Trollheart

Translation: fuck off.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

The Batlord

Translation: Batlord =

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Trollheart

You know it's weird: I could swear that I had posted this. I even recall having conversations with you guys about my reactions to it. Yet when I redid the index yesterday it wasn't there. I can see I wrote the review, so thought it seems really odd to me to be doing this, unless it disappeared somehow for some reason, it doesn't seem to have been posted so, you know, here it is.

Title: London Calling
Artiste: The Clash
Year: 1979
Chronological position: Third album
Previous experience of this artiste?: A few singles really

My thoughts
One minute (or thereabouts in) ---- Good, great, bad, meh, still waiting or other? Great
One track in --- Great
Halfway through --- Good
Finished --- Meh

Comments: Oh man, here I go, choosing another double album! Still, it's hailed as the true classic in the Clash's discography, and it was either this or Combat Rock, maybe Sandinista! so I'm going to stick with this. I of course know the title track but that's about it. So what of the rest? Well initially this doesn't come across to me as having too much of the punk in it at all, more rock-and-roll and rockabilly really. Can't say I love it now to be honest. "Rudie can't fail" sounds a little too like "I fought the law", but it's quite catchy with its sort of calypso rhythm.

More Springsteen-like is "Spanish bombs"; got a lot more of the anger I expect from the Clash, while "Lost in the supermarket" is almost Deacon Blue long before they were even heard of, or maybe Prefab Sprout. "Clampdown"'s good too and "The guns of Brixton" is angry reggae with elements of ska, I think. And that's halfway through.

It's interesting how many different genres are here, from ska and reggae to rockabilly and rock, all sort of viewed through a lens of punk though I wouldn't call it punk really. A lot of the rock here sounds very similar to Springsteen to me, not sure if they'd be happy to be compared to the Boss.

Favourite track(s): "London calling, Brand new Cadillac, Spanish bombs, Lost in the supermarket, The card cheat, Train in vain"
Least favourite track(s): Nothing really stands out as "bad", but I'm not mad about most of the reggae or ska-influenced songs.

Final impression --- Not as hard or angry as I expected, a big surprise with a lot of different genres, but not an album I think I'd be listening to again.

Do I feel, at the end, A) I wish I had listened to this sooner
B) I'm sorry I bothered
C) I might end up liking this
D) Have to wait and see
E) Bit underwhelmed; was ok but a classic?
F) Definitely enjoyed it, but again would I consider it a classic?

Sorry guys but it's an E for me on this one, to my own surprise as much as anyone else's!

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Trollheart

Title: Transformer
Artiste: Lou Reed
Year: 1972
Chronological position: Second solo album
Previous experience of this artiste?: Only through my brief foray into The Velvet Underground, and the album Metal Machine Music. Other than that hit single of course.
Genre: Glam rock

My thoughts
One minute (or thereabouts in) ---- Good, great, bad, meh, still waiting or other? Good
One track in --- Good
Halfway through --- Good
Finished --- Meh

Comments: Does that opener sound like “Dizzy” ripped it off? Similar melody. Good track though. Can't say the same for “Andy's chest”: just kind of passed me by. Naturally I know “Perfect day” thanks to its use as a charity single. Obviously I know “Walk on the wild side”, his most famous song though I don't really like “Make up” - gives me a kind of Divine Comedy feel (yeah I know it would be decades before Neil came on the scene but still). Maybe it's the tuba I don't like. Don't know, but it does nothing for me. “Satellite of love” is better, like the accordion (is it?) in the midsection and the brass too. “Wagon wheel” is ok but kind of straight rock and roll, a little simple I feel, and as for “New York telephone conversation”... leave it out, mate!

Is that Jack Bruce's .... no, that's “I feel free” and this is “I'm so free”. Does sound similar though, unless I'm misremembering it. Has a very Bowie feel to it. Oh crap! More tuba for the closer. Don't think a lot of this one. Meh.

Favourite track(s): “Vicious”, “Perfect day”, “Walk on the wild side” (duh!), “Satellite of love”, “I'm so free”
Least favourite track(s): “Make up”, “New York telephone conversation”, “Good night ladies”

Final impression Yeah it's a good album but I'm not exactly blown away by it. Probably doesn't help that I'm not a VU fan.

Do I feel, at the end, A) I wish I had listened to this sooner
B) I'm sorry I bothered
C) I might end up liking this
D) Have to wait and see
E) Bit underwhelmed; was ok but a classic?
F) Definitely enjoyed it, but again would I consider it a classic?
G) Enjoyed this album just purely on its own merits
H) Glad I listened to it

I'd say this is an E

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Trollheart

Title: Like a Virgin
Artiste: Madonna
Year: 1984
Chronological position: Second album
Previous experience of this artiste?: Oh we all know Madge don't we?
Genre: Pop

My thoughts
One minute (or thereabouts in) ---- Good, great, bad, meh, still waiting or other? Great
One track in --- Great
Halfway through --- Meh
Finished --- Meh

Comments: The album that broke Madonna commercially and ensured her name would forever come up first in a Google search, ahead of Michaelangelo, this contains four hit singles – five, if you include “Into the groove” which was put on the reissue in 1985 for territories outside of the US – and to date has sold over twenty million copies: ten million or so behind Thriller, but still enough to make it one of the biggest-selling albums in history. Of course I know most of the tracks, as they were singles, so “Material girl”, “Dress you up” and of course the title track are nothing new to me, but I'd kind of forgotten about “Angel”, though I did have the single when I was younger. Kinda thought it would be a ballad, but no: uptempo pop synthy thing. Meh. Oh yeah, I remember it now. Not too bad I guess. Pop goodness, as Batty would probably say.

“Over and over” is faster, almost new wave in its way, sort of reminds me of Depeche Mode on “Just can't get enough”. Maybe. It's pretty empty really. Meh. Again. Her version of Rose Royce's “Love don't live here anymore” is pretty decent, like the orchestral arrangement a lot. The album mix of “Dress you up” is a little long at just over six minutes, but hey, we're basically talking pop/disco here, and remixes are part of the whole thing. There's a little too much shimmery synth and annoying drums though, and it's definitely stretched out too long. That gives us “Shoo-be-do”, which I had assumed would be a fifties-style dance number and, well, isn't: it's a really nice piano ballad. Kicks up a little with a soul edge pretty quickly and it's sugary sweet but not too cloying. The sax break is good. “Pretender” has a nice hard pop sound, touches of new wave in there too especially in the keyboard runs. “Stay” sounds kind of like a precursor to “True blue”, which would be on her next album, actually the title track. It's ok: bouncy and happy with a nice beat.

Favourite track(s): “Material girl”, “Like a virgin”, “Shoo be do”, “Love don't live here anymore”
Least favourite track(s): “Over and over”

Final impression I'm no fan of Madge but I'm sure there are far better albums from her, especially as time went on and she honed her songwriting craft. But that's not the point of this journal. It doesn't matter if there are better albums – there surely are – it's the one recognised as her classic that we're concerned with, and this is it. For the time, and for a second album, pretty impressive. But pop's not really my thing. I doubt I'd bother listening to it again.

Do I feel, at the end, A) I wish I had listened to this sooner
B) I'm sorry I bothered
C) I might end up liking this
D) Have to wait and see
E) Bit underwhelmed; was ok but a classic?
F) Definitely enjoyed it, but again would I consider it a classic?
G) Enjoyed this album just purely on its own merits
H) Glad I listened to it

Meh, probably a G, no more than that.

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Frownland

You should do Bitches Brew.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

Trollheart

I kinda think I heard it. Maybe in my ill-fated jazz journal? I'll check. If I haven't already heard it I'll throw it in the queue.

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The Batlord

No it isn't. So far as I know, nobody on earth considers it her classic. You just dun ****ed up. I dig that album, but it's not even considered her classic 80s album, which would be Like a Prayer. If you want this entry to not be bull**** then you have to do Ray of Light. If pop were prog then Ray of Light would be Edge of the World.

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kibbeh

boo you, whore

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o2u2p1FzNM

Trollheart

Okay, well, I did say June would be the month of the forgotten journal, and nothing says forgotten like FIVE YEARS between updates! I always enjoyed this journal, but it just got pushed to the background in the sudden onslaught of other, mostly non-music journals I started doing, and I had to search for it, finally locating it languishing all the way back on page 9. So here it is, not having been touched since 2017.

Now, before any of those of you who are experiencing this journal for the first time start with your "how can you not know that album?" or "I can't believe you haven't heard that!" - it's in the title of the journal. Also, check the OP. Also, fuck off.

To put this in a little context, I grew up in a time when the only way you could get music was to buy it, unless you taped it off the radio or TV, never a good way to get it. We had no YouTube. We had no streaming services. We had no itunes. We had no way to download music, legally or illegally. So you were very careful as to what you bought. CDs - and before that, LPs, or albums on vinyl - were expensive. I tended to stick to the artists/genres I knew, and collect their albums and little else. I was, to be blunt, very conservative about my music tastes. To somewhat paraphrase Genesis, I knew what I liked and I did not look further afield.

The charts did not interest me, and the latest fad in terms of music did not interest me, so while everyone might have been going on about, say, Thriller or Like a Virgin, or indeed Ride the Lightning, I stuck to what I knew. It was only later, after coming here, I began to realise how many classic (or so-called) albums I knew nothing about, which prompted to to kick this journal off.

Looking at the list now, I think there are maybe 10 albums left, so I'm open to new suggestions. Remember, if you want to rec an album, it has to be a classic. The criteria for a classic, for the purposes of this journal at any rate, are simple: it must be known widely, if possible outside of its genre, must either have sold very well or been critically acclaimed (preferably both) and should be generally acknowledged as among the artist's best work.

For now, assuming anyone is interested, let's keep it to one album each. We'll see how it goes, if at all. If there's no buzz, well I still have ten albums to do, and I can add new ones. Remember though, an album is not a classic just because you like it, or because you think it is or should be.

Okay then, let's get this show back on the road, see how long we last.


Title: All Mod Cons
Artist: The Jam
Year: 1978
Chronological position: Third
Previous experience of this artist?: Just the singles
Why is this considered a classic? From what I read, it was the first really successful Jam album and established them as a proper force in the world of pop/rock music, kicking off somewhat the mod revival, and making a star out of Weller. Seems like it could have been their Born to Run, which is to say, their last chance before their label dropped them. All such thoughts were of course abandoned once this album hit the top ten, and the Jam were on their way.

My thoughts
One minute (or thereabouts in) ---- Good, great, bad, meh, still waiting or other?
One track in --- Meh
Halfway through --- Good
Finished --- Good

Comments: Let’s get this out of the way from the beginning: I was never a fan of the Jam. Hated them, in fact. It wasn’t just the mods v rockers thing, that you had to be one one side or another; I never moved in those circles and I didn’t care anyway. I was a progger and part-time metalhead, and happy to be so. The Jam just never appealed to me. However setting my own personal bias aside, I have over the years enjoyed their singles, such as “A Town Called Malice”, “Down in the Tube Station at Midnight” (which is on this) and “Going Underground”, but I doubt I would or ever will be a fan, and I would be very surprised if this album changed my mind.

One thing you definitely have to give them is there’s a lot of energy - mostly angry energy, it must be said - in their music, and there is definitely the spectre of punk hanging over some of their music. Intriguing, when you think how Weller would change his sound and direction entirely when he formed The Style Counsel, but here he is definitely the archetypal Angry Young Man, playing the role (if it is a role) to its fullest. I don’t know if it was the Jam’s usual modus operandi, or a bid for airplay and hit singles, but almost every track here is under three minutes, which for me makes it a little hard to really get to grips with the music. I have, generally, heard nothing yet that has impressed me very much, though to be fair, I haven’t hated anything either.

Well oddly after saying that here’s something, though as it turns out “David Watts” is a cover of a Kinks song, so that’s a disappointment, as it seemed like the boys were finally pulling their collective fingers out, but I can’t really give them credit for a song that’s not theirs, so on we go. Now this is nice. “English Rose” is an original, a soft little acoustic number that slows down the somewhat frenetic pace of the album and allows me to catch my breath. Yes, it’s short, just like all the others, but in this song’s case the brevity works in its favour. Got to say, “In the Crowd” is very good too, and there’s a sense of the kind of rawness and, for want of another word, punkness falling away to reveal some pretty competent and quite interesting music. Maybe this is the turning point for me?

Yeah, maybe not. “Billy Hunt” takes us back to the basic thrash-it-out-and-shout-about-it idea, don’t like that one at all, but then in fairness “It’s Too Bad” is really good and has some excellent guitar in it, very catchy; I like this one. “Fly”’s good too, almost balladic, though not quite. It does tone things down though and has an almost early dreampop feel to it. Shut up, I’m doing my best here. Beatles-y guitar there too. I SAID, shut UP. The next two don’t do anything for me though and then we end on the single that everyone, even me, knows, and “Down in the Tube Station at Midnight” certainly brings the curtain down in fine style.


Favourite track(s): “English Rose”, “In the Crowd”, “It’s Too Bad”, “Fly”, “Down in the Tube Station at Midnight”
Least favourite track(s): “Billy Hunt”, "The Place I Love", “A Bomb in Wardour Street”

Final impression --- Decent album but I’m still not a fan, nor can I honestly say I ever expect to be. Hey, I didn’t hate it, what more do you want?

Do I feel, at the end, A) I wish I had listened to this sooner
B) I'm sorry I bothered
C) I might end up liking this
D) Have to wait and see
E) Bit underwhelmed; was ok but a classic?
F) Definitely enjoyed it, but again would I consider it a classic?
G) Enjoyed this album just purely on its own merits
H) Glad I listened to it
I) Didn’t really affect me.

Either an E or an F. Maybe a little of both. Could have been worse.

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