0.8.2 - A monster, a monster, I've turned into a monster
I've known this was coming for some time, obviously, and I did have a contingency plan to make this slightly easier on myself today, so no grand theme, no unifying narrative or personal backstory to tell here. Well, maybe a very short one.
I met Lottie, and her partner, through our long-time friend Andrew. As part of my whole belief that the thing I do well is meet interesting people, Lottie definitely qualifies - small business owner, talented singer/bass player/drummer, excellent cook and online reviewer of unusual snacks, we'd met at pandemic eta outdoor BBQ for our friends birthday, and we bonded by talking about Rock Band 3 and rhythm games. I will play Rock Band at the drop of a hat with anyone who shows an interest, so a few weeks later I issued an invite, and we spent something like six hours playing plastic instruments and singing. Since then, I have got to know her (and her partner) far better and they're truly wonderful people. I just arranged for us to play Rock Band together again in a couple of weeks, and I'm super-excited for it (our neighbours perhaps less so).
When I sent out requests for album recommendations, Lottie slotted firmly into the category of someone who I knew wass going to recommend me metal and metal-adjacent albums I had not considered, but also some pop stuff I had not considered. Lottie, like everyone I requested, did a great job. But she, with no prior knowledge of what I was doing writing about this on the internet, provided not only a recommendation, but a little mini-blurb justification for each of her album choices - something that was above and beyond what I asked for in the best way for two reasons. One, it gave me a better sense of why she'd recommended them, and two, I knew if I asked her nicely I could recycle those recommendations in this blog post, counterpoint them against my own opinions, and that would save me a lot of typing and bulk up my word count nicely. So, with that in mind, I spent the last couple of days listening to all but one of her recommendations (because the 9-album-cover tessellated image is more pleasing that trying to make one with 10 and that's the only reason), so let's see how we compared!
Epica - Omega Alive
"Their most recent live album showcasing their remarkable skill. The drummer is very fast and accurate and you will enjoy that if nothing else. Highlight - Kingdom of Heaven pt.3. It's absurd and will make you want to kick down the nearest door." - Lottie
I have thoughts about Live Albums which I've covered in a previous incarnation of this blog, but apart from a little stage banter here and there, the production on this sounds like a studio album, which is pretty impressive and took a lot of the sting out of it for me. I've already listened to Spiritbox's Eternal Blue for this blog, and I'm a fan of Within Temptation and Lacuna Coil so Epica landed very firmly in my Melodic Metal comfort zone. I enjoyed this back to back, and agree basically with everything Lottie said - my only complaint was I started listening to this at 9.35pm without realising it was an over 90 minute live album, and I have a dumb rule that I have to finish the album within the same calendar day or I have to start again, so I was clockwatching a little when final three tracks clocked in at an average seven minutes and twenty seconds each. Otherwise, an excellent choice though I'd probably prefer a studio album if I am nitpicking.
BABYMETAL - THE OTHER ONE
"Obviously I was going to pick one of these but this I feel is their best (and most recent). The production is incredible and it goes very hard despite largely being about good vibes and bettering yourself. The drums are also insane and are somehow reproduced very well live.
Highlight - Monochrome. Perhaps the heaviest start there has ever been to a power ballad 😂. A lovely stadium filling anthem." - Lottie
Lottie and I have talked about Japanese metal before, and we talked about BABYMETAL I think at that BBQ where we first met. I recommended Otokobe Beaver to her because I saw a video from my drum course online talking about their drummer (who is incredible); we've traded Band-maid recommendations as well. She knew this was a winner, and it was a great choice, as it was an album I hadn't got round to listening to yet (despite this coming out in 2023, I go through phases with metal and just kinda hadn't circled back to this yet). I love BABYMETAL. If you are not having fun playing Metal music, if you think Metal music has to be all scowls and growls, I suggest you get over yourself. If Rob Zombie says they are Metal, I don't think you get to argue. 10/10.
Garbage - Version 2.0
"The difficult second album is generally considered their best and is a delightfully 90s blend of grungy alt rock and pop.
Highlight - Hammering in my Head. Relentless, frenetic and sultry all at once." - Lottie
This is the best Garbage album. I have fond, fond feelings for the self-titled album, but this is the masterwork. I also spent years wildly having the hots for Shirley Manson, and unlike my love for Emily Haines, it was and remains entirely tawdry and I make no apology for that. Despite a cavalcade of women-led alt rock bands in the 90s and 2000s, none of them felt as directly in the lineage of Blondie as Garbage did. My only regret is that by including it here, the germ of an idea I had to do a bunch of albums which all had a song on it called "Push It" (TOOL, this, Salt 'n Pepa, Static-X were the four I had off the top of my head) might be dead in the water.
Jenny Lewis - The Voyager
"Beautifully crafted, country infused, folk pop. Jenny's voice is front and centre before the jangly guitars as it should be. Warm and clean, listening to her voice feels like taking a hot bath.
Highlight - Late Bloomer. A sumptuous masterclass in storytelling. " - Lottie
This was completely new to me - I sometimes wish I could crystal ball myself back to 2014 to ask what I was listening to back then, but this feels so much like it should have been on my radar and somehow slipped the net. I've an established weakness for singer-songwriters doing country-tinged confessional therapy set to music, and this was that and was funny and incisive, with lyrical flourishes I kept catching just as they disappeared. This goes on the list of albums to play to Catherine in the car, if only to give me an excuse to listen to it a second time.
The Corrs - Talk On Corners
"Their biggest hits came from the following album when they began working with producer Mutt Lange who's work launched Shania Twain into orbit.
I think though, The Corrs are at their best when left to write tragic songs about longing. I was a massive Corrs fan as a teen which is a strong indicator of exactly how cool I was.
Highlight - Little Wing. You might not have had The Corrs covering Jimi Hendrix on your bingo card, but here we are." - Lottie
Time, distance and proportion to the many other bands through the years producing incredibly-easy-listening radio pop have perhaps not been kind to the Corrs, a band I think even at their peak had something of a reputation for a certain flavourless tofu like quality to their sound. I like Shania, I like Sheryl Crow, but I just couldn't find anything here to hold on to. I wasn't offended by it, or upset, it was just a collection of sounds which happened near me and then they were over. Also the Man-Corr is a crazy anti-vax conspiracy theorist, but if he weren't that wouldn't change my opinion here. Sorry.
Grace Jones - Island Life
"Barely concealed innuendo, spoken word over reggae, a truly unhinged cover of La Vie en Rose.. there is a lot here and all of it is captivating when Grace commands your attention.
Highlight - Slave to the Rhythm. Funky, fabulous pop. I recommend going away to listen to the 'Hot Blooded' single version for a laugh and lesson in diva behaviour." - Lottie
From one extreme to another. If The Corrs provide a scentless fog bank of radio-friendly nothings, Grace Jones drives her car into your front room like Billy Joel and demands your immediate and undivided attention. One of the few benefits of an upbringing where your parents are massive hippies trying to pass for functional adults is our home soundtrack cast a wide net - I had probably heard Island Life ten times before Lottie was born (I'm guessing, but that feels safe). Grace Jones is a musical icon and this album is full of truly arresting music.
Cher - Love Hurts
"When I was four I won an album of my choice from a packet of hula hoops and asked my Mum for Cher because I liked the Shoop Shoop song on the radio.
Little did I know that one moment summed up my whole personality and little did I know it was also the beginning of my live of music.
It is an album of fuck you rock power ballads that still stands the test of time.
Highlight - Who You Gonna Believe. Everything you want in a classic rock song." - Lottie
When I said there was no personal backstory here I just meant mine, obviously. I spent the time listening to this, asking myself the question "had Lottie not called this out, would I have thought to listen to a Cher album at all this year? If not, why not?" While certainly Cher is a camp icon, she's also a musical legend; she exists in that same category of artists for me as my comment on ABBA at the start of the year; of course everyone knows 20 of her songs like they were folk songs handed down generationally. Why then have I never listened to a whole album? It's not a surprise to me, as it will not be to you, that Cher made a great album, back in an era when if you had a career full of hits, you probably equally had a selection of as-good-just-not-as-well-known album deep cuts. No notes, as the kids say.
Vanessa Mae - The Violin Player
"Another childhood favourite. Shredding, but on a violin. Often over techno and funk guitar.
Highlight: Toccata and Fugue. It's her signature piece for a reason and still slaps." - Lottie
If you had given me a calendar year to guess all the albums Lottie would have recommended for me the name Vanessa Mae wouldn't have even crossed my mind. I'm old enough to remember when Nigel Kennedy presented icon UK music show Top of the Pops, and that momentary societal blip when for a hot second, solo violinists were ushered into the halls of popular music through an unguarded side door, and hung around drinking the free champagne until they were caught and ejected. I remember Vanessa Mae as well, and I'm really torn by this album. My cynical instinct is to call it a gimmick, a kind of cash grab while your 15 minutes is ticking rapidly away; but you can't deny the musical skill on display. Maybe it's the pandering - the funk bass and rap breaks - that make it all feel a little inauthentic. Tocata and Fugue does indeed go hard though.
Muse - The Resistance
"Matt Bellamy loves a bit of Rachmaninoff and Elgar and he was left to go rogue on this album.
It begins with what is probably their best known song, progressing and eventually arriving at genuinely a moving 13 minute space rock symphony finale.
Highlight - Exogenesis Symphony" - Lottie
While I fear I am just spending this blog linking to other stuff I have written before, I have some complicated feelings about Muse which at some point I am just going to have to do their whole discography and get it all off my chest; I talked about it back in 2017, and my position hasn't changed significantly. I think The Resistance is where I draw the line as the Most Recent Muse Album I Would Listen To; I even went to see the tour for this album, and Muse are an exceptional live act who I think have just run into the law of diminishing returns on their more-is-much-more approach to songwriting and performing; This is exactly as grandoise and overblown as I can stand; this far, no further. It's not bad, and there are some great rock tracks here, but the Exogenesis Symphony that Lottie highlights is, for me, the point as which Muse disappear beyond their own event horizon, leaving me floating alone in space in blessed silence.
I want to thank Lottie again, who I know will read this because I am going to send it to her in about 5 minutes, and I asked her to make sure she didn't mind me posting her text. If you are ever in the Sheffield area, please visit QC's Bagel Bar, a Sheffield food institution. Go read Lottie's snack blog, she is funnier and waffles less than I do.
Right, with that done, there are some monsters I need to kill and turn into hats.
