#244: Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible (1994)

Zack: It’s been my impression that musicians typically write the music before coming up with lyrics. Or, at best, they were devised in tandem. Apparently, Manic Street Preachers decided to switch up the formula, because Wikipedia leads me to believe that lyrics were priority No. 1, with writing suitable music for the subject material but a secondary concern. The result is frequently very smart, analytical lyrics with music devised to accentuate. Finding a suitable comparison for Manic Street Preachers is difficult, but it really reminded me of Pink Floyd. Okay, I’m sure I just lost everyone who has ever listened to even a single song from each, so let me explain myself. Everyone knows how Syd Barrett was the leader of Pink Floyd up until the time that his mental illness became too debilitating and he had to leave. Well, the lyrics from Holy Bible are clearly the product of a similarly unwell individual, and the exploration is fascinating. Take, for example, the song 4st 7lb, which is a reference to the minimum weight doctors say an anorexic person can be before they’re dead (4 stones, 7 pounds). Well, the leader of Manic Street Preachers suffered from anorexia – along with masochistic tendencies and alcoholism – and weighed only 6 stones. I don’t have internet right now, so I’m not sure what that is in human terms, but I’m guessing not good. Holy Bible has plenty of such dark inversion. But the entire album isn’t internal meditations. In plenty of places, the band favored highly political content. The most obvious example of this is probably IfWhiteAmericaToldTheTruthForOneDayIt'sWorldWouldFallApart. Besides for tricking every reader into thinking that my space bar had broken, it’s also a strong condemnation of American exceptionalism specifically and American politics generally. Other targets include British imperialism and the death penalty. The balance of this intense introversion and extroversion is really pretty special, and makes this album a very well hidden gem.

Favorite Tracks: IfWhiteAmericaToldTheTruthForOneDayIt'sWorldWouldFallApart; 4st 7lb, Yes

Emily: On the surface, the inclusion of this album seems like just more proof that this list is incredible Brit-centric. I had kind of heard of the Manic Street Preachers before from my Anglophile best friend, but other than that they don't seem to have achieved significant success outside the UK. It's just another random band that no one here cares about, I thought, but maybe it'll be more interesting than some of the others. Well, even though they may not hold as much renown as many of the artists on this list, the Manic Street Preachers certainly deserve to be invited to the party. With a post-punk inspired sound during the era of grunge, The Holy Bible hearkens back to the beginnings of alternative music, while the duality of political and personal lyrics makes it unique. Of course, with such a lyric-driven album and my propensity to not focus on lyrics during an initial listen, I'm sure there is much I missed, especially in Richey Edwards' emotional turmoil of addiction and depression. It's certainly worth multiple listens, which I will hopefully partake in soon enough.

Favorite Tracks: She is Suffering; IfWhiteAmericaToldTheTruthForOneDayIt'sWorldWouldFallApart; Faster

#243: Neil Young - Harvest (1972)

Emily: So Zack listened to this album almost 2 wweeks ago as he was packing up his old apartment. And he told me that he loved it. Loved it so much that he listened to it again and again and again until finally writing an essay of an album review. Clearly, this increased my anticipation for this album. My goal was, however, to listen to it without any information about why he gave it such a ringing endorsement. To do so, I didn't read his review nor did I really discussed the album with him (and I won't read his review until I finish writing this). And you know what? I really enjoyed it too. Harvest is a bit more country than my usual musical taste, but the rock influences and storytelling within the songs drew me in until the end. I definitely need to relisten to it in order to more fully flesh out my opinion, but for now I want to see what Zack had to say without further ado.
Favorite Tracks: There's a World; Old Man; Heart of Gold

Zack: It was but a week ago that I was complaining to Emily that no album had really separated itself from the pack as a leader for our slowly approaching 300 album award post. Obviously, there was and is still time, but seeing as we were rapidly approaching halfway through, the fact that nothing had really stuck out was alarming. Then I listened to Steely Dan and Bob Dylan and felt somewhat relieved. “Maybe a jaw-dropping album is too much to ask for,” I thought to myself. “Maybe I’ll just have to settle.” And then, ladies and gentlemen, Harvest. I took a few seconds away from packing up all of my worldly belongings to hit play, and immediately hit play again once it was over. From top to bottom, Harvest was fantastic. As much as I love Rust Never Sleeps, I had to admit that this was the superior product. You see, I’ve been delving into the Neil Young repertoire ever since I was floored by Rust Never Sleeps, or as best as I could. When an artist really wows me, I tend to do so. It got a bit complicated here, though, since Mr. Young has so many albums on the list (in a four-way tie for most with seven), and I didn’t want to listen to any of them before it was time. So I cheated a little but – I made a Neil Young Pandora station and listened to one or two live albums. I’ve heard some of these songs from those avenues. But something about hearing them all together is just so perfect. I think because the album really serves as a harvesting (see what I did there?) of all Neil Young’s influences. There are folksy songs, country songs, southern rock-esque songs (that lament the racist nature of the south at the time), and traditional 70s rock songs. Some songs are philosophic meditations and others are deeply personal laments. Some are bare bones, acoustic guitar and vocals while others are much more grandiose, even seeming like they belong on the Inception soundtrack. And all of it comes together to form something beautiful. Being pressed to pick favorite songs is hard because each song was tremendous in its own special way. Even the songs that I didn’t like as much I could easily see someone else really connecting with. Seriously, I’m going to pick three songs, but just know that Alabama or Old Man or Are You Ready for the Country or really any of the other songs could be in any of these places depending on the day and my mood.

Favorite Tracks: The Needle and the Damage Done; Heart of Gold; There’s a World

#242: T. Rex - Electric Warrior (1971)

Emily: Zack originally classified this album under psychedelic rock. Wikipedia says its glam rock. Both of those label, however, are somewhat misleading. There were psychedelic influences throughout Electric Warrior, as well as some grooving glam tracks, but the album transcends those genre lines and draws on a bunch of different sounds from the era. The result is fun, upbeat, and rockin'. Get it On, T. Rex's big international hit and the best-known song from this album, sounds almost like disco a few years early (with the awesome addition of glammy guitars). Is Electric Warrior the greatest of any of the genres it explores? Of course not, but it's still a great time to be had.
Favorite Tracks: Get it On; Mambo Sun; Rip Off

Zack: This album was a major disappointment, in that there wasn’t a single roar from a prehistoric apex predator. Really, that’s all I’ve ever wanted from an album. Once I got over that crushing blow, I came to be quite fond of Electric Warrior. It did a great job at embodying some of the musical trends that developed in the late 60s and early 70s while also avoiding the common pitfall of sounding dated. It wasn’t the greatest album of that year (I actually looked it up, and Who’s Next, What’s Going On, Sticky Fingers, From Fillmore East, Pearl, Blue and L.A. Woman were all released that year. And those are just the ones we’ve listened to already.) But it still was pretty solid overall and worth checking out.

Favorite Tracks: Get it On; Life’s a Gas; Mambo Sun

#241: Ice Cube - The Predator (1992)

Zack: More than any other West Coast G-funk album, I’ve been dying to listen to The Predator. More than Straight Outta Compton or The Chronic (which I’ve already listened to, but not in several years) or even Ice Cube’s more well-known album, AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted. Besides for the inclusion of It Was a Good Day, a song so fantastic that it has the inherent ability to make any day a good day, I knew his album served as somewhat of a chronicling of the emotional aftermath of the L.A. Riots. In that respect, The Predator is especially dynamic. The recording encompassed a long enough stretch that some songs clearly were recorded before the Rodney King cops’ verdict, and some after. Because of this distinction, some songs seem to really capture the visceral fury that people felt while others feel more like explanations for the aftermath. Most notably among the latter is We Had to Tear This Motherfucka Up, which details exactly why they had to tear that motherfucka up. Imbedded throughout the album are “inserts,” which effectively serve as skits like you see on so many other hip-hop albums. But these are way more interesting because of their content. One of the inserts is a clip from an interview where Ice Cube explains how his earlier albums were almost prophetic of the riots. Oh, and on top of all this, some songs sample the movie Predator 2, which you may remember as the one where a Predator hunts cartel members and police officers in Los Angeles. When all of this is mixed together, the product is an intensely smart, if often abrasive, political manifesto about race relations in a major urban center during a time of extreme crisis. And it’s even more impressive than I thought it would be.

Favorite Tracks: It Was a Good Day; Say Hi to the Bad Guy; We Had to Tear This Motherfucka Up

Emily: I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't get to actually listen to this album with Zack. He tends to be way more informed about rap, and knows what to listen for depending on the artist and album. Alas, I did this one on my own - but I think I did okay. The political themes caught my attention more. The sketches throughout the album illustrate different perspectives on race relations in the early '90s, including the police, the white perspective portrayed in the media, and most importantly the view of young African-Americans. Since Ice Cube recorded this album in LA during the Rodney King saga, the anger and sense of futility about these issues from the era is evident throughout. The effect is often abrasive, but the issues couldn't be addressed honestly in any other way. Ice Cube's album reflects the time and place it was made in, making it necessary listening to truly understand what was going on.

Favorite Tracks: It was a Good Day; Who Got the Camera?; When Will They Shoot?

#240: Todd Rundgren - A Wizard, a True Star (1973)

Zack: I read Wikipedia the day before listening to the album because I was bored and it’s like a billion degrees and I didn’t want to do anything else that might mean moving away from the fan. So I came into this album thinking it would be some sort of experimental version of The Beatles, sort of like Frank Zappa. And, in some places, it was. But in others, it sounded more like mid-to-late career Pink Floyd, which is impressive since it actually pre-dates mid-to-late era Pink Floyd. The most notable thing about this album is how short most of the songs are. That’s a problem I’ve run into with quite a few punk albums, because you look up and all of a sudden you’re 5 songs further in than you thought you were and you have to go back and figure out what songs you liked and didn’t. It wasn’t even that all the songs sounded the same – that’s actually very far from the truth. It was that all these different noises blended together very well, but in a way that was cohesive enough that actual changes in song were easily confused for just twists and turns in the melody of one song in particular. I want to go back and listen to this again under a set of circumstances that doesn’t involve having to formulate an opinion that I can write about because I think I’ll enjoy it more like that. For now, all I can really say is that it seemed to me to be something you have to listen all the way through. Picking just a few tracks here or there won’t give you the right idea of what it’s all about.

Favorite Tracks: Zen Archer; Rock and Roll Pussy; Just One Victory

Emily: As I listened to this album through my commutes to and from work today, I made sure to listen closely. Zack told me that the tracks tend to blend together since many are super short, and sometimes I tend to zone out while I'm multitasking during an album listen. The commute environment, while not always ideal by its tendency towards ambient noise that is way louder and more unpleasant than ambiance should be, worked really nicely today to eliminate any distractions so that I stayed intently focused on A Wizard, a True Star. It's kind of hard to evaluate the album on a song-by-song basis. Most of them on their own aren't spectacular; some are pretty lame in fact. However, when put together, it all makes sense. They flow into each other one by one, though not as one sound. Each is distinct, pulling from genres as diverse as psychedelic, progressive, early '60s pop, and soul. They fit together like a kaleidoscope, different and distorted and sometimes weird, but all making up the same picture. Only a nonstop listen will do this album justice, and I highly recommend that you do so.

Favorite Tracks: Zen Archer; When the Shit Hits the Fan/Sunset Blvd; I Don't Want to Tie You Down

#239: Fugazi - Repeater (1990)

Zack: My only real exposure to Fugazi was from a Philly-centric blog that swore by “Fugazi Friday.” Even then, I would only bother to actually listen to the song every once in a while, even though I liked what I heard. I wasn’t exactly surprised that Fugazi put together a solid discography in their time, most notably their debut album here. And I wasn’t really surprised by how solid of an album it was overall. What did surprise me was the degree to which it was a balance between a late-80s punk album and an early 90s alternative album. Considering this is their debut, I really was expecting more of a straight punk experience. But the balance really made it stand out from all the other debut punk albums on the list.

Favorite Tracks: Blueprint; Repeater; Two Beats Off

Emily: I too read the Philly-centric, Fugazi-Friday-featuring blog that Zack mentioned above. However, I never even bothered to listen to the Fugazi songs at all. Mostly because I usually read said blog at work or in other places where playing music is frowned upon, but also because I wanted to read about Philly rather than listen to seemingly unrelated songs. I've read a bit about Fugazi as well, though I forget where, and they're quite the influence on later alternative and punk music. Through all that, Fugazi seemed like the kind of band I would like but never bothered to check out. Now, presented with the opportunity to check them out (or else), I found out whether I actually would like them - and I did. Repeater, the band's debut, has a punk edge but isn't a punk album persay. It seems to bridge the gap between punk and the grunge/alternative sounds that emerged a few years later. This innovative combo makes it clear why Fugazi and this album in particular, while less successful than their later peers, was so influential for years to come. And it's a great listen to boot.

Favorite Tracks: Blueprint; Brendan #1; Shut the Door

#238: Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde (1966)

Emily: On an album like Blonde on Blonde, you can't help but be blown away by Bob Dylan's songwriting. The instrumentation is simple, just an acoustic guitar and harmonica solos. While sometimes the harmonica was a bit screechy for my taste, the overall subtlety and simplicity allow the lyrics to shine through. Dylan is a storyteller through and through, and here we get elegantly painted stories inspired by and with a backdrop of the blues. Rather than exploring social messages and issues, Dylan takes us through the stories of individuals, of cities, of love, of loss - beautiful stories of humanity. I guess I can't count myself in the anti-Dylan cohort anymore, because I know I'll return to Blonde on Blonde again and again.
Favorite Tracks: Visions of Johanna; Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again; One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)

Zack: I meant to relisten to Highway 61 Revisited before listening to this because I know that both take place in Dylan’s random electric phase and I wanted to compare them.  But then I decided just to listen to it with my brother instead because, hey, screw it. I’m kind of glad I did because it allowed me to appreciate Blonde on Blonde by itself in a vacuum of harmonica solos and screechy vocals. And damn, it was great. It was a double album, but it never seemed to get old or lag or anything. Every song felt fresh and unique from all the others. From reading Wikipedia’s helpful breakdown of each individual song (really useful on Dylan albums because it can give you a snapshot of what he’s talking about – not exactly easy when really compelling instrumentation meets classic Dylan crytpiticism,) I learned that this variation was caused mostly from different blues influences. Some were Memphis blues, some were Delta blues (hell yeah, Lightnin’ Hopkins!), some were Chicago blues, and so on. All of it was fantastic. Now that I’ve finished, I think I’d like to go back and listen to both Highway 61 and Blonde on Blonde back-to-back to get an idea of which I like better. But both definitely stand apart as really great albums.

Favorite Tracks: Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat; Pledging My Time; Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again