Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Island Life - Grace Jones


A compilation as a Critical Junction?
Island Life by Grace Jones is a little more than a compilation, it's a chronicle of her development as a singer, flirting with different styles and experimenting with cover versions as well as her own original tracks. The album takes its title from Island Records, and contains a chronological sampling of the work she produced deuring her tenure with the record company from '77 - '85. Although it doesn't feature anything from her album Muse tracks are taken from Portfolio, Fame, Warm Leatherette, Nightclubbing, Living My Life, and Slave to the Rhythm.
Jones is as much known for her modelling as her singing and the album cover by Jean-Paul Goude is a fitting example of her iconic style, Jones was a muse of the graphic designer/photographer and the picture was created in 1978. It is an anatomically impossible position and was created using a cut and paste technique. (God bless the days before photoshop)
Kicking off with the Piaf cover La Vie En Rose Jones displays her 2 1/2 octave vocal range and she continues with the disco theme that gave her Diva status in Gay clubs everywhere on the tracks, I Need A Man and Do or Die. The sound shifts to a more New Wave experimental groove on The Pretenders Private Life and her excellent Roxy Music cover, Love Is The Drug. A more scaled down Torch Song sound can be heard on I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango) and the accordion appears again reminiscent of the production on la Vie En Rose. Pull Up To The Bumper co written by Jones, gave her a hit single twice, firstly as a single release of her 1981 album Nightclubbing, and again in 1985 as Island Life climbed the album charts. Walking In The Rain is more spoken than sung, with a laid back funky groove laid down underneath that spells out early Lounge., The last two tracks on the album My Jamaican Guy and Slave To The Rhythm continue the funky theme while adding a decent splash of R&B.
Electric Picnicers will get to experience Grace Jones live in Stradbally this weekend, in the meantime, as a Critical Junction this Thursday on Live Drive Heeeeeere's Grace!

Track Listing
1. La Vie En Rose
2. I Need A Man
3. Do Or Die
4. Private Life
5. Love Is The Drug
6. I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)
7. Pull Up To The Bumper
8. Walking In The Rain
9. My Jamaican Guy
10. Slave To The Rhythm

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posted by Critical Junctions @ 13:12   0 Comments

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Roxy Music - Country Life


To a young, impressionable teenager, such as I once was, the cover of Roxy Music's 1974 release, Country Music, was something of an immediate statement and, well, something that was just as much fun to look at as to listen. Just look at it! I think it speaks for itself although I will go on about it a little later.

Ferry and Roxy Music were nerds and their esoteric leanings are rampant across this gem of an L.P. ( I realise I said esoteric but hang in there its gonna be OK) The album begins with The Thrill of It All, an up tempo number that includes a little poetry reference, (for the nerds Dorothy Parker's Resume) Krautrock, Elizabethan-esque musicianship on Triptych and Feryy's seemingly random word smithery are peppered in every track. The wonderful Casanova shows Ferry commenting on the hollowness of the jet set life. Ferry's girlfriend at the time was Jerry Hall, and the final track is an ode to her.

The cover was fairly controversial upon its release, it has two models in just enough clothes to retain some modesty, Constanze karoli and Eveline Grunwald. Ferry met them in Portugal and persuaded them to do the photo, and the results were not to the palet of the Americans who wanted a new cover released this time with 2 trees on it, what a terrible waste.

Track Listing
  1. The Thrill of It All" – 6:24
  2. "Three and Nine" (Ferry, Andy Mackay) – 4:04
  3. "All I Want Is You" – 2:53
  4. "Out of the Blue" (Ferry, Phil Manzanera) – 4:46
  5. "If It Takes All Night" – 3:12
  6. "Bitter-Sweet" (Ferry, Mackay) – 4:50
  7. "Triptych" – 3:09
  8. "Casanova" – 3:27
  9. "A Really Good Time" – 3:45
  10. "Prairie Rose" (Ferry, Manzanera) – 5:12

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posted by Critical Junctions @ 20:27   0 Comments

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

3 Feet High and Rising - De La Soul


De La Soul's landmark début album, 3 Feet High and Rising, was released in 1989 and remains one of the watershed albums in Hip Hop's rich musical history. Released at a time when gangster rap was taking hold of the Hip Hop scene, De LA Soul's positive upbeat album was something altogether new and fresh to the ears of the music buying public. It was an album that ushered in an age where producers began to use very different samples and on this album they are as diverse as Johnny Cash and The Turtles. The albums title is actually a play on the Johnny Cash song Five Feet High and Rising!

Producer Prince Paul shaped this album into something extra ordinary. Even though sampling was not something new, it is how it is used on the album that sets it apart from all that came before it. This is perhaps the most influential aspect of the album. The likes of DJ Shadow and Blackalicious would not exist if it were not for this album. (See below for a list of all the samples used on the album)

The lyrical content of 3 Feet High and Rising also set it apart. The positive tone and almost non exiting use of profanity really did allow it to stand out from what was being pioneered at the time by Public Enemy and N.W.A. The lyrical influence of Public Enemy shaped rap music for the next 15 years where as R and B seems to have embraced the sound and ideals of De La Soul more than most of the rap world.

So the big hits, well first up is The Magic Number. This has 2 amazing samples in it John Bohnam's drumbeat from Led Zeppelins The Grudge and Bob Dorough's tune Three Is a Magic Number. This has become one of those songs that everyone knows and loves. Other top songs from the album include: Me Myself and I, Buddy, Potholes in My Lawn, Jennifer Taught Me Ghetto Thang and of course Eye Know.

The trio of Kevin Mercer, Vincent Mason and Dave Jude Jolicoeur may have created what many at the time considered to be Hippy Rap especially because they themselves saw it as the D.A.I.S.Y Age (Da Inner Sound Ya'll) but what we have in 3 Feet high and Rising is a masterpiece that continues to shape the sound of music in positive ways, something which few can boast of or argue with.


Track Listing
  1. "Intro" – 1:41
  2. "The Magic Number" – 3:14
  3. "Change in Speak" – 2:33
  4. "Cool Breeze on the Rocks" – 0:46
  5. "Can U Keep a Secret" – 1:38
  6. "Jenifa Taught Me (Derwin's Revenge)" – 3:25
  7. "Ghetto Thang" – 3:35
  8. "Transmitting Live From Mars" – 1:06
  9. "Eye Know" – 4:06
  10. "Take It Off" – 1:53
  11. "A Little Bit of Soap" – 0:47
  12. "Tread Water" – 3:54
  13. "Potholes in My Lawn" – 4:14
  14. "Say No Go" – 4:20
  15. "Do as De La Does" – 1:58
  16. "Plug Tunin' (Last Chance to Comprehend)" – 4:13
  17. "De La Orgee" – 1:11
  18. "Buddy" (with Jungle Brothers and Q-Tip) – 4:56
  19. "Description" – 1:24
  20. "Me Myself and I" – 3:41
  21. "This Is a Recording 4 Living in a Fulltime Era (L.I.F.E.)" – 3:16
  22. "I Can Do Anything (Delacratic)" – 0:40
  23. "D.A.I.S.Y. Age" – 3:58
  24. "Plug Tunin'" (original 12" version) – 3:41
Here is the monstrous list of sample used on the album. Set your faces on stunned!

  • "Can U Keep a Secret?"
  • "Transmitting Live from Mars"
  • "Say No Go"
    • "That's the Joint" by Funky 4+1
    • "Crossword Puzzle" by Sly & the Family Stone
    • "You Got the Best of My Love" by The Emotions
    • "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" by Hall & Oates
    • "Baby Let Me Take You (In My Arms) by the Detroit Emeralds
    • "I'm Chief Kamanawanalea (We're the Royal Macadamia Nuts)" by The Turtles
  • "De La Orgee"
    • "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little Bit More, Babe" by Barry White
  • "Plug Tunin' (Last Chance to Comprehend)"
  • "Description"
    • "Poet" by Sly & the Family Stone
  • "This Is a Recording 4 Living in a Fulltime Era (L.I.F.E.)"

posted by Critical Junctions @ 15:20   4 Comments

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Survivor - Destiny's Child



And why not?

Straight to number one with a bullet in 2001, these ladies OWNED the R&B charts, and we're bringing it to this Thursdays Critical Junction.

Track Listing
1. Independent Woman (part 1)
2. Survivor
3. Bootylicious
4. Nasty Girl
5. Fancy
6. Apple Pie A La Mode
7. Sexy Daddy
8. Perfect Man
9. Independent Woman (part 2)
10. Happy Face
11. Dance With Me
12. My Heart Still Beats - Destiny's Child & Beyonce
13. Emotion
14. Brown Eyes
15. Dangerously In Love
16. Story Of Beauty
17. Gospel Medley (Dedicated to Andretta Tillman)
18. Outro (DC-3)

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posted by Critical Junctions @ 17:05   0 Comments