The LED still flickers in your eyes

Continuing my trip up Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time...

#328 : Modern Vampires Of The City - Vampire Weekend (2013)

On Halloween 2012, with their hometown New York subsumed in a blackout, Vampire Weekend went on late-night TV to play an atheist reggae jam called “Unbelievers” dressed as skeletons. It was the perfect introduction to Modern Vampires of the City, a record that darkened their buoyant indie pop, as Ezra Koenig sang about moving beyond his post-college years into something scarier and weirder — hitting a cloudy peak with the beautifully worried Dylanesque travelogue “Hannah Hunt.”

I quite liked Vampire Weekend (their debut album - I mean, who does give a fuck about an Oxford comma?) but never managed to get into Contra (the follow up) so had given up on them by the time they came out with this album.  So I was intrigued to hear it, but was expecting more along the lines of Contra - tricksy New York "art rock" which manages to be intriguing, catchy and annoying all at the same time.  And yeah, on first listen that feels to be pretty much what we've got here - but I have the suspicion it would be a bit of a grower if given a few more listens.  Which, of course, I haven't done.

The Wikipedia entry for the album is quite detailed and includes some intriguing insight into the pitch shifting that went on recording this album.  Apparently on one track, the drums were slowed down for the first take, sped up and re-recorded for the second take and then slowed down again to create "an underwater effect".  I take my hat off to people who know what they're doing with such things (although my suspicion is that some of them are just making it up as they go along).  The band's entry is also quite interesting - I didn't know that Ezra Koenig produced Beyonce's Lemonade and Rostam Batmanglij (yes, I'm intrigued as to how you pronounce it as well) produced HAIM's Women in Music Part III.  Some serious muso credentials with the ladies there!

"Customers also listened to" The Shins (who are definite contemporaries) and LCD Soundsystem (a bit rockier, but still in the same ballpark).  All in all, I'd say it's a "maybe" for me at the minute - I'm tempted to go back to it and I suspect it would grow on me.  I love the album cover too - a 1966 photo of a very smoggy New York.

#327 : Live At Leeds - The Who (1970)

Faced with the impossible task of following up the grand statement of Tommy [see No. 190], the Who just cranked up their amps. Rather than wade through 80 hours of American shows for a live album, Pete Townshend claimed he burned those tapes “in a huge bonfire” and selected a concert at the University of Leeds in England. Live at Leeds is a warts-and-all live album, including an accidental clunking sound on “My Generation.” There’s no finesse, just the pure power of a band able to play as loud as it wants to.

Hmmm.  If I object to greatest hits albums for this list, should I also object to live albums?  I'm not entirely sure to be honest, so I'll give this the benefit of the doubt, partly because I quite like The Who but mostly since it's widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest live albums ever.  Let's just hope I like it, eh?!?  Well...

...it's OK, I guess.  They sound like they're having a laff and the songs are fine and different enough from the originals to make the whole thing worthwhile.  However, as Rolling Stone says, there's no finesse and I'm not sure I prefer the live versions - which makes the whole thing somewhat pointless to me.  I can imagine that if you saw them live at the time then it would be a whole different ballgame and having this recording would be essential.  I have (of course) somewhat randomly seen them live - they were pretty good, but I must admit it was at the end of a long day and I was watching them from my tent, so I might have just decided I'd listen to them from inside my sleeping bag and I might just have fallen asleep before they finished.  And yes, I know I'm terrible, Muriel.

Wikipedia surprised me by pointing out the original album had 6 tracks on it (out of 33 played at the concert) - the version I listened to had 14 tracks on it, which felt about right to me (I think I'd have felt short changed by only 6).  Wikipedia also, somewhat bizarrely, gives the album chart placings in just the US, UK and (obviously) Denmark (#4, #3 and #8 - since you asked nicely).  

The band's Wikipedia page is lengthy and quite interesting, including the following choice quote "The Who are perceived as having had a poor working relationship", which is most definitely the case if half the stuff reported is true.  But Pete and Roger are still hanging in there and apparently now on good terms - it took them long enough though with the band having been formed in 1964 and apparently it's mostly because most of the rest of the people involved have died.  "Customers also listened to" loads of groups from around that time - lots of famous names in there.  But, I'd have to say this album was a bit of a disappointment - possibly due to the hype, but I think mostly because I'd rather listen to the greatest hits.  Sorry!  I'd be interested to know what the budget was for the album cover design though..

#326 : Dirty Mind - Prince (1980)

A mix of slinky funk, synth-driven rock, jittery pop, and sexual innuendo, Dirty Mind was Prince’s first great album, even if it only hinted at where he was headed. “White, black, Puerto Rican, everybody just a freakin’,” he sang on “Uptown,” a utopian ode to the Minneapolis club scene. The album includes the world’s merriest done-me-wrong song, “When You Were Mine,” and the incest ditty “Sister.” “I wasn’t being deliberately provocative,” Prince said. “I was being deliberately me.”

Prince?  A dirty mind?!?  I can't believe that - he seemed like such a nice clean-cut young lad.  I'm actually not sure I'd ever listened to a full Prince album before coming to this - I'd certainly started Sign O' The Times, but it's quite a lengthy undertaking so I'm not sure I ever got to the end.  So I was looking forward to this and generally expecting the usual Prince high jinks, although the description above suggested it would be slightly different.

And I guess it's slightly different, but it's pretty much still in the Prince ballpark - the track titles give you a clue that's the case, including as they do "Dirty Mind", "Do It All Night" and "Head".  Generally I liked it - it's quite a clean sound, with some exceptionally dirty lyrics attached although his vocal style often disguises them.  "Sister" ("incest-ditty", Rolling Stone.  Really?!) is really quite something with the internet being quite interested in whether it's based on real life experiences, which is, of course, utterly pointless speculation - but that's what the internet is for, right?

Wikipedia has remarkably little to say about the album, which I suspect won't be the case for some of his other albums we meet later in this list, but it does have a reasonable amount to say about the man - he certainly had quite a life.  I never realised he released 39 albums (and 2 posthumously) - he certainly threw stuff out there with 12 albums in the 90s and 11 albums in the 00s.  He certainly inspired and influenced a large number of people in his life - whilst I can't claim to having been his biggest fan, I clearly remember being shocked by his death (nearly 5 years ago now - wow!).  "Customers also listened to" a load of people - some clearly influenced by the man and others less so, but you can still see the connections there.  Overall, I can't see me rushing back to this, but I liked it enough and I'm certainly looking forward to experiencing a bit more Prince further down this list (and I might even read his Wikipedia entry when I do!).  I would also have to say it's an "interesting" album cover - I suspect I won't be wearing that outfit next time I head into town (and if I do, I can't see other family members accompanying me)

Hmmm - tricky one to declare a winner for.  Despite the howls of protest, it's not The Who, although I probably generally like their stuff more than the other two.  After some consideration (which is pretty rare, if I'm being honest) I'm going for Vampire Weekend because I actually think this is the album I'd like best if I spent some time on it.  I also suspect we're going to meet better Prince albums later and so I'll try to remember to give him the spoils for one of them - I know it's what he would have wanted.

#331-329 - Three fine but very different albums
#325-323 - No contest