Ain't no rules, ain't no vow, we can do it anyhow

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

#73 : Loveless - My Bloody Valentine (1991)

This vague, shimmering, gorgeous album reportedly cost as much as $500,000 to make and nearly bankrupted the band’s U.K. label. It was worth it. Forget the lyrics, which are buried in the mix and incomprehensible, and focus on Kevin Shields’ and Bilinda Butcher’s guitars, which build entire noise symphonies out of tremolo effects and pitch bending. Highlights like “Only Shallow” and “I Only Said” use sampling technology to build a distorted, shifting sound that is wholly original and ecstatically beautiful. It’s like being serenaded by ghosts. Generations of shoegaze bands were born in its shadow.

This is an interesting one - I love a bit of shoegazing and I like this album.  However, you know you forget how much you love some albums and it's great when you catch up with them?  Well, with this one it's exactly the opposite for me.  I always think I love it - but when I listen to it, I remember it's more a case that I just like it, so it's all a bit of a letdown.  There are bits of it I love (particularly "Soon", the closing track) but as a whole I think it's just a bit too challenging for my precious ears.  Yes, I know - I'm a complete shoegaze sellout but I'd take Ride's Going Blank Again (or even Slowdive's Souvlaki) over this any time.  If you love this album, you'll take umbrage at me suggesting such heresy - but if you don't know this album, then just believe me when I say you'll utterly, utterly hate it.

Wikipedia tells us the creation of the album was "interesting", with Kevin Shields not letting the guitar player play anything (she didn't mind, because she didn't think she was that great a guitarist anyway), not giving the bass player anything to play (she just gave up going to the studio) and the drummer was too ill to play for large chunks of it.  And the whole thing took two and a half years and countless studios to actually complete.  But when it was finally released, everyone loved it - so obviously the band got dropped by their record label and broke up, but only after having toured the album with, according to Mojo, "the second loudest tour in history" - "more like torture than entertainment" was one quote.  It also didn't exactly sell by the bucketload - although I suspect quite a few people have picked up copies over the years.  

The band's Wikipedia entry doesn't have a lot more to say about them apart from a bit on m.b.v, the follow-up album which appeared 22 years later - no-one can accuse them (or more accurately, him) of being too prolific.  Amusingly, Wikipedia also informed me that the shoegazing genre was also referred to as "The Scene That Celebrates Itself" because, horror of horrors, the bands involved in the scene actually quite liked each other, went drinking together and helped each other out.  Obviously, this was the beginning of the end for it all...

"Customers also listened to" an exceedingly bizarre mix of people, most of whom I've never heard of but they're definitely not part of the usual shoegaze posse. It also includes this from Yo La Tengo, which seems a very long way from Loveless to me - but what do I know?  As for this album, I expect I will continue to listen to this every 5 years or so and continue to be mildly disappointed that I don't enjoy it quite as much as I remember.

#72 : Harvest - Neil Young (1972)

Harvest yielded Neil Young’s only Number One hit, “Heart of Gold,” and helped set the stage for the Seventies soft-rock explosion — both James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt sing on the album. Along with Young, they were in Nashville to appear on Johnny Cash’s variety show the week that Harvest was cut with an odd group of accomplished session musicians that included bassist Tim Drummond, who had played with James Brown. The sound was Americana — steel guitar, slide guitar, banjo — stripped down and rebuilt with every jagged edge exposed. The standout tracks include “Old Man” and “The Needle and the Damage Done.”

Neil's SEVENTH appearance on the list (six on his own and one with his mates C, S&N) and, thankfully, his last - although on our last visit (a mere 22 albums ago) I didn't totally hate it and graciously gave him the round (mostly to just make him stop).  So I was hoping for another selection of bearable songs, and thankfully, that's what we've got.  His voice also seems less annoying on this album - or maybe I'm just becoming immune to it.  I'd almost go as far as saying I like his version of "Heart Of Gold" - what is the world coming to?  Nothing else jumped out at me, but it also didn't scare me off (although "A Man Needs A Maid" isn't going to win any awards for progressive thinking), so it's a definite improvement on most of his other stuff.

Wikipedia has remarkably little to say about the album other than the recording details of each track - two of them were recorded, somewhat bizarrely, with the London Symphony Orchestra.  His mates C,S&N all appear at various points on the album - they were obviously still getting on in those days.  The critics were very sniffy about the whole thing upon its release but, funnily enough, since it became the biggest selling album of the year they've all re-evaluated it since as a masterpiece.  Neil didn't seem too enamoured of it though - he proclaimed it very middle of the road and his reaction to it resulted in his "ditch trilogy", two of which I had to suffer much earlier on this list and I would agree they are very much ditchier than this album.  Where ditchier is not a synonym for better.  

In honour of his final appearance, I read through his Wikipedia entry one last time (it's not going to happen again, believe me) and was somewhat surprised to see he's recorded a version of "God Save The Queen" (on 2012's album Americana) - which lead me to investigate who else has (because I was aware of the Queen version on Night At The Opera).  Apparently, Hendrix played it at the Isle Of Wight Festival in 1970 (a la Star Spangled Banner) and Madness have recorded a version on kazoos (which I quite pleased to say I couldn't find, because I would have subjected myself to it.  Back to Neil Young, I can also give you the following INCREDIBLY useful fact - "Jason Bond, an East Carolina University biologist, discovered a new species of trapdoor spider in 2007 and named it Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi after Young, his favourite singer" - I guess Neil can die happy now!

"Customers also listened to" all the names I've mentioned above - and Dylan.  Some people just love to make themselves suffer, I guess - however, there is, of course, no danger of me ever voluntarily listening to it again.  Or any of his other albums either - this list has managed the seemingly impossible task of lowering my opinion of his music.  Sorry, Neil - but I don't blame you and many thanks for introducing me to the glass harmonica!

#71 : Exodus - Bob Marley And The Wailers (1977)

As the title suggests, this album wasn’t recorded in Jamaica; after Bob Marley took a bullet in a 1976 assassination attempt, he relocated the Wailers to London. But tracks such as “Jamming” are still suffused with the deep essence of reggae and life at home. “Three Little Birds,” for example, had been written on the back step of Marley’s home in Kingston, where he would sit and smoke herb. Each time Marley rolled a spliff, he would discard the seeds — and the birds of the song’s title would pick them up. “The music have a purpose,” Marley said, and his spiritual intent was never clearer than on the anthem “One Love,” with its message of redemption and revolution.

I've always wondered - how does Bob Marley like his doughnuts?  Maybe this album will give me the answer - I've never listened to it in full, but am aware of (and like) the singles, so was looking forward to listening to it, although I'd say reggae isn't really my thing.  And, to my uncultured ears, it sounds like a particularly fine set of songs - "Jamming", "Three Little Birds" (the "don't worry 'bout a thing" song) and "One Love/People Get Ready" are the highlights for me, but that's probably to do with familiarity bias - the other tracks seem perfectly fine and I could quite possibly grow to love them, if I ever listened to them again.  Which doesn't seem overly likely to be honest, but you never know.  The album was also a tight 37 minutes - which was very pleasing.

The Wikipedia entry for the album tells me "Exodus is a reggae album" - sometimes I just don't know what I'd do without it!  Apart from that, it doesn't really give me any more information other than that the album was well received by the critics and the general public.  In order to find out more about the assassination attempt (because I was intrigued as to why anyone would even want to kill him), I had to go to the Wikipedia page on that very subject - it was probably to do with Marley's perceived (but denied) support of the current government in the upcoming election.  Quite how the opposition thought killing Bob would help their cause is unclear - there were also rumours the CIA were involved, but again it's not clear why they would bother.  Despite four people being shot, including Bob's wife being shot in the head, as Wikipedia puts in "Astonishingly, there were no fatalities".

"Customers also listened to" all the people I've ever heard of associated with reggae - except for UB40, no Marley fans would listen to them!  I can't claim to be a reggae fan, but I liked this album - it has a very cool vibe to it, kids.  And, in case you're wondering, he likes his doughnuts with jam in - and he hopes you like jam in too.  (I'll get my coat)

So, definitely not Neil Young (he's won one round - that's enough, surely?!?) - so it comes down to whether I'm in the mood for noise or not noise.  And although there's a good argument that Loveless has had the greater musical impact, it's early on a Sunday morning, so it has to be Bob.

#76-74 - Curtis, Curtis, Curtis
#70-68 - Three first time visits