Me and my buddy Mr. Magic did a very small Swedish speaking podcast two years ago where we discussed Bowie’s albums. In the very last episode we ranked Bowie’s all albums from 28 up to number One. The bottom five in my list was a dog fight between “Tonight” and the two Tin Machine albums, “Pin ups” and the first album “David Bowie” from 1967.
Alphaville’s debut album “Forever young” is a fantastic late discovery of mine. I knew of the famous songs when I grew up but I was not into synth-music at that time. Alphaville like Soft cell, Depeche Mode and Howard Jones were bands I heard on the radio and at the occasional high school dance in my small home town, but I didn’t listen to their LPs back then. This is now rectified.
Recorded during the full moon night of August 11, 1976, at Indigo Ranch Recording Studio in Malibu, California, Neil sits alone with a guitar. Old friend David Briggs at the mixing desk. During one of Neil’s most creative periods ever, the songs poured out of him. Sometimes a song was created on the spot right in front of David’s eyes (“Pocahontas”). In between recording songs Neil only stopped to consume beer, weed or coke. Ahh, those were the times.
The second album from Sabbath was released just a few months after the first. It follows the lead by the debut album with a stellar first side with three great songs and a filler. The second side this is where this album differs to the debut album. Let’s review!
Sorceresss is Opeth’s twelfth studio album and the fourth with only ”normal” singing, no growling, which I clearly prefers. As usual the lyrics are like small fantasy stories. They send me me spinning into another dimension. A very nice feeling.
Neil can be many things, but easy to work with is not one of them. In 1976 he joined up with his old running mate from the the Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young times, Stephen Stills. Neil and Stephen are like cat and dog, always fighting. I think the great sadness for Stephen is to have been in Neil’s shadow his whole career. The completed a studio album but the following US Tour was suddenly ended when Neil left him and the band in the middle of it all. Neil left Stephen a note: “Dear Stephen, Funny how some things that start spontaneously end that way. Eat a peach, Neil.”
Continue reading “Stills-Young Band – Long may you run (1976)”
Opeth continue to surprise and amaze me. The new album is yet another step in their evolution. It is not the first step, but it is a step. This album brings some new stuff to the table. It is like a rock opera from the deep dark wilderness in Sweden. It’s progressive rock with influences of folk, classical, jazz, Gregorian chants and even a fragment of country music like an audio mosaic. When you immerse yourself in the music without listening to the lyrics you get a feeling of a story about children in a dark world with trolls and evil, and an absent god.
Heritage is Opeth’s tenth studio album and ny now they have transformed into a progressive rock band. No more death growls. The band under Mikael Åkerfeldt’s direction had made a left turn and tried new things. Åkerfeldt has said that he had other musical influences and that he felt that the old stuff was no longer interesting. Let us listen to what instead may be interesting.
“Re:Call 1” is a double album of b-sdies and “odds and ends” from the “Five years 1969-1973” mega-box era. Let’s see if we can find any interesting pieces here!
So, with “After the gold rush” the ever-changing nature of Neil’s is on display. It’s a journey with Neil. If Bowie was like a chameleon adapting to the new trends quickly, Neil is like a volcano, sometimes calm and soothing (acoustic and country), sometimes violent and loud (the Godfather of grunge).
