Trainspotting concerns the adventures of a group of young, nearly criminal, drug-addicted Scottish friends. The novel, written by Irvine Welsh, became one of the most popular books in the British indie scene in the early '90s and was adapted to film in 1996 by the makers of Shallow Grave. Appropriately, an all-star collection of British pop and techno stars -- everyone from Blur, Pulp, and Elastica to Leftfield, Primal Scream, and Underworld -- contributed to the soundtrack, which also features a couple of oldies by veteran punk godfathers like Lou Reed ("Perfect Day") and Iggy Pop ("Lust for Life," "Nightclubbing"). The entire soundtrack holds together surprisingly well, as the techno tracks balance with the pop singles. Every song, whether it's Pulp's deceptively bouncy "Mile End" or Brian Eno's lush "Deep Blue Day," is quite melancholy, creating an effectively bleak, but Oddly romantic, atmosphere for the entire record. With the exception of the oldies, every song is rare or especially recorded for the soundtrack, and nearly every one is superb. Primal Scream's title track sees them returning to the dub/dance experiments of Screamadelica with grace, while Damon Albarn's first solo song, "Closet Romantic," is as good as any of Blur's waltzes. But the finest new song is Pulp's "Mile End," with its jaunty, neo-dancehall melody and rhythms and Jarvis Cocker's evocative, haunting lyrics. That song, more than anything else on the soundtrack, captures the feeling of the film.
Did Echo & the Bunnymen ever make a classic album? Not just a good album – because almost all of their releases were good – but a stone cold classic. Maybe not. Most fans would state that Ocean Rain is their magnum opus, but is it possible that Porcupine, their third album, is equally as strong and was simply overshadowed by the work that followed?
Firstly, very few albums have ever started with a two-song salvo as strong as ‘The Cutter’ and ‘The Back of Love’ – two post-punk classics that demonstrate The Bunnymen’s ability to be as playful as they are introspective, where the band drift between the two moods seamlessly within the songs. The rest of the album, while not containing any more timeless hits, finds a satisfying level of emotional depth without ever coming across as over-bearing or pretentious.
A clever technique employed on Porcupine is the way that Ian McCulloch’s vocals are treated. On ‘Clay’ they sound like another Instrument, reverberating almost as much as Will Sergeant’s guitar – something that often nearly single-handedly lifts the Bunnymen above many of their peers. He has an unrivalled ability to add the perfect amount of guitar at any point, whether it’s the provocative chords in ‘Porcupine’ or those iconic jabs at the start of ‘The Back of Love’. However, that isn’t to say that Les Pattinson’s elastic bass-playing or Pete De Freitas’ tight drumming aren’t just as vital to the band’s sound. Having all the members of a band play damn close to their full potential without sounding self-absorbed is a pretty rare thing but it’s hard to deny that it happens here.
On the 2003 remaster of the album, the final track is ‘Never Stop (Discotheque)’ – one of the greatest dance-rock tracks of the decade. It’s definitely the edition to pick up if you can. Although arguing about which edition to choose is splitting hairs; the fundamental point is that Porcupine is definitely the album to pick up.
After ten years together, eight of those spent on the U.K. charts, Placebo exhume their past with Once More With Feeling: Singles 1996-2004. This 19-song collection includes all of their biggest hits, most notably "Nancy Boy" and "Pure Morning." It's also a look back on Placebo's conscious effort to maintain a campy, glam rock-influenced rock sound. Placebo achieved great success in their native U.K. (and at a college radio level in the U.S.) at the height of both grunge in the mid-'90s and the teen pop/emo excursions just as the new millennium got underway. As much as frontman Brian Molko's sexuality was called into question and the band's exterior appearance was a topic of conversation among the U.K. music press, Molko's androgynous appeal was equally intriguing as his gender-bending presence as a singer, so style and substance worked in favor of Placebo's place in music. Was he the pop Generation's new David Bowie? No, but he yearned to attract fans much like Bowie did during the 1970s. Molko's pixie-like peculiarity only added to Placebo's star power, so Naturally the timing of Once More With Feeling is a nice fit in the Placebo discography. It's arrangement is out of order; however, all the singles released from their 1996 self-titled debut to the fierce neo-glam statement that is 2003's Sleeping With Ghosts sound as great as they ever did. What's nice is how the select tracks from Black Market Music -- "Taste in Men," "Special K," "Slave to the Wage" -- age better simply because Placebo has aged well. The direction of Sleeping With Ghosts does the same, holding promise for what's yet to come from Placebo; just check out "The Bitter End." For a fan who has already bought every Placebo single, Once More With Feeling is only necessary for collecting purposes. For those who haven't, this singles collection is a great place to start.
Downside Up. A 4 disc, 55 song, (34 of which appear on CD for the first time) chronological collection, of every Banshee B Side, remastered. A 76 page booklet, an introduction by Mark Paytress (author of the recent official Banshees biography), a brief word from Siouxsie and individual notes for each track by Siouxsie, Budgie and Severin.
How long have we lived with these songs in one form or another?
Finally you can throw away your dusty, crackling vinyl, distorted, hissy cassettes and overpriced badly put together bootlegs, because this is the 'Real McCoy'.
Where to start? How about, forget everything you know and everything you've heard. Pretend you only have a basic knowledge of the Banshees from their classic singles. The upside to this is we can turn it all on its head and delve into the downside for the first time.
The Banshees started their recording career with the sprightly, poppy takeaway Hong Kong Garden, more pop than punk, more accessible than anyone dared dream of, and like a true Chinese Take Away, they served up the sour with the sweet on the flip side, Voices. This isn't pop its art, it's the perfect antidote, harsh, clashing Guitar and Siouxsie's swooping vocal. This is where the journey begins. A journey that will take you almost full circle. From the experimental, the historical, the nostalgic, the sheer joy of being free of any restrictions.
So, what is a B Side? The A Side (topside) is generally a commercial, a preview, an introduction to the full feature, normally an album. The B Side (downside), can be any number of things, the only restrictions being a band's imagination or creativity.
Whilst many bands take the easy route and include a remix, live favourite, or an album track, the Banshees perform the rare feat of indulging themselves and their audience. Downside Up is not the tip of an iceberg, but the huge mass that is unseen below the waterline.
At times the Banshees had an uncanny knack of continuing the theme, sound, or feel of a single on to it's b sides, Pulled To Bits, Eve White/Eve Black, Let Go.
The B Side became an opportunity to pay homage to influences and heroes, 20th Century Boy, She Cracked, All Tomorrow's Parties. Revisit childhood memories, Supernatural Thing, Il Est Ne Le Divin Enfant. Push boundaries, Voices, Slap Dash Snap. And have fun, both with themselves, their critics and their audience, Conga Congo, There's A Planet In My Kitchen.
Downside Up documents the Banshees progress as musicians, as a band and as individuals. As Important as it is to finally have this great collection of songs on an official release, equally as Important is the excellent work that was involved in remastering these songs. Everything sounds brand new, fresh and sharp. Most impressive is probably the 2nd disc. Disc 1 deals mainly with the rawer songs, songs recorded with less instrumentation, disc 3 deals mainly with songs that have previously been available on CD in one format or another. Although the remastering is pristine throughout it is disc 2 and disc 4 (The Thorn E.P.) that benefit the most from remastering. By disc 2 and the opening whoosh of Tattoo, the Banshees had augmented their sound still further and the production on these songs is superb. Let Go, I Promise, Something Blue, all showcase a more delicate and multihued Banshees and it's possible to hear sounds, instruments, that you would swear were never there on your dusty old vinyl versions.
After the disaster that was Kill Uncle, in 1992 Morrissey revamped his band by adding Boz Boorer who was the musical driving force of the rockabilly revival act, The Polecats. Boorer added the creative push that Morrissey needed in the instrumental department. Gone were the “soft” singles like Suedehead and Everyday Is Like Sunday, and in replacement, we are provided with singles such as, "You're The One For Me Fatty", and "Tomorrow" which has much more power in them. Unlike Viva Hate where the music were mostly in the background and Morrissey’s lyrics on the forefront, both the Instruments and voice compliment eachother. Neither overpower the other.
The albums opening song, “You’re Going To Need Someone On Your Side”, displays this new found power and aggression. It is unlike any song he has done before, the instruments pound the way for Morrissey's lovely singing voice. It provides a taste of what musical onslaught of euphoria and aggression that will inevitably provide.
Morrissey’s wit and humor is still present as shown in the single, “You’re The One For Me, Fatty”, very few pop artists would sing a love song in such a brash way, and it works for him. It is something he would write, and it is one of the shining moments in the album. It starts off with a gentle Guitar rhythm, in which the drums and the Voice joins in on the fun. Throughout the song, the bassist really brings down the groundwork and works well with the drummer to tie into the music. Musically, it is filling slice of necessity.
“Seasick, But Still Docked”, is what I believe is one of his most brilliant songs and it is also the most gentle, it begins with an acoustic number, soon after Morrissey begins to softly sing, it relates to the Smiths single, “How Soon Is Now?”, not in the musical aspect, but the context of what he is singing about. It is such a depressing song, but Morrissey does sad well. It really will pull on your heartstrings and wreck them. The Albums closer, "Tomorrow", is such a catchy tune. It'll have you dancing on the top of a Chair, facing a mirror emulating the unmistakable voice. Again, this songs instrumental department takes a step on the forefront and really lays down all backing that Morrissey needs.
Overall, it is one of Morrissey’s shining albums. It is in league with “Vauxhall And I” and it is what Morrissey needed after Kill Uncle meanwhile shooting him up with success in the United States. It has both feeling and power, both Morrissey and band really work together to provide the best in each other.
Originally released in May 1996, Walking Wounded was something of a watershed album for the duo, on which they fully embraced the dance sound that could hardly be further from the acoustic jazziness of their first album Eden, which came some 12 years earlier. However, far from being a calculated move to boost their popularity, the change in sound was a gradual and organic process, that began the previous year with Tracey’s highly successful appearance on Massive Attack’s ‘Protection’, on which the Bristol band rightly suspected that her ‘desolate’ vocals would perfectly suit their wonderfully weathered electronic sound. They were right.
The real ‘dance revelation’ though came with Todd Terry’s remix of Everything But The Girl’s ‘Missing’ single, which became a massive worldwide hit a few months later, having undeservedly stalled at No.69 when released in its original incarnation. So against this backdrop of events, it is perhaps not as surprising that the band produced a full-on Electronic dance album like Walking Wounded. Anyone hearing the album for the first time would possibly be astonished to discover that the band were not always this way, so natural is the sound.
Beginning with a trio of hits‘Before Today’ sets the mood with its drum and bass stylings, giving way to Top 10 hit ‘Wrong’, which also appears here in three remixed versions and a live version, the Todd Terry mix again being a hugely successful collaboration. ‘Single’, another subtly chart-friendly track, makes up this opening salvo.
The real highlight though remains the title track; the lead single and the first EBTG single since the ubiquitous ‘Missing’, it no doubt found itself under pressure to perform in the charts and I am sure it would have been a relief to the duo when it flew at No.6 just ahead of its parent album’s release. The song is perfection, with minimal but dramatic synth lines combining perfectly with the drum and bass beat and Tracey’s wonderful vocals, which further demonstrate her extraordinarily versatile style. ‘Walking Wounded’ is represented here with additional remixes from Omni Trio and Dave Wallace; both are good but neither approaches the majesty of the original.
Beach Boys references, samples of obscure films, samples of not-so-obscure prog rock trios -- whether or not one faults Saint Etienne for being style-over-substance cultural archivists, they did release some of the best dance-pop singles of the '90s. The dancefloor aspect hasn't leant itself to a timeless sheen to each one of them, but truthfully, people who find nothing to like about the group -- not a single song -- probably don't like pop music. And God only knows thousands of broke Saint Etienne fans vehemently disagree with the axiom that record collectors shouldn't make records. Throughout the '90s, Bob Stanley, Pete Wiggs, and Sarah Cracknell kept one foot in the past and the other in the present, making musical jigsaw puzzles out of sounds old and new. For many, Saint Etienne has provided a gateway into '60s pop, reggae, Northern soul, and techno. Smash the System, a swollen update of the Too Young to Die singles compilation, demonstrates their niche. Barring one song, this package contains everything Too Young to Die features and picks up where it left off, patching on the two singles from 1998's Good Humor (the compilation ends chronologically with 1999's Places to Visit EP). But wait -- there's more. In addition to the 14 A-sides, a hodgepodge of album tracks and rarities -- seven of which are taken from Japan-only compilations -- are selected to fill out the remainder of the two-disc set. As a place to start, one could do far worse. However, due to the sheer volume of decent-to-great Saint Etienne material floating around, there's no way that two discs could possibly give listeners everything they need.
When the Scottish pop band Orange Juice split up in January of 1985, it didn’t seem too likely that they would become one of the more influential bands of the era. Yes, their early singles on the tiny Postcard label Generated some excitement, and they had a bona fide chart hit with the 1983’s single "Rip It Up," but their career had mostly come to a sputtering halt outside the lens of the public eye. One Short year later, with the rise of C-86 and the early indie pop bands, the brightly scrappy attitude and scruffily melodic sound of early Orange Juice suddenly became popular again. Fast forward to the mid-'90s and Belle & Sebastian, then Franz Ferdinand and more, to see that the Orange Juice legacy lives on as strongly as ever. The songs of Edwyn Collins (and those of James Kirk) have been required listening for a large number of great pop bands. Thanks to the release of 2005’s The Glasgow School, which made all the band’s early recordings widely available for the first time, even more bands were able to draw inspiration from the band and their sound. In 2010, all the band’s recorded output was finally made easily accessible.
Put together in part by Edwyn Collins, the Box set …Coals to Newcastle is beautiful to look at, wonderful to listen to, and basically a dream come true for Orange Juice fans who weren’t able to get a hold of the original albums or the Japanese CD reissues. Even if you did own either of those, Coals is still worth seeking out for all the extras. The six-CD/one-DVD set contains all of the band’s recorded output: the early singles, the three studio albums, the Texas Fever EP, a full complement of B-sides, a handful of demos and different mixes, a disc of BBC sessions, two videos, live footage from the Old Grey Whistle Test, and a very '80s concert video (Dada with the Juice) that the final incarnation of the band made. The Glasgow School is included as the first disc, and it’s still amazing to hear all the singles and demos cut in that short period of time (between 1980 and 1981) all strung together. Songs like "Blue Boy," "Falling and Laughing," and "Lovesick" bubble and pop in a brilliant mix of wise-ass punk and off-kilter disco, at once creating and defining a new kind of pop. The joy and energy that radiate from these tracks is life-affirming. While common wisdom states that the Postcard singles were the artistic high point of the band, the three albums and EP that the revamped (and shifting) band produced are perfectly good, even sometimes great. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find a better early-'80s pop album that their debut, You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever. Hearing the discs one after the other with all the assorted B-sides, live cuts, and spare tracks, you can see that the progression the band makes from lo-fi kids thrashing about in the studio to polished pros working with esteemed reggae producer Dennis Bovell does nothing to detract from the humanity and soul in the songs, and especially in the voice and vision of Edwyn Collins. Add to these discs the uniformly excellent BBC sessions, and you have a full picture of one of the most Important and enjoyable groups of the modern pop era. …Coals to Newcastle is everything an Orange Juice fan could have hoped for and a simply thrilling example of how to put together a box set.
