Power, Corruption & Lies

Despite the fact that this is one of my favorite album titles of all time, and I've always been a fan of the band, I never picked up Power, Corruption & Lies until last month. I figured since I'm going to see New Order tomorrow night for the first time, I should finally pull the trigger and get it. To my mild surprise, it's now among my favorite records of all time.

New Order, like its band predecessor Joy Division, has a kind of weird album/singles release history. Joy Division often would release it's marquee singles (e.g., "Love Will Tear Us Apart") separate from and exclusive from the studio albums; the only way you can get some songs is to buy the "Substance" compilations. Likewise with New Order, many of its best known 1980's songs - "Blue Monday" and "True Faith", e.g., are available only on its "Substance" compilation.

I didn't get into album-format until I had gotten a lot older, and I didn't have a lot of money back in the day. What this translates to is that I was very content to just get the "Best Of" collections and assume that I had everything essential. Only when I started buying albums more did I realize that invariably my favorite songs wouldn't be the songs you heard on the radio (back in the day) or released as singles. Anyway, these factors contributed to my reluctance to buy any actual New Order albums prior to Substance.

Two years ago I picked up New Order's newest Music Complete, which I thought was amazing, and that led me to being very interested in seeing the band live when they came around. While looking around for set lists of the band, I noticed a lot of the songs they played were not the "hits" per se, so I figured it might be time to check out their other works.

Power, Corruption & Lies in original release form doesn't contain even one song that I would consider to be in what I'd consider to be familiar to the average listener; there aren't any easily recognizable tunes. What it does contain is probably no less than four of my all-time favorite New Order songs now. That's including such classics as "Bizarre Love Triangle" and "Temptation". Of the latter, I'd put "The Village" up there with an instantly singable, danceable love track. "Age of Consent" sounds as fresh today as it may have 35 years ago. "Your Silent Face"'s beat I could put on an endless loop track to zone out to. And the album finishes with the languishing sad but fast beating "Leave Me Alone". It's crazy-listenable.

Of note, some of the later releases of the album decided to include singles "Blue Monday" and "Thieves Like Us" -- but released around the era of the album -- to pad it and no doubt make it more marketable. I wouldn't include these powerhouse songs, personally; the album stands so strongly on its own without them. That's how good it is.

The Lion and the Cobra

It seems so long ago, and really it kind of was, when Sinead O'Connor first crashed into and dominated the alternative music scene way back in 1990 with her second album, "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got".  That album's signature song, "Nothing Compares 2U", written by Prince, was anywhere and everywhere that year.  The album was nominated for four Grammy Awards, in 1991, winning the award for Best Alternative Music Performance (not accepted by Sinead) and sold over seven million records.  It was an incredibly successful -- and very very good -- album... but ridiculously overmatched compared to her stunning debut three years earlier of "The Lion and the Cobra".

"The Lion and the Cobra" is infused with a visceral intensity, conveyed by O'Connor's stunning vocal range and projection that comes through even on the quietest notes.  "Jackie" announces the album with a soft whisper and ends two minutes and twenty-eight seconds later with O'Connor's voice high-pitched wailing that grabs the listener and makes you sit up straight.  With a slight pause, "Mandika", the most successful "pop" single, jumps right in and assures you that O'Connor plays both the singer and entertainer with equal ease.

The third song, "Jerusalem" is acoustics, synthesizer, and angry, religiously vague lyrics that stirs while taking a much-fought-over city's name and making it into something I could actually sing along to.  Until over course she belts out some ever-rising hoots toward the end to remind me that her range is just flat beyond me.  After soaring so high, "Just Like U Said It Would B", takes her fertility and faith personal, asking (God?) if he/she will be her lover, her mama alternating in pleas and taunts.  Later, on "I Want Your (Hand on Me)", she returns to demonstrate her command over sexual want, right before lamenting powerfully on "Drink Before the Water".

The final song ("Just Call Me Joe"), featuring a bare, distorted guitar for much of the song, gives a perfect backdrop for Sinead's soft, gentle song of anonymity and love.  The album is astounding in its feeling, its power, and its atmosphere.

PS.  Several years later, Sinead O'Connor's career and image were damaged by her pre-fashionable bashing of the Catholic church and what are now widely exposed rampant child abuse cases.  That irrational, feral hatred from religious champions foisted upon this vibrant, inventive signer makes me ill to this day.

America's Sweetheart

Whatever you may think of Courtney Love, the girl can 'bring it' when it comes to writing and performing hard rock music. I would argue that her 2004 album, America's Sweetheart is one of the best alternative rock albums of the decade, if not all time. What? Who? Are you joking? No, I'm not.

The album, like Courtney's public persona, careens all over the place, but never loses focus. The album displays Courtney's range, from arrogant, angry rock ("Mono", "All the Drugs") to jangly, alt-pop ("Hold on to Me", "Sunset Strip"), the occasional funny, angst song of having heard a tune one too many times ("Zeplin Song") to heart-felt sadness with resolve ("Never Gonna Be the Same"). Courtney brought it, I bought it, and it never leaves my play list. Dismiss her if you must, but don't underestimate the music.

Unknown Pleasures

The cover to Joy Division's debut album, Unknown Pleasures is at once minimal, striking, and thought-provoking. The image was:

originally published as a green-white image in 'The Nature of Pulsars' by Jerry Ostriker, Scientific American 224, #1, Jan 1971, page 53. It shows 80 successive pulses of the first pulsar observed, cp1919 stacked on top of one another using the average period of 1.33730 seconds.

From those galactic beginnings, just beats in the distance representing awesome powers, come this amazing debut.

My reaction to listening to Joy Division was akin to the first time I heard Morrissey's voice, but a slow, delayed reaction. Of course I had heard Joy Division's seminal swan song, "Love Will Tear Us Apart", but very little else. I don't know if I can chalk that up to having young ears (again, first time I heard it was in college), or the fact that the song was so unlike Joy Division's other music that I didn't explore their other songs more. Whatever the reason, these songs I had only marginally noticed suddenly became the ones that made my heart thumb nearly 20 years later. It's hard for me to fathom how now anytime I hear Peter Hook's driving, devastating bass line, Sumner's spare and suddenly thickly one-note guitar, Stephen's pounding drums and Ian's compulsive, desperate lungs on "New Dawn Fades", that I could be so drawn in and given pause now, where I would dismiss the song years ago. Unknown Pleasures is just a stunning album filled with that sound, the garage-punk-new-wave-lyrically-tight-somber-jumparound sound. You know, that one. The Joy Division sound. Or if you don't know it, or even if you think you knew it, listen again. You may now be ready for it.

The Smiths

The Smiths in recent years have become a band that I say are a favorite preceded with a shrug, the gesture meaning "well, of course they are, but I don't listen to them all that much anymore." It is one telling shrug, which could encapsulate for me any band favorite who doesn't put out new music and whose songs you have loved dearly, but heard all dozens and dozens of times. For me declaring that I love The Smiths' first album, The Smiths, it is recognizing an era of musical development, discovery really, and embracing nostalgia.I will readily admit the album is NOT their best, not even close. It's a little slower, mellow than subsequent albums, but still contains some great riffs and classic songs. "Still Ill" remains a top-five favorite in my book.

Really, though this album is all about the opening track for me, "Reel Around the Fountain." It was May 1990, and I had just completed my first two semesters at Penn State. Having grown up in Southwestern New York State (NOT Upstate New York), I had very little exposure to any other music other than what was played on the radio, which means all I knew was classic rock and pop music. I friend of mine (Kurt was his name) had suggested that I check out this band (amongst others), so on a whim I bought the six-dollar cassette (yes, cassette) and popped it in my stereo in my room while I started to unpack my college things.I remember very clearly actually stopping what I was doing and turning around to look at the stereo when I first heard Morrissey's voice. Morrissey, if you haven't heard him (and if you are reading this and have not, I don't know where to start other than saying YOU'RE NOT COOL!! ;)) has a very unique, nasal sound, and a gift with words. It was unlike any other I had heard. Every time I hear "Reel Around The Fountain," like this morning on the way to work, I think about that moment, which still feels like the wool being lifted from my eyes or discovering your new favorite food. And it brings a smile to my face.

Control

I wouldn't say that I came late to the Joy Division party so much that I wasn't ready for it, like my tastes hadn't matured or developed yet. I despised raw tomatoes as a child but now I love them. I loved (and still do) tomato sauce, but could not make that backwards leap to the vegetable.

When I first heard their sound in my college days, Joy Division sounded as it does to me today: different, disturbing, frenetic, dark, compelling. At that time, however, New Order, the band formed from the ashes of Joy Division, was at its commercial peak with the release of its Substance singles album and the True Faith single. I was looking for more of the New Order sound in Joy Division, but that wasn't to be, so I never really got into them.2007's Control, a film made by "rock photographer" Anton Corbijn (who photographed them in 1979) is a film about the band's rise and their singer's sudden suicide on the eve of their first American tour. The film is absolutely infused with Joy Division's music, from background to several memorable live performances.

What is amazing of the film, aside from each member of the band nailing the look of the real person, is that the actors played their own instruments and Sam Riley sang and took on the Ian Curtis persona to eerie similarity. (Ironically, Joy Division was known for being a bit sloppy live; the actors sounded more crisp "live" that JD on Still, but of course this is a movie.)

Below is a clip from the actual Joy Division group playing Transmission, which was included as a bonus clip on the DVD. It is uncannily recreated on film, to the point that the biggest difference is the footage is color versus the film's black and white:

Just their chosen name itself is subversive, thought-provoking, and utterly appropriate. I'm hard pressed to think of a cooler band name in history. From Wiki:

The House of Dolls is a 1955 novella by Ka-tzetnik 135633. The novella describes Joy Divisions, which were allegedly groups of Jewish women in the concentration camps during World War II who were kept for the sexual pleasure of Nazi soldiers.

Not your typical bio-flick, and not your typical band. Now, years after my first exposure and with a clean palate, if nothing else it has moved me to dust off the old albums and listen with fresh ears to a vigorous, vital sound.

Control Trailer:

Ritual de lo Habitual

Last week, Jane's Addiction reunited to perform at the NME Awards USA show. On the URL, there is an interview and a two great You Tube clips of classic songs. The one that brought back a lot of memories is the opener for their landmark third album Ritual de lo Habitual, "Stop":

Here's some text describing why they were there:

For last night's performance, bassist Eric Avery unearthed the guitar he used for the original JANE'S ADDICTION performances, which hadn't seen the light of day in nearly two decades.

Check out pictures of JANE'S ADDICTION's performance from Wire Image, Getty Images.

JANE'S ADDICTION was presented with the Godlike Genius Award at the inaugural U.S. NME Awards "in recognition of the fact that the band has done more than any other to introduce American alternative music to the mainstream," according to a press release.

Past recipients of the Godlike Genius Award, usually a highlight of the U.K. NME Awards, include U2, PAUL MCCARTNEY, THE CLASH, NEW ORDER, PRIMAL SCREAM and others.

Avery did not participate in the band's 1997 and 2001 reunions, with RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS bassist Flea, Chris Chaney and Martyn LeNoble all taking turns in the lineup.

Regarding his reasons for agreeing to take part in the JANE'S ADDICTION reunion at the NME Awards, Avery said in a statement, "I've chosen to reject the prospects of reuniting in the past for personal and philosophical reasons. I have always considered reunions to be a way to make a quick buck, and it sells short my own experience of it the first time around. The reason I started to even consider this is because it's honoring the past instead of trying to recreate it."

Of all the reasons to quit a band, or not get back together, Avery has the best reasons. Why should I be shocked? Jane's Addiction has always been an answer to the question, "Who do you listen to?" that prevents the questioner from making any kind of derisive statement about your tastes. In short, in college, they were cool, and even if you didn't like them, you knew that saying "they suck" means that you risked being judged yourself. They were the alternative's alternative, the bad asses, the guys who rocked and really were different, back before Nirvana and Pearl Jam found the scene.Probably one of the more recognizable album intro's ever, the Spanish-speaking female prefacing the band's powerful first song still gives me the tingles. The song feels weird without it, and I'm glad they kept it as originally designed for the show.

Fresh off the success of "Jane Says" from Nothings Shocking, the album features at once its most notable and popular song, "Been Caught Stealing", and its greatest flaw. Stuck right in the middle of the playlist, it is do different as to stick out. I don't dislike the song, per se, but I think including something that flows with the rest of the album would have elevated the album to even greater heights. Okay, I DO have a beef with the song, because Perry Farrell famously said prior to the album's release that he would break up the band if they hit #1 (and he did), and that fucking song absolutely is to blame for that.

Maybe it was the right thing to do, maybe they peaked and they wanted to go out on top, or before corporate America started loving them (note to Perry: appearing on "Are you ready for some football?" sing-alongs destroys the memories of my youth). I don't know if it was the first album to have the two covers because of the new fad of "Parent Advisory" stamps, but I can't think of another predating the censors. In any event, their arrival/swan song of 1990 is responsible for a lot of great college memories, and still rocks today.Great tracks:"Stop", "No One's Leaving", "Ain't No Right", "Classic Girl"
"The Masterpiece":"Three Days"
Unsung personal favorite:"Then She Did..."
Delete from iPod:"Of course"

PS: Speaking of Nothing's Shocking, I personally think that album is tighter, and probably the best alt rock album of the 80's. But I'll save that discussion for another time.

Lifes Rich Pageant

I have to admit I bought the hype. And when I say the hype, I mean R.E.M.'s fourteenth studio album, Accelerate, hailed by many critics as a return to 80's form.And by 80's, I mean the specific classic album that gets referenced by Spin...

...haven't redlined so engagingly since 1986's Lifes Rich Pageant, whose terrific "These Days" lives on in spirit here.

...Rolling Stone...

...charged the musical exploration and internal debate on those records with the dirty-silver jangle and get-in-the-van surge of R.E.M.'s quartet-era classics, such as 1986's Lifes Rich Pageant...

...and Q magazine (via Wikipedia)...

Q reviewer Keith Cameron wrote that unlike Around the Sun, "Accelerate is the sound of a band having enjoyed a good word with themselves - and us." Cameron described the album's first three songs as "powerful as the first half of 1986's Lifes Rich Pageant," but commented that the album suffers through a "midway dip that afflicts even the best R.E.M. album."

...to name but a few. And by evoking the hallowed sounds of the past did they so doom it to disappointment. Perhaps that's too strong to say for a solid album; let's just say it suffered from an initial letdown. Comparisons like this rarely do anything but set expectations to unreachable levels. The most recent example (before this) for me was when The Departed came out and everyone was comparing it to Goodfellas. So naturally, I went into the film expecting the greatest thing since sliced bread, since Goodfellas is the sliced bread of gangster fims. The Departed by itself is an excellent picture, but it ain't no Goodfella, and my initial theater experience was a little soured by my expectations.Like my film experience, Accelerate I have found to be a very good album, even great, but it ain't no Lifes, and my initial listen to the new album was filled with skepticism. I wish I could listen to it with fresh ears again. But this all did serve me some good times, ultimately; I popped in Lifes for a complete play to see if my memory had elevated the album to unrealistic heights, or it was that good. Let me just say that was one blissful listen.

Stoned and Dethroned: Classic Alternative

For a band known for its feedback-heavy distortion-laden alternative rock songs, to release an acoustic album as a follow up to its breakthrough, Automatic, seems like a foolish maneuver. Indeed, when it debuted at the peak of the alternative era (1994), Stoned and Dethroned clashes with everything else out there. This was a time of Weezer's Blue Album, of Green Day's Dookie, of the explosion of the radio-friendly but edgy and smart band.

The Jesus and Mary Chain were poised to take a big chunk of that, but it wasn't meant to be. No one wanted to hear acoustic melodies, heck not even fast-paced songs, on college radio back then. Stoned and Dethroned single handedly drove a wedge between even the most hard-core J&MC fans of the day, and baffled critics and music executives alike be its timing.

I bought the album when it came out, but I never really got into it, mostly because it just never mixed with what you expect from J&MC. Still, I honestly never really gave it a good listen, so it stuck around in my CD collection all these years, waiting for me to rediscover it.

Stoned and Dethroned continues to surprise me. Not just because most of the 18 acoustic tracks are short, tight, and infectious, but that I didn't have the time or appreciation to recognize a great album when it came out 13 years ago. I suppose tastes change, and maybe I was too young to see it for its mellow, pleasing, somehow upbeat tunes. I highly recommend you don't wait a decade before adding it to your collection.

Or I can just burn it for you :).

No Death Eaters?

A photo of a sign from the Massive Attack tour. Considering the nature of their songs, this seems odd.Anyway, I need to get one of those signs for my room. Or someone should make a t-shirt.

You Can Blow With This, You Can Blow With That.
Now back online: Spike Jonze's MTV-award-winning Fatboy Slim video, featuring a dancing Christopher Walken. For those of you familiar with my Walken-impersonation, this will be a blast form the past. Great video (and song).

Bonus Walken Day! A commentary from the archives of the Onion, byChristopher Walken. Works best if you imagine him reading it aloud. I like hot dogs... now...

Sweet Music
During a browse of the internet (yes, I'm over working today, can you tell?), I happened upon a greatest hits CD for Matthew Sweet, one of my favorites from the nineties. Some of you might remember his early videos which were mostly Japanese anime. Pretty cool stuff.


Anyway, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to go ahead and uh disagree with the selection of songs attributed at the "best". Starting with the Girlfriend album, whose cover is on my top ten of all time, the "hits" album leaves out "Looking At the Sun", "Winona", "Evangeline" and "Thought I Knew You". Please at least take one of those. Where they go the notion that "You Don't Love Me" is better (in my humble opinion) that any of those songs is beyond me.


Moving on to another excellent album, Altered Beast, I lament at the omission of "Dinosaur Act" and "Do It Again", while kinda chagrined at the inclusion of "Ugly Truth" and "Someon To Pull The Trigger", neither of which are all that memorable.

Hmm. On 100% Fun they (the powers that be) seem to get it right. There are about two good songs on that CD, and the rest is just good. Sweet is definitely on a downswing here.

Okay, they also get it right on Blue Sky on Mars, since there isn't really much to get after the one hit on the album, "Where Do You Get Love". In fact, I got tired of Sweet after this mediocre effort and stopped buying his album.

So, I guess the point of this is get the first two albums and use WinMX for the rest. Or just buy the damn greatest hits CD. What do I care?

Lyrical Inspiration
I love songs whose lyrics inspire me to think, feel, write. This song, by Tool, "Intolerance", is one of them:

I don't want to be hostile.
I don't want to be dismal.
But I don't want to rot in an apathetic existance either.
See
I want to believe you,
and I want to trust
and I want to have faith to put away the dagger.

But you lie, cheat, and steal.
And yet
I tolerate you.
Veil of virtue hung to hide your method
while I smile and laugh and dance
and sing your praise and glory.
Shroud of virtue hung to mask your stigma
as I smile and laugh and dance
and sing your glory
while you
lie, cheat, and steal.
How can I tolerate you.

Our guilt,our blame ,
I've been far too sympathetic.
Our blood, our fault.
I've been far too sympathetic.

I am not innocent.
You are not innocent.
Noone is innocent.

I will no longer tolerate you
Even if I must go down beside you.
Because,
Noone is innocent.

Maladroit

There is a plethora of Weezer songs that can be construed as based on love gone wrong, love unrequited, love-that-could-never-be. Each of these songs has their own power and passion. Each has their time and place with me in my heart.Nevertheless, I'm ready to declare (for now) that "Death and Destruction" (from Maladroit) is the penultimate Weezer song about love that was unrequited. Most purists or even the casual listener would grant "Say It Ain't So" (off the Blue Album) as the champion of tunes written by Rivers Cuomo dedicated to romantic notions gone the path of sad conclusions. I will say this is the 2ND best song in their considerable library of emotionally charged punk-pop ditties.

However, upon listening to "Death and Destruction" for the 47th (I'm counting, for sure) time, I was compelled to give it the "best" status based on the rank power, emotion, and simplicity that it contains. When Rivers tells the listener, after being pushed off by his paramour, that he "learned to look the other way", something inside of me breaks, and I can't quite equate it to any feeling I get from anything other than complete heartbreak. He's a master of emoting his angst and struggle and utter anguish.

It's bands like this, writers and lyricists like this, that make be disdain all the alternative posers of today. Yes, it's late and I'm being emotional. That's what the best of rock is all about.

PS: If you want to hear Rivers' voice crack with emotional sincerity (at its most subtle and frank), listen to the little acoustic number "Butterfly" off the underrated Pinkerton album. I'm done now.