Sparklehorse Good Morning Spider

Sparklehorse Good Morning Spider

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Recorded after singer/songwriter Mark Linkous' accidental, near-fatal drug reaction and subsequent 12-week stay in London's St. Mary's Hospital, Good Morning Spider dwells in the liminal spaces between dreaming and waking, sickness and health, and living and dying. The album takes these grey areas and makes a world out of them, blending classic songwriting with an experimental sound that borrows from hi-fi and lo-fi. A natural progression from Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot, Good Morning Spider adds bubbling synths, ambient electronics, horns, and drum loops to the mix, giving songs like "Painbirds" an unclassifiable -- but distinctively Sparklehorse -- blend of darkness and childlike innocence. From driving songs like "Pig" and "Cruel Sun," to frail, winding ballads such as "Saint Mary" and "Come On In," to the experimental pop of "Ghost of His Smile" and "Sunshine," the album encompasses a rainbow of sounds and emotions but never loses focus.

The Comsat Angels Sleep No More

The Comsat Angels Sleep No More

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Sleep No More, the second Comsat Angels album, is a confident follow-up that contains a tighter and more cutting version of Waiting for a Miracle's alluring insularity. Going by "Eye Dance," the torrid opener, one might expect a more aggressive affair, but that's not necessarily the case. The album turns out to be neither as pop nor as fast, with a majority of the material playing out at a dirge-like pace. There were no singles. Like Magazine's Secondhand Daylight, or the Sound's All Fall Down, Sleep No More can be a trudge and quite bleak, perhaps even impenetrable at times. However, as with Waiting for a Miracle, the dynamics of the album become increasingly perceptible with each play, and the slowest, austerest passages begin to seem as intense as the few that slam and punch. With the exception of "Restless," a mood piece of harmonic flickers, light whispers, and low throb, the album is driven by Mik Glaisher's booming drums, which were recorded in a manner -- near a lift shaft, to be precise, with microphones placed on six surrounding floors -- that makes the album wholly enveloping and, occasionally, imposing. (Imagine Joy Division's "I Remember Nothing" and Talking Heads' "The Overload" on top of one another, doubled in heaviness.) The subject matter: not a big surprise, given the title of the album, with further adventures in malfunctioning-relationship purgatory, along with topical matter like "Dark Parade" (about the volatile hostage situation at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran), a song that hardly repeals the level of turmoil expressed elsewhere. Regardless of the continued strength in the songwriting, it's impossible not to get caught up in the album's sounds. The title track overwhelms with its swirling layers of guitar and keyboards over an unchanging drum pattern. The storming "Goat of the West" wastes no time in whipping itself into a controlled frenzy of churning guitars, punishing drums, and bewildered vocals ("Did you see what happened?/It's so funny that I'm not laughing"). On "At Sea," the rhythm section does the riffing, with Glaisher's thumping drums suctioned to Kevin Bacon's cavernous bass. While it's not as easy to enjoy as Waiting for a Miracle -- for a lot of listeners, it's that kind of album that requires some mental preparation -- Sleep No More is certainly more powerful, and it's also a greater achievement. Here, the Comsat Angels became one of the era's most exceptional bands

The Creatures Boomerang

The Creatures Boomerang

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Returning to full action after Siouxse and the Banshees revitalized themselves with the Peep Show album and tour, the Creatures once again recorded an album that took full advantage of their surroundings. Instead of tropical Hawaii, it was Spain that they and longtime producer Mike Hedges found themselves in, reflected in both the stark location photography from Anton Corbijn and the mix of Spanish-tinged music and lyrical themes. The lead-off track was also arguably the strongest: "Standing There," with a rhythm and horns assault Foetus or Yello would be proud of and Sioux at her most cutting against wolf-whistling male taunters and their ilk. The rest of the album proved a worthy follow-up to such a memorable start, whether creating Iberian-inspired pieces like the flamenco and trumpet-tinged "Manchild" or the strut of "Strolling Wolf" or following other individual impulses. Sioux's singing is some of her best both in and out of the Banshees, still retaining the shadowed mystery that she makes her own while drawing on an interesting range of styles, from cabaret to Nico-esque chanting. Budgie, meanwhile, continues to demonstrate why he's such a fantastic drummer and percussionist, from tribal stomps to lighter bell, marimba, steel drum, and other combinations, even a few electronic loops for good measure. The busy "Fury Eyes," which became the second single from the album, has the same quick pop feel as "Miss the Girl" with a more immediately fun edge. Blues/jazz influences crop up throughout Boomerang -- the wheezing harmonica on "Willow," the slow crawl of "Killing Time," and more -- and get a great new lease on life as a result. One of the best numbers marries a sassy low R&B base to futuristic ambient sound and very glam lyrics, "Pluto Drive," which on the CD version blends into the vocal/instrumental mood piece "Solar Choir" nicely

Alternative TV The Image Has Cracked The Alternative TV Collection

Alternative TV The Image Has Cracked The Alternative TV Collection

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Starting with a nuttily bombastic synth intro (courtesy of Squeeze's Jools Holland!) which sounds just like the music punk was supposed to be destroying might seem an unusual move for a band founded by the guy who chronicled the original London explosion. But it's that very contrariness in Mark Perry which made the original Alternative TV such a thrilling prospect, and which makes The Image Has Cracked an unfairly neglected classic from the late-'70s upheaval. Seizing on the promise of punk as being a new means of expression rather than a new set of musical rules to be adhered to, Perry, along with a solid-enough band, whip up a series of incendiary pieces that explore as much as they thrash, caught somewhere between the Fall's divine ramalama and three-chord snarls. "Alternatives" captures the tense spirit of the band's work perfectly, a live recording where over a gentle groove Perry invites audience members to come up and "use the soapbox," only to have a bunch of chancers and screamers talk a lot about nothing much at all, until Perry spits vitriol at a pair of people in a punch-up and complains about "diluted sh*t." As an expression of going down defiant while punk became a new fashion, it's fierce and brilliant. A good half of the album comes from the same concert, including the harrowing final track, "Splitting in Two," as perfect a capturing of nails-dug-in-flesh paranoia and indecision as anything in music history, revived as a live favorite years later by the Chameleons. The studio cuts include a solid run-through of Zappa's "Why Don't You Do Me Right?" and the closest ATV ever came to an anthemic single, "Action Time Vision." The 1994 CD version adds 11 extra tracks to the original album, including the reggae-inflected "Love Lies Limp" and "Life After Life" singles, among many others, making it the edition of Image to look for.

Faithless Reverence

Faithless Reverence 

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Maxi Jazz, the maestro behind Faithless, is well titled as "the grand oral disseminator." The tales he spins make this album a manifesto, religious experience, sexual escapade, and 24-hour rave all rolled up into one tightly constructed package. As Jazz explored hip-hop through the 1980s and his path converged with dub superstar Jah Wobble, the ultra funky Jamiroquai, and the Soul II Soul amalgamation (among others), the foundation was laid for the delicious blend of genres and sounds that would break through in the mid-'90s. Reverence is the culmination of all those experiences, as Jazz unleashes a fat packet worth of songs that are really an acid house tapestry in disguise. This album is best heard in one sitting, where all its styles work together to tell the story. But break it apart, peel the layers back, and the songs stand alone as well. The hypnotic title track serves nicely as an introduction, before it's waylaid by the downtempo soul ballad "Don't Leave," which is replete with needle, pops, and skips throughout. "Salva Mea," "Insomnia," and "Dirty Ol' Man," three very different songs, tangle themselves together and pick up the thread from "Reverence." "Angeline," meanwhile, emerges as a perfectly impassioned love song. The U.S. release includes the bonus "Monster Mix Radio Edit" of "Insomnia." Maxi Jazz hits a deep chord with this album. It's clubby enough for the kiddies, but is incredibly complex beyond the dancefloor. The songs are great, the beats are compelling, and it's almost impossible to not bounce around the room while listening. But this album is also a collection of shadows, of mirror images, where songs mimic one another before spinning off to do their own thing. Moments are caught and lost, tangled, and straightened out. Really, it's brilliant.

Bill Nelson Chimera

Bill Nelson Chimera

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Originally planned as a mere stopgap release between albums, Chimera turned out to be a welcome showcase for Bill Nelson at his peak, commercially and creatively. Following the triumph of his 1982 album The Love That Whirls, the British guitarist built Chimera in the same vein, setting his romantic and erotic poetry to the sort of synthesized settings favored by his younger pop peers. However, where much of Nelson's previous output had been a virtual one-man show, the six songs that form the original album benefit from his new desire to collaborate, most notably with Yellow Magic Orchestra drummer Yukihiro Takahashi (whose band Nelson had produced). The result is the elegant dance music of "Everyday Feels Like a New Drug" and "Glow World"; the latter song also features the rubbery fretless bass of Japan's Mick Karn and is perhaps the best of all the attempts at this sort of oriental funk made by Karn's bandmates, Gary Numan, and several other artists. The guests don't seem to have sparked Nelson's desire to return to his Red Noise, guitar-hero days (although he does crank out some jagged, Robert Fripp-style leads in "The Real Adventure"), but the focus here was on balancing Nelson's instrumental and theoretical fights of fancy with the demands of modern pop, a job performed with aplomb. [Some reissues add two songs apiece from the previous albums Quit Dreaming and Get on the Beam and The Love That Whirls.]

Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart Without Judgement

Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart Without Judgement

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Following his split from P.I.L. in the early '80s, bassist Jah Wobble was more likely to be found sweeping tubeway stations than performing on stages, and by the middle of the decade, his musical output had all but ground to a halt. It was not until 1986, when Wobble met guitarist Justin Adams, that his creative juices began flowing again. The two hit it off musically, and began experimenting with a diverse palette of pop, dub, Middle Eastern, and North African influences. This laid the foundation for what would eventually become their new group, Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart. Keyboard/percussionist David Harrow and Urban Dance Squad drummer Michel Schoots joined soon after, and the quartet began earnestly working on new material. By 1987, the band had worked out a polished live set and decided it was time to take the show to the Netherlands (where Wobble still had an avid following), do a tour, and record. The result was JWIOTH's debut album Without Judgement. Pieced together from live, two-track DAT recordings made during performances in Holland, the album managed to sound relaxed, free, and spontaneous while maintaining an air of calculation and precision. Unlike most live albums, the fact that Without Judgement was, indeed, recorded live was not immediately apparent. The only crowd noise present occurred during the fade-out of the last track and the album itself was edited together in such a way that full songs found themselves placed among snippets of instrumental interlude and sound atmospherics. This unconventional approach may have seemed like a recipe for disaster, but in the talented hands of editor Step Parikian, the flow between musical ideas was tasteful, seamless, and, above all, interesting. All of the influences that would later define Jah Wobble's style could be found on Without Judgement, in their raw forms. Wobble's characteristically simple, catchy, and repetitive bass-hooks were just coming into maturity, and served as the main driving force throughout the album. Typified by tunes like the menacing-but-groovy "What the Problem Is" and the Bowie-esque "What Will You Say," Jah Wobble's bass mantras proved to be as creative as they were insistent. His songwriting was also maturing and subject matter ran the gamut from the spiritual ("Good Ghosts") to the satirical ("Burger Bar"). The North African and Middle Eastern influences (which permeated all of Wobble's later work) could be found peppered throughout Without Judgement, and were most apparent in Justin Adams' psycho-arabic guitar solos and David Harrow's ethnic-tinged samples. With all of these fresh elements, raw guts, and polished execution, Without Judgement still shines as the toughest album Jah Wobble has made under his own name. Fans of his later, more ambient work (mid-'90s and beyond) may find this record's aggressiveness alarming; but longtime fans will agree, although not representational of Jah Wobble's entire body of work, Without Judgement is absolutely essential.

Mudhoney Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge

Mudhoney Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge

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In mid-1991, grunge was poised to make its entrance into the spotlight of global popular culture as Nirvana's Nevermind was being readied for release. But Mudhoney didn't know that as they began work on their second album, and they were starting to tire of the monolithic hard rock/metal side of their sound. Taking a detour back into the garage rock and early punk influences that meant as much to them as Blue Cheer, they booked time in Conrad Uno's cozy eight-track recording facility Egg Studio, and soon emerged with Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge, a proudly stripped-down and wiry effort that appeared two months before Nevermind. If 1989's Mudhoney seemed a bit short of inspiration as the band figured out where to go after the Superfuzz Bigmuff EP, EGBDF was leaner, meaner, and a great deal more enthusiastic, and "Let It Slide," "Into the Drink," and "Who You Drivin' Now" took the noisy report of "Touch Me, I'm Sick" and gave it a good bit more snarl and rattle, which worked strongly in their favor. EGBDF also sounded like Mudhoney were having more fun than on their first long-player; the lo-fi organ accents fit this music just right, Mark Arm's vocal howlings are gleeful snottiness personified, Steve Turner's gloriously dirty guitar solos were paeans of scuzziness from deep inside the soul, and Matt Lukin and Dan Peters were the perfect rhythm section for this music. The songwriting was also considerably stronger than on their previous LP, and just as the rockers at once stomped harder and seemed lighter on their feet, slower tunes like "Broken Hands" and "Check Out Time" dug deeper into their bluesy side and revealed how strong their ominous alter ego could be. Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge was Mudhoney's declaration that they didn't need grunge to survive, and if their timing proved to be a bit off, their musical instincts were faultless, and it's one of their very best albums.