 (--) BIRDLAND - BIRDLAND (1991)

Tracklisting - Shoot You Down (*R) / Sleep With Me / Don't Look Back (*R) / Paradise (*R) / Wake Up Dreaming / Rock 'n' Roll ****** (*R) / Everybody Needs Somebody / Letter You Know / Beat Me Like a Star / She Belongs to Me / Hollow Heart (*R) / Exit

For about 3 or 4 months in 1991 Birdland were the next big thing in British indie. They had matching fuzzy blonde haircuts , they had usual cool punk influences of the Clash , Rolling Stones , Stooges , Johnny Thunders , New York Dolls etc etc. They had a fantastic debut album stuffed full of sleazy rock n roll tunes , everything looked like like they were on to a winner...
But it never happened.
What happened was the Manic Street Preachers came along doing exactly the same sort of thing & stole their thunder and Birdland disappeared back into the obscurity from where they came.
Listening to this today I actually think this is better than the Manics Generation Terrorists album. The two songs opening the album are just the sort of rock n roll songs you'd expect to hear but the third track 'Don't Look Back' is a total bolt from the blue sounding like a re-written working of Back Of Love by Echo & The Bunnymen. There's also an interesting cover of Patti Smith's 'Rock n Roll ******' which , after a slow intro becomes an energetic run through of a classic song. Not fantastic , but a good effort.The rest of the album carries on in the same upbeat way it started with the fantastic single 'Hollow Heart' keeping things at a high standard.
This album is not going to win any awards for originality but it has youthful enthusiasm bursting out of it all over. Listening to this album reminds me of what it was like when I was 15/16 years old , forget all those whiny American bastards singing about losing some girlfriend THIS is how punk-pop should sound.

(*R) - Recommended Listening

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Urban Hat€monger ?

99 (--) IMITATION ELECTRIC PIANO - BLOW IT UP , BURN IT DOWN , KICK IT TILL IT BLEEDS (2006)

Tracklisting - Tension (*R) / For the Best (*R)/ I Mean Now (*R)/ Energy Is Beautiful / Relatively Good Times (*R) / Come Into Force / Le Roque / What We Do We Do / Leave Her Johnny / Blow It Up, Burn It Down, Kick It 'Til It Bleeds (*R)

Imitation Electric Piano started off life as a side project for Stereolab bassist Simon Johns in 1999. Three years later the band released Trinity Neon their debut album , a fantastic album of laid back 60s loungy jazz tunes with lots of Stereolab style moogs. After many line up changes including the addition of Brighton born folk singer Mary Hampton 3 years later they released their second album Blow It Up, Burn It Down, Kick It 'Til It Bleeds.
This album is much more wide ranging than Trinity Neon. There are still a few Stereolab style songs here , most notably the album opener 'Tension' . Then things get a bit folky for the next couple of tracks 'For the Best' is an acoustic ballad and 'I Mean Now' is a little bit more uptempo & poppy , both songs highlighting Mary Hamptons sugary vocals.
Things suddenly take a 180 degree turn with Relatively Good Times , after a slow build up the song suddenly burst into life with a crunching riff and plenty of stereolab style bleeps & bloops over the top of it.The song then winds down with some slow vocal harmonies.
This seems to set a trend for the remainder of the album being a lot more harder 'Come Into Force' has a riff and guitar solo that wouldn't be out of place on a 70s Deep Purple album with the keyboards just adding to that comparison , Hamptons vocals really take the song somewhere else.
'La Roque' , 'What We Do We Do' and 'Leave Her Johnny' are all solid rock songs that would slip in easily onto any Stereolab album.
The album finally finishes off with the title track which is another track that could have come out of any mid 70s rock album.
The biggest criticism I have seen of this album is that some people find the vocals a turn off , but I happen to think they give the album a sort of unworldly quality that makes it sound different to anybody else. Obviously this album would appeal to fans of Stereolab but I think it would also appeal to someone whos a fan of stuff like Mazzy Star or Cocteau Twins , only with a bit more bite to it.

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sleepy jack

4 days later...

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