1c. The Big 500: The albums that satisfy (101-150)
The The: Soul Mining (Epic 1983)
Soul Mining is an eloquent, angry, energizing album. The music is an amalgamum of synth-pop and disco whose overbearing effervescence is brilliantly underminded by the lyrics. I’ve been deformed by emotional scars, and the cancer of love has eaten out my heart, I’ve been stripped bare and nobody cares, and all the people I looked up to are no longer there, Matt Johnson (creator of The The) sings with crooning despair on I’ve Been Waiting For Tomorrow (All Of My Life). The song tears forward with manic propulsion, pianos and screaching synths prompting the synthesized beat. Life is like a sewer and I’m trying to wade thru her, I threw in my money and made my wish, but sleeping boys catch no fish Johnson snarls. Daring the music to break apart as it mutates into a crescendo of squeeling noise as he breathes a mantra of sorrow My mind has been polluted and my energy dilluted. And the peppy horror just keeps on coming with the pristine This Is The Day. Everything about this song communicates beauty, the handclaps snapping a peppy backbeat, a georgeous accordian/fiddle combination perloined from The Waterboys and a bubbling, mesmerizing beat. Johnson gives his most affecting vocal performance on the album. But underneath the exterior lurks his fragmenting, decaying words telling a story of betrayed talent and depression. It’s a brilliant song. The Sinking Feeling comes bobbing out of the silence with a synth beat whose hopeful qualities are hammered down by the lines I’m just a symptom of the moral decay, that’s gnawing at the heart of the country. The gripping, snide vocals sap every ounce of humour of this conceit. Uncertain smile builds upon a wonderful hook that is enlivened further by synth washes. It’s playful chorus giving way to a middle section of stride piano that stretches the song to 6 minutes plus. The next song, The Twilight Hour is the single most depressing song about a relationship ever recorded. It’s pained words slithering across the creeping pop music. Every verse drifting further into sadism, But you’re cutting chunks from your heart and rubbing the meat into your eyes he sings as every drum beat snaps like a whip in your ear. Soul Mining has an eloquent, fleeting chorus that sends shivers up my spine. It’s icy music creeping steadily from the speakers. That last song Giant has an elastic winding beat that is almost African in sound. It’s synthesized tittering beats rising up towards a crescendo I can sense is coming. The last enigmatic lines I’m scared of God and scared of hell, and I’m caving in on myself…How could anyone know me, When I don’t even know myself, giving way to a chanting chorus and stabs of tremelo bass synthesizer. This album is brilliant. The hooks stick in the brain like peanut butter. The poetic lyrics frighten and enchant. The music is as stunning as it is original. And the vocals have a ribald quality that is infectious. After 25 listens, Soul Mining is still full of burlesque pleasures and thrilling conceits.
Gang Of Four: Entertainment (Infinite Zero/American 1979)
Lou Reed: New York (Sire 1989)
Neil Young: Tonight's The Night (Reprise 1975)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Fever To Tell (Interscope 2003)
Solomon Burke: Don't Give Up On Me (Fat Possum 2002)
REM: Automatic For The People (Warner Bros. 1992)
The White Stripes: Elephant (Sympathy For The Record Industry 2003)
Jeff Buckley: Grace (Columbia 1994)
Bruce Springsteen: Born To Run (Columbia 1975)
XTC- Apple Venus Vol. 1 (Idea/TVT 1999)
Portishead: Dummy (go discs!/London 1994)
Beach Boys: Pet Sounds (Capitol 1966)
Miles Davis: In A Silent Way (Columbia 1969)
Bruce Springsteen: Born In The U.S.A. (Columbia 1984)
The Roots: Phrenology (MCA 2002)
Elvis Presley: From Elvis In Memphis (RCA 1969)
Neutral Milk Hotel : In An Aeroplane Over The Sea (Merge, 1997)
The Velvet Underground: Loaded (Warner Bros. 1970)
Tricky: Maxinquaye (4th & Broadway, 1995)
Los Super Seven: Canto (RCA 1988)
Bjork: Homegenic (Elektra 1997)
Oumou Sangare: Ko Sira (World Circuit 1993)
Iris Dement: My Life (Warner Bros. 1995)
Sheila Chandra: Weaving My Ancestors' Voices (Real World 1992)
Coldplay: A Rush Of Blood To The Head (Parlaphone 2002)
Crowded House: Woodface (Capitol 1991)
Moby: Play (V2 1999)
Buffalo Springfield: Again (Atco 1967)
Van Morrison: Moondance (Warner Bros. 1970)
Charlie Parker: Jazz At Massey Hall (OJC 1953)
PJ Harvey: Stories From The City, Stories From the Sea (Island 2000)
Brian Eno: Another Green World (EG Editions 1975)
A singular creation, subltly smiling about its ability to enchant and confuse, this album relishes its effortless abstractions. It unfolds one unconventional song after another. Small bits of melody and standard songwriting creep in, but they are obstructed by digitally altered instruments and synthesized sounds. This album, as the title suggests, is a portal into another world full of unkown beauties and unknown dangers. Every sound and texture thought out and meshed into rich sonic clatter. Over Fire Island rife with clicking rhythms, rollicking piano and marvellous digitally altered guitar stream past Eno’s dull voice like bursts of neon. St. Elmo’s Fire carries over the clicking drums as a landscape of digital rhythms hum in the background. Robert Fripp unleashes bursts of echoing, power-chords over subtle noodling guitar lines. The songs of the mid section, In Dark Trees, The Big Ship, I’ll Come Running, Another Green World, Sombre Reptiles and Little Fishes, are fantastic. Golden Hours is a tapestry of cool humming organ, and a guitar performing trickles of chords, the ebulent melody bubbling under Eno’s playful voice. Followed by four more cacophonous masterpieces, each one worth cherishing with greedy ears. Another Green World is an album bursting with enigmatic charisma, every twist and turn an exquisite puzzle.
