Something happened on the day he died - spirit rose a metre and stepped aside

Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day...

20.05.11 : Blackstar - David Bowie (2016)

I'm slightly too young (and that's a phrase I rarely use) to have been into cool Bowie first time round - I joined him at Lets Dance, which I have a lot of fondness for, but very few people consider it to be his finest work.  But I've always admired the man and his music (except Tin Machine, of course) and am quite happy to admit I shed a somewhat unexpected tear whilst stood on a freezing cold train station platform hearing of his death.  And then a couple of days later, I got to hear this album and I was SO relieved it wasn't shit.  It feels tricky to entirely dispassionate about the whole thing, but when he sings "look up here, I'm in heaven" on Lazarus it feels very real - and don't get me started on "I Can't Give Everything Away".  Overall, it's got a fine collection of Bowie squawks and weird noises on it, so is a fitting epitaph imho.

The channel liked this, but I was surprised by the number of people that had never listened to it - shame on you all!  Wikipedia has a few things to say about the album (a lengthy 394 milliPeppers) - I'm not even going to try and extract anything relevant, but it's fair to say it was well received.  The critic who commented "This tortured immortality is no gimmick: Bowie will live on long after the man has died" BEFORE he died must have been a bit shaken up later in the week though.

"Customers also listened to" Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Mott The Hoople and T Rex - it's like he's got the band back together from the early days.  As for Blackstar, I haven't listened to it in a few years and was pleased to be sent back to it - a very welcome revisit.

20.05.12 : Goodbye - Ulrich Schnauss (2007)

Somewhere I own Far Away Trains Passing By, which I seem to recall I bought just because of the title, but I liked it nonetheless.  Until recently, I thought that was my only exposure to Ulrich, until I found out he was also in Longview, whose album Mercury I quite like.  But for no obvious reason I assumed this would be more like Far Away - and yeah, it totally is.  Beautiful sweeping sonic landscapes which are perfect if you're in that kind of mood, but it's not something that's going to get you up and dancing - and I totally appreciate some people will find the whole thing exceedingly dull.  66 minutes is possibly a bit of a stretch if you're actually listening to it, but it's fine to eat up a chunk of time playing in the background and I guess you can also spend some time studying the very cool album cover.

The channel was pretty quiet about the album, but did spend a lot of time discussing how much some people had never heard of Ulrich Strauss (they'd like never heard of him A LOT).  It also managed to scare 3 people away from the channel, which I think is a record so far - it's not that bad, surely?  Wikipedia has pretty much nothing to say about the album - his entry is much more interesting.  I didn't even know Tangerine Dream were still going, let alone that he was now part of the line-up (54 years after they initially formed).

"Customers also listened to" a load of people I've never heard of, but I'd have to say I'm almost intrigued enough to check out The Standoffish Cat by Mrs Jynx.  Back to Ulrich, this isn't an everyday album but when you're in the mood for that kind of thing, it'll hit the spot nicely.

20.05.13 : Someone To Drive You Home - The Long Blondes (2006)

This album was picked by Mr Giles, who I had the pleasure of working with approximately a million years ago but we have had a few conversations recently where he has (good-naturedly) bemoaned my lack of appreciation of good music.  And by "good", I mean god-awful, obviously - mostly late 60s/early 70s albums that only their mother (and Mr Giles) could love (it's more than possible I'm being slightly unfair here).  So imagine my surprise when he picks something from this century - I had heard of The Long Blondes, but couldn't have recognised anything of theirs so was looking forward to listening to it.

And that's a fine bit of feedback to start the album.  But once it's got that out of its system, it settles down into jangly indie-pop with a female vocalist - so what's not to love?  And there's actually a lot more musical skills on show here than is often the case, which is never a bad thing.  I was trying to decide who the singer sounded like - there's a bit of Debbie Harry and a bit of Chrissie Hynde but I think there's someone else but I can't drag them out of the recesses of my mind.  I'm getting old now - and I'm certainly old enough that I should have caught this first time around, so was glad to have had the error of my ways pointed out.  It also has a cool album cover - Faye Dunaway as Bonnie next to a Mk III Cortina as her getaway car!

The channel had a couple of people welcoming back an old friend but was pretty quiet apart from that - and it caused one more person to run away as well!  Wikipedia has remarkably little to say about the album other than noting it was extremely well critically received but the lack of any comment about commercial reception suggests it didn't exactly take the world by storm (it peaked at #44 in the UK album charts).  Wikipedia also mentions Pulp as being an influence - which didn't strike me at the time, but seems obvious in hindsight (and they come from the same neck of the woods as well).

"Customers also listen to" a load of people from that time that didn't jump out at me as being massively similar - The Strokes, Super Furry Animals, The Libertines, Friendly Fires.  This album owes more to the Britpop era than its time, but (unlike a lot of albums from the Britpop era) it hangs together well and I really enjoyed it.

All in all - a good selection.  Ulrich was fine and I really liked The Long Blondes - but it would feel like heresy not to give this round to Mr Bowie.

20.05.05 - Some modern music
20.05.14 - Three minimalist album covers