Compare Spirit of Eden with any other previous release in the Talk Talk catalog, and it's almost impossible to believe it's the work of the same band -- exchanging electronics for live, organic sounds and rejecting structure in favor of mood and atmosphere, the album is an unprecedented breakthrough, a musical and emotional catharsis of immense power. Mark Hollis' songs exist far outside of the pop idiom, drawing instead on ambient textures, jazz-like arrangements, and avant-garde accents; for all of their intricacy and delicate beauty, compositions like "Inheritance" and "I Believe in You" also possess an elemental strength -- Hollis' oblique lyrics speak to themes of loss and redemption with understated grace, and his hauntingly poignant vocals evoke wrenching spiritual turmoil tempered with unflagging hope. A singular musical experience.
Tearing by at a breakneck speed, I Should Coco is a spectacularly eclectic debut by Supergrass, a trio barely out of their teens. Sure, the unbridled energy of the album illustrates that the band is young, yet what really illustrates how young the bandmembers are is how they borrow from their predecessors. Supergrass treat the Buzzcocks, the Beatles, Elton John, David Bowie, Blur, and Madness as if they were all the same thing -- they don't make any distinction between what is cool and what isn't, they just throw everything together. Consequently, the jittery "Caught by the Fuzz" slams next to the music hall rave-up "Mansize Rooster," the trippy psychedelia of "Sofa (Of My Lethargy)," the heavy stomp of "Lenny," and the bona fide anthem "Alright." I Should Coco is the sound of adolescence, but performed with a surprising musical versatility that makes the record's exuberant energy all the more infectious.
At first, Fate of Nations seems so light and airy that it slips away through the layers of acoustic guitars, violins, and keyboards. Upon further listenings, more textures appear, and the album gains a calm sense of tension and reflectiveness. It's also Robert Plant's most personal record ever; he addresses the death of his son in the beautiful "I Believe." Simultaneously, Fate of Nations is a political album -- "Great Spirit" and "Network News" are two of the most socially conscious songs Plant has ever written. Yet, the album is never heavy-handed and doesn't fall into sermonizing or sentimentality. Plant has always had a folkie heart; on Fate of Nations, he wears it on his sleeve. [The 2007 edition features five bonus tracks highlighted by acoustic versions of "Great Spirit" and Dark Moon," along with a demo version of "Rollercoaster".]
In between Violator and Songs of Faith and Devotion, a lot happened: Nirvana rewrote the ideas of what "alternative" was supposed to be, while Nine Inch Nails hit the airwaves as the most clearly Depeche-influenced new hit band around. In the meantime, the band went through some high-profile arguing as David Gahan turned into a long-haired, leather-clad rocker and pushed for a more guitar-oriented sound. Yet the odd thing about Songs of Faith and Devotion is that it sounds pretty much like a Depeche Mode album, only with some new sonic tricks courtesy of Alan Wilder and co-producer Flood. Perhaps even odder is the fact that it works incredibly well all the same. "I Feel You," opening with a screech of feedback, works its live drums well, but when the heavy synth bass kicks in with the wailing backing vocals, even most rockers might find it hard to compete. Martin Gore's lyrical bent, as per the title, ponders relationships through distinctly religious imagery; while the gambit is hardly new, on songs like the centerpiece "In Your Room," the combination of personal and spiritual love blends perfectly. Outside musicians appear for the first time, including female backing singers on a couple of tracks, most notably the gospel-flavored "Condemnation" and the uilleann pipes on "Judas," providing a lovely intro to the underrated song (later covered by Tricky). "Rush" is the biggest misstep, a too obvious sign that Nine Inch Nails was a recording-session favorite to unwind to. But with other numbers such as "Walking in My Shoes" and "The Mercy in You" to recommend it, Songs of Faith and Devotion continues the Depeche Mode winning streak.
The Primitives' sound pretty much defines the lighter side of British pop in the late '80s: straight-ahead pop melodies tinged with a bit of Manchester danceability and shoegazer experimentation. Some of the Primitives' more "pop" songs are a bit too straightforward and bland, but the majority of Lovely is well-written enough to make up for the occasional lapse into plainness. The album is at its best when the band departs from its pop sound -- the Jesus and Mary Chain-inspired noise of "Spacehead" and "Stop Killing Me," or the Eastern-sounding "Shadow," with its sitar and backwards vocals, stand out as some of the more artistically worthwhile tracks. The Primitives, however, are more about writing hooky pop songs than making great artistic strides; Lovely's most memorable tracks are built around P.J. Court's simple, jangly guitar lines and Tracey's sweet, melodic vocals. the Primitives are a consistently exciting listen. [The 2013 reissue features remastered sound and a bonus disc of singles, mixes, and live tracks. Includes the excellent single "Way Behind Me," which was tacked on to the American release of the album.]
While Sonic Youth diehards may complain that 1992's Dirty is the first of their albums to receive the deluxe reissue treatment -- complete with an extra disc of B-sides, unreleased rehearsals and demos, and, of course, liner notes with essays by Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, and Byron Coley, among others -- its place in the band's discography as their (relatively) most commercial, and commercially successful, album makes it a financially savvy starting point and whets the appetite for the eventual Daydream Nation, Sister, Goo, and other reissues that the Dirty deluxe edition will hopefully spawn. The album itself remains one of Sonic Youth's best balances of experimentalism and accessibility, with just enough nods to the grunge/alternative explosion to connect it with that era, but not so many that it sounds dated. "100%," "Drunken Butterfly," and "Youth Against Fascism" -- with their crunching, crushing guitars; upfront drums; and relatively tight song structures -- are as close as the band gets to grunge, but it's grunge that's been filtered through Sonic Youth's arty, detached stance: they never sound as desperately, poetically angry as Nirvana or as rowdy and smart-assed as Mudhoney did. That's not to say that the band doesn't sound passionate on Dirty, however. Actually, the emphasis on pop structures and melodies provides the perfect setting for some of Sonic Youth's most explicitly political statements -- by appearing on an album that was originally released in the twilight of one Bush administration and reissued during another, the aforementioned "Youth Against Fascism" sounds both retro and eerily prescient. The more mainstream approach also allows the band to explore love and lust in surprisingly straightforward ways, such as the sexy "Purr" and "Sugar Kane" as well as Lee Ranaldo's beautiful, dysfunctional love song "Wish Fulfillment." Likewise, Dirty also features some of Kim Gordon's best moments, ranging from feminist manifestos like "Swimsuit Issue," "Shoot," and "On the Strip" to the breathy allure of "Crème Brulee." As strong as the material that made it on Dirty is, there are a couple of moments among the extra songs that rival the album's quality. Most of these come from the B-sides, which have a looser, slightly more open feel than Dirty itself. Ranaldo's "Genetic" is easily the poppiest song from the sessions and arguably one of the most heartfelt songs the band has ever recorded, and sounds more akin to Dinosaur Jr.'s distortion-drenched vulnerability than the emotional distance usually associated with Sonic Youth. Gordon's prominence in the sessions continues with the garagey "Is It My Body" and the deadpan cover of "Personality Crisis"; while neither is quite on par with her star turns on the album proper, they're notable for the lively, off-the-cuff feel that radiates from Gordon and the rest of the band. The practice sessions offer another kind of intimacy, giving a fly-on-the-wall perspective on Dirty's creation, for better or worse; individually, previously unreleased instrumental jams like "Lite Damage" and "Dreamfinger" reveal the band beginning to really jell creatively, but -- by their very nature -- are undeveloped and start to sound a little tedious back-to-back, though it's tempting to think of what they might have become were they more fully fleshed-out. The demos of the songs that made it on to Dirty, however, are fun for fans to pore over, offering treats like "Barracuda," an unleashed instrumental version of "Drunken Butterfly" that probably owes its working title to the striking resemblance the song's main riff owes to Heart's song of the same name. The multiple versions of "Wish Fulfillment" are almost a mini-course in how to put a song together, ranging from the riff-and-drum-machine demo "Little Jammy Thing" to a song-sketch of Ranaldo's vocals and guitar to "Guido," a full-band rehearsal instrumental that finds the group tinkering around with a near-final arrangement. And while Sonic Youth didn't put any live material from the Dirty era on the reissue, loose, raw performances such as "Moonface" (aka, "JC" on the album), "Theoretical Chaos" ("Swimsuit Edition"), and "Youth Against Fascism" have a spontaneity that's the next best thing to hearing them in concert. One minor flaw in the deluxe edition is how the bonus material is divided between the discs; due to the time constraints of CDs, it was probably inevitable that some of the B-sides had to go on the first disc with Dirty itself, but it would have been ideal to have the album stand on its own and keep the extra songs on disc two. Nitpicking aside, the deluxe edition of Dirty is a great reissue; while its bonus material isn't quite as extensive or revelatory as that of the stellar Pavement Slanted & Enchanted: Luxe & Reduxe, it's clearly lovingly crafted and very much worthwhile for Sonic Youth's fans,
After recording one of their darkest albums, 1984's The Top, the Cure regrouped and shuffled their lineup, which changed their musical direction rather radically. While the band always had a pop element in their sound and even recorded one of the lightest songs of the '80s, "The Lovecats," The Head on the Door is where they become a hitmaking machine. The shiny, sleek production and laser-sharp melodies of "Inbetween Days" and "Close to Me" helped them become modern rock radio staples and the inspired videos had them in heavy rotation on MTV. The rest of the record didn't suffer for hooks and inventive arrangements either, making even the gloomiest songs like "Screw" and "Kyoto Song" sound radio-ready, and the inventive arrangements (the flamenco guitars and castanets of "The Blood," the lengthy and majestic intro to "Push," the swirling vocals on "The Baby Screams") give the album a musical depth previous efforts lacked. All without sacrificing an ounce of the emotion of the past, which songs as quietly desperate as "A Night Like This" and "Sinking" illustrate. With The Head on the Door, Robert Smith figured out how to make gloom and doom danceable and popular to both alternative and mainstream rock audiences. It was a feat the band managed to pull off for many years afterward, but never as concisely or as impressively as they did here.
While Gish had placed the Smashing Pumpkins on the "most promising artist" list for many, troubles were threatening to break the band apart. Singer/guitarist/leader Billy Corgan was battling a severe case of writer's block and was in a deep state of depression brought on by a relationship in turmoil; drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was addicted to hard drugs; and bassist D'Arcy and guitarist James Iha severed their romantic relationship. The sessions for their sophomore effort, Siamese Dream, were wrought with friction -- Corgan eventually played almost all the instruments himself (except for percussion). Some say strife and tension produces the best music, and it certainly helped make Siamese Dream one of the finest alt-rock albums of all time. Instead of following Nirvana's punk rock route, Siamese Dream went in the opposite direction -- guitar solos galore, layered walls of sound courtesy of the album's producers (Butch Vig and Corgan), extended compositions that bordered on prog rock, plus often reflective and heartfelt lyrics. The four tracks that were selected as singles became alternative radio standards -- the anthems "Cherub Rock," "Today," and "Rocket," plus the symphonic ballad "Disarm" -- but as a whole, Siamese Dream proved to be an incredibly consistent album. Such compositions as the red-hot rockers "Quiet" and "Geek U.S.A." were standouts, as were the epics "Hummer," "Soma," and "Silverfuck," plus the soothing sounds of "Mayonaise," "Spaceboy," and "Luna." After the difficult recording sessions, Corgan stated publicly that if Siamese Dream didn't achieve breakthrough success, he would end the band. He didn't have to worry for long -- the album debuted in the Billboard Top Ten and sold more than four million copies in three years. Siamese Dream stands alongside Nevermind and Superunknown as one of the decade's finest (and most influential) rock albums
