It’s a Wonderful Life of Albums: The Stone Roses
Sometimes wonderful things just sneak in under a deadline or requirement, a warm autumn day before the weather turns, finishing that gallon of milk before the expiration, the LeBron James block in game seven. The Stone Roses’ self-titled debut barely snuck into my lifetime with its release in 1989, and I wasn’t going to let this one slip through the cracks of this series. It is often considered amongst the best debut albums to ever come out of the United Kingdom, and it’s certainly part of the DNA of the Britpop movement that followed.
The record begins calmly and deliberately, a slow muted guitar and bass provide the canvas for the meandering lead guitar of John Squire to explore. “I don’t have to sell my soul, he’s already in me, I wanna be adored.” With very few lyrics, the passionate croon of Ian Brown is what makes the same words being repeated feel magical. While it could be argued that his voice is not great, it is iconic and actively vibes in a timeless way. He truly sings in the key of mellow, and it’s as soothing as aloe.
Not to be outdone, “She Bangs the Drums” follows as a much more radio friendly upbeat track featuring an amazing bass line from Mani. The chorus’ uplifting refrain of an unnamed lady drummer is fantastic, “Have you seen her? Have you heard? The way she plays there are no words, to describe the way I feel.” Britop legend Noel Gallagher, who took more than a few cues from the band, has claimed this as his favorite Stone Roses song and in England that is as good a stamp of approval as you will get.
While fellow Mancunians Oasis have always been outspoken supporters of Manchester City in European football, three quarters of The Stone Roses are fans of Manchester United. While this brings enormous warmth to my heart that they are fellow reds, the real testament is that since the early 2000s United players have walked out of the locker room at Old Trafford to the melodic and ascending track, “This is the One.” I loved the song before I knew this nugget, and what a great honor it is when a local artist is championed in this way.
The original album release ended on, “I am the Resurrection” so I will stick to that track list. While it is self indulgent at 8:12, almost half of that being the outro guitar solo, it’s a great album capstone. I would also be remiss to not mention how great, “Waterfall” is, no notes on that one. When I think of, “no skip albums” The Stone Roses is always top of mind, and the music it helped influence has always been intoxicating to me. One can definitely spend an hour more fruitlessly than giving this one a spin.
It’s a Wonderful Life of Albums: Californication
There is no official ambassador honor for the state of California, but perhaps they should give the title to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. There are no more prolific propagandists of dreams of a California lifestyle than them, stitched into the fabric of the culture. It’s debatable if this is their best album, they are a great band, but Californication hit hard for me in 1999 and I wasn’t alone. The record spawned six singles, and went on to sell over fifteen million copies worldwide, for a more modern take, three of the band’s top five most streamed songs on Spotify.
Californication marked the return of guitarist John Frusciante to the band, and his presence is felt throughout. His beautiful almost weeping clean guitar forms the framework of, “Scar Tissue” a single that can hook you within the first 15 seconds of the song starting. It features a mellow and lovable chorus, “With the birds I’ll share this lonely viewin’” and the hilarious verse, “Soft spoken with a broken jaw, step outside but not to brawl, autumn’s sweet we call it fall.” The bigger hits on this album are so easy to love.
The next track hits pretty hard in succession, “Otherside” features great storytelling about the pitfalls of confronting addiction. It’s dark in places, musically strong, and features this great opening verse, “I heard your voice through a photograph, I thought it up and brought up the past, once you know you can never go back, I gotta take it on the otherside.” The song is reflective and accessible enough that it doesn’t force the subject matter on a casual listener too heavily, it was a single after all.
The title track simply leaves nothing to be desired, five and a half minutes of Red Hot Chili Peppers bliss. If you catch the music video, it features the latest in what video games looked like at the turn of the millennium. The lyrics speak to the overwhelming cultural force that California is to our society and the world, and the possibilities that are only there beyond the superficial. “Space may be the final frontier, but it’s made in a Hollywood basement. And Cobain can you hear the spheres singing songs off station to station?” All of this comes to a head with Frusciante’s almost too perfect guitar solo, it silences whatever noise is going on in my head every time I hear it, at least for a moment.
I also want to give compliments to Lawrence Azerrad, know for his Pink Floyd album covers for the art, this cd begged to be picked up off the shelf even if you didn’t know the band. I remember the joy of buying this CD at the Ft. Wayne Best Buy back in jr. high, and that, ladies and gentleman, is an old sounding sentence. It can be argued as to whether this is the best Chili Peppers album, there are at least two others you could make a case for. In the end, this is the one that has, “Californication” on it, so all other arguments are probably moot.
It’s a Wonderful Life of Albums: Only by the Night
In the fall of 2008 there was an injection of youthful energy in the world of music, a new semester was in the works for me and a new Kings of Leon album was the music of the moment. It was one of the few times I can remember a rock band being the center of attention in the culture of my youth, all the better that it was for good reason. Only by the Night is a great album with two massive hit songs that propelled it in quick succession to the front of our minds.
Album opener, “Closer” puts us on pins and needles from the outset with the recurring delay guitar rippling like a foreshadowing of the heavy journey ahead. “Skies are blinking at me, I see a storm bubbling up from the sea, and it’s coming closer.” The song sets the foundation for the rest of this monster album with its six singles, but also immediately indicates it won’t be the smoothest ride. It won’t be sunshine and rainbows, but you should have no interest in getting off the ride. The eerily optimistic hungers you get from it will be satisfied.
If you’re looking for the banger of 2008, “Sex On Fire” is your hit, pun intended. This has the guitar string bend heard round the world, with all the distortion necessary to accentuate one of the steamier choruses of the year. “You, your sex is on fire, ah, ah, consumed, with what’s just transpired,” immediately followed by that massive guitar driving the point home. Radio play never killed this one for me, and when it came on at a party it was a cue to head for the keg line, as the were about to be a lot of empty cups.
Just a month later the equally compelling second single was released with a less sexy, more communal tone, “Use Somebody.” Lead singer Caleb Followill pangs for a companion from a dark place, “Someone like you and all you know and how you speak, countless lovers under cover of the street, you know that I could use somebody…Someone like you.“ The chorus of “oh-ohs” forms the pop friendly bones of the song and it is heavenly to hear a crowd echo this by the thousands, even someone like you.
As their fourth studio album and follow up to 2007’s excellent, Because of the Times, Kings of Leon were already ascendant, Only by the Night put them into the stratosphere. This was the album where they broke into the United States, after years and albums of success in the United Kingdom. This Tennessee band of three brothers and a cousin rocked their way around the world before coming back to conquer America. I don’t love everything that comes out of Nashville, but when I listen to this album I can’t help but ask someone to pass the southern barbecue.
Happy Pride To All
To everyone who celebrates pride this month, I hope you enjoy yourselves, you deserve it. It presents us with an opportunity to promote unity in a divided world, and celebrate our individuality and humanity. I’m not up on the correct acronym of the moment, but the LGBTQ+ community has given much to the world, and they deserve a month to be recognized. Two years ago while working in an office in Marysville I had told a coworker I would be attending pride with a friend, the response was one of the ugliest homophobic rants I’ve ever heard in my catholic-raised life. I was angry, but respectful, and that made me write this song, I hope you enjoy. Be yourself, happy pride!
It’s a Wonderful Life of Albums: Is This It?
Rock and Roll debauchery has always held its appeal to me, when the cool band of the moment does something outrageous. Noel Gallagher once said, “Until you’ve actually thrown a television set out of a window, you don’t even know the sense of joy it brings.” The Strokes, led by stylish frontman Julian Casablancas were that cool, on edge band for me in the early 2000s. I have no accounting for hotel structural damage that they caused back then, but I always thought they might unleash that destruction at any moment.
The debut album Is This It was already on the hype train when it came out in 2001 on the heels of the success of their EP The Modern Age, which was released in the United Kingdom the same year. The first single from the album was, “Hard to Explain” rose to number 1 on the UK indie charts. This was our first introduction to the guitar heavy sound of The Strokes with the reverse reverb on Casablancas’ vocals, a defining sound of the early oughts.
In the vein of rock and roll mythology, good artists copy, great artists steal. With that in mind there was a definite and later blessed theft involved with the making of the single, “Last Nite.” The rhythm guitar intro is almost a direct lift from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’,“American Girl” something the band would later admit to in an interview that Petty himself referenced. Like a true crusader for the love of rock and roll, Petty never sued or was in any way negative about them lifting the intro, he laughed it off like the legend he is.
The easiest listening song on the album is probably the third single, “Someday” with its jangling guitars and somewhat hopeful lyrics, “You say you want to stay by my side, darling your head’s not right, ah, see, alone we stand, together we fall apart, yeah, I think I’ll be alright.” The music video was fun, featuring the band in a bar telling stories, sharing cigarettes and drinks, it would be rock and roll caricature if it didn’t look so natural and cool.
The Strokes were going to be the band that saved rock and roll in 2001, and their debut album Is This It? was going to be the blueprint. That kind of hype was something no band could ever live up to, but at least we got this masterpiece. If nothing else it shows the enduring power of rock and roll to have a record like this come out decades after the prime era of the genre. The energy of the record is also undeniable, and it clocks in at around 37 minutes, just enough time to make a memory tonight that will be hard to explain.
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