Members present: William A. Rawls, Swedish Oxers, Cuban Pete, Plan B, Charlie Face, Ms Mistoffeles

Members absent: ILoveDisco, Consigliere

Favorite song: “Cloudbusting”

Discussed:  Huge success of Kate Bush in UK (commercially and critically) while only minor recognition in US; album as more of an art piece than music; music that moves your head not your heart or feet (nerd rock?); Kate’s mime background and tie to Bowie’s; abstract themes throughout songs, particularly “Cloudbusting”; stark difference between more commercial Side A and more dissonant/experimental Side B; KB as a polarizing, “love or hate” artist; need for active listening of album to get its meaning and to understand its lyrics; power of being a woman songwriter in charge of her own music; KB’s low profile and perfectionism; KB’s success at very young age with David Gilmour’s help; album’s early use of sampling; KB’s ability to be scary and calming at the same time; melancholy mood throughout.

Next album, courtesy of Swedish Oxers:  Hex Enduction Hour, The Fall (1982)

Members present: Swedish Oxers, Cuban Pete, Plan B, Charlie Face, Consigliere, MMM

 Members absent: ILoveDisco, William A. Rawls

Favorite song: “Back on the Chain Gang”

Discussed:  Unanimous AC love for Chrissie Hynde; album’s accessible, straightforward, traditional American sound; Hynde as one of the few musically talented members (and few women) of the McLaren/Westwood scene; diversity of the music (punk, rock, romantic); best of the 80s sound, but in a good way, not kitschy; small number of bands with a woman as chief creative member; honesty of the album, with meaningful, hardcore lyrics; Hynde as a unique figure, bringing something new to the scene, including an uncompromising sexuality; flexibility of the underrated and instantly recognizable voice; album coming off losses of two original members — band starting again with this album; is Hynde really a solo act?; Hynde’s endurance, popular far after punk ended and still making relevant music; huge commercial success of band; familiarity of many of the album’s songs; Rush Limbaugh’s appropriation of “My City Was Gone”; Hynde’s balancing of tough, punk stance and newfound motherhood, always without sentimentality

Next album, courtesy of Ms Mistoffeles:  Hounds of Love, Kate Bush (1985)

Members present:  William A. Rawls, Ms. Mistoffeles, Swedish Oxers, Consigliere, Plan B, Charlie Face, Cuban Pete

Favorite song:  ”Seen Unseen”

Notable:  By 6-1 vote, hip-hop music was approved for future AC selections

Discussed:  Episode of “Webster” where home burned down; Fela Kuti’s influence; David Byrne’s Maryland roots; band’s constant tension, chiefly between Byrne and Tina Weymouth; Brian Eno’s early use of loops and samples; Byrne’s relevance beyond music and into other art scenes; Album Club’s near universal distaste for jam bands like Phish and DMB (and for some, dislike of funk and world music, too); difference between high-energy Side A and more experimental Side B; Talking Heads as bridge between punk and post-punk; Talking Heads’ commercial success, with hit singles spread out over several albums; Byrne’s visual uniqueness as key element to their success; In early days of MTV; Suzi Quattro as role model for Weymouth; Eno’s intentional focus on sonic verus lyric

Next album, courtesy of Cuban Pete:  Learning to Crawl, The Pretenders (1984) 

Members present: William A. Rawls, Cuban Pete, Plan B, Charlie Face, Consigliere

Members absent: ILoveDisco, Swedish Oxers, Ms. Mistoffeles

Favorite song:  “Why Won’t You Talk to Me?”

Discussed:  Strong nostalgia feeling evoked by album; Rafferty’s perfect pitch; well-arranged music to build larger themes upon; presence of top Brit and Scot musicians on album (including Linda and Richard Thompson); Rafferty’s discomfort with fame and live performing; whether experience of live performance would have given his songs more of an edge, from interaction and reaction with audience; cycle of alcoholism (father, also), leading to his early death; sense of unfulfilled potential, compared to contemporaries such as Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel; role a co-writer might have played in giving more of the songs a hook; Kenny G’s murder of the sax in popular music; was Rafferty great, or on the verge of greatness?; Rafferty as a recluse without the drama or mania; how much having a persona is necessary to be “great.”

Next album, courtesy of William A. Rawls:  Remain in Light, Talking Heads (1980)

Members present: Swedish Oxers, William A. Rawls, Cuban Pete, Plan B, Charlie Face

Members absent: ILoveDisco, Ms. Mistoffeles, Consigliere

Favorite song:  “Planet Caravan”

Discussed:  Noting of one-year anniversary of Album Club; Plan B’s taking the baton from Swedish Oxers with PowerPoint prowess; dark sound, inspired by horror (Boris Karloff movie “Black Sabbath”) and the occult, but addressing issues like war and drugs; group recording against the backdrop of a UK fearful of nuclear war, against US bases in UK, and witnessing mental and physical problems of US soldiers returning from Vietnam; use of the musical tri-tone a.k.a. the Devil’s interval; left-handed guitarist Tony Iommi’s unique sound created by de-tuning due to his missing fingertips; at beginning of 1970s, realization that the flower revolution did not work; band well-trained from constant touring in small clubs in UK; album’s release within same year as group’s first album; guitar’s “musical multiplier” effect, giving the band that big sound even though only four members; album’s negative reception by critics of the day, who wanted albums with hope; elements of jazz throughout the album; quick changes of tempo in songs; timelessness of “Iron Man,” a true anthem; cinematic and Gothic elements (later adopted by the Cure); definition of the moniker Geezer in the UK; music as a vehicle for poor kids in UK to find a way out; surprising quality of Ozzy Osbourne’s voice; album’s advanced sound, seeming more 1980 than 1970; “Iron” in “Iron Man” as the source of the term heavy metal, and the opening drums of that song as the moment heavy metal was born; songwriting via jamming; uniqueness of vocal, guitar, and bass on same melody; Ozzy’s singing with the guitar line because band improvised so much

Black Sabbath, Paranoid

Next album, courtesy of Charlie Face:  Night Owl, Gerry Rafferty (1979)

A dense but delightful essay about the ubiquity of music and how we experience it less as social appreciation of high art and more as currency for self-identification and class distinction.

You can see this in the violent intra-genre squabbling that animates indie rock circles…Meanwhile the proliferation of genre names represents an even finer process of social differentiation, each genre’s acolytes determining (as Serge Gainsbourg put it) qui est “in,” qui est “out.” The rise of generic distinctions has lately reached a climax of absurdity, such that we can name off the top of our heads: house, witch house, dub, dustup, hardstep, dancehall, dancefloor, punk, post-punk, noise, “Noise,” new wave, nu wave, no Wave, emo, post-emo, hip-hop, conscious hip-hop, alternative hip-hop, jazz hip-hop, hardcore hip-hop, nerdcore hip-hop, Christian hip-hop, crank, crunkcore, metal, doom metal, black metal, speed metal, thrash metal, death metal, Christian death metal, and, of course, shoegazing, among others. (Meanwhile a thousand years of European art music is filed under “classical.”)

Perhaps fittingly you cannot find this article online! Buy it here or at your local purveyor of hipster books and mags.

Upon first glance, our own Consigliere seems like any other suburban Dad and upstanding member of his quiet, leafy neighborhood. But inside, there’s a party going on. And if the soundtrack to that party wasn’t the Stones or a southern rock anthem we think it might be something sour and spry from the Sex Pistols. Below, please find notes from Consigliere’s choice for the 1970’s, the lone and legendary release from the Sex Pistols.

Members present: Swedish Oxers, William A. Rawls, Cuban Pete, Ms. Mistoffeles, Plan B, Consigliere, Charlie Face

Members absent: ILoveDisco

Favorite song:  “God Save the Queen”

Discussed:  Enormous impact of this one-album band, like a shooting star, providing the spark and then fading; deep, authentic response by band to British class system/establishment; Malcolm McLaren’s perhaps overstated role in the band’s creative output; Vivienne Westwood’s influence in adding a political element to the band’s anger; band (and punk) coming from the fringes but affecting everyone; rap as having a similar groundbreaking feel to punk, developing out of a niche scene; group was angry and contrarian but did not offer an alternative; difference between making a statement and creating a movement; long history of bad boys selling records (KISS, Led Zeppelin); success predicated on “nothing to lose” mantra, difficult to sustain; Sid Vicious’ creation of the Pogo dance; question of whether group’s music offers more than energy and stimulation and can stand on its own; group’s success laying the groundwork for the Clash to take it to another level; melodic and tight sound despite the chaos of the band and general lack of musicianship.

Next album, courtesy of Plan B:  Paranoid, Black Sabbath (1970)

An opportunity to look back to the Pet Sounds days of the Album Club.

Bowie: Too immense a topic for PowerPoint, surely. But how does one summarize one of his most influential, important releases; a relative obscurity that looms large against the backdrop of artistic endeavors of the late 70’s and early 80’s avant garde? Indeed, contexting this album and summarizing Bowie between the more familiar lines (haha) of Ziggy and “China Girl” and “Let’s Dance” was a challenge the Album Club met with enthusiasm. Marc Spitz’ captivating biography both informed and inspired the conversation and was recommended reading for the group. PowerPoint and notes follow.

Members present: William A. Rawls, Cuban Pete, Ms. Mistoffeles, Plan B, Consigliere, Swedish Oxers

Members absent: ILoveDisco  

Special guests present:  Charlie with the Face On, Myles Winslow

Favorite song:  “Sound and Vision”

Discussed:  Swedish Oxers’ simultaneous raising of the bar and descent into new lows of dorkdom with a multi-media PDF presentation; Album Club members’ almost universal love of Bowie but dislike of Low; Bowie’s masterful, beguiling, frequent image/character metamorphoses, with three or four in the 1970’s alone; influence of Bowie’s schizophrenic half-brother, Terry, and later, of Iggy Pop as a brother figure; conventional sound of Side A today, when once it was considered experimental; depressing, bleak Side B that some felt was boring and others felt was riveting and deeply disturbing; relative lack of vocals by Bowie on album; critical acclaim and influential role of Low on post-punk bands like Joy Division; album as Bowie’s break from hyper use of drugs to only middling use of drugs; amount of credit Brian Eno should or shouldn’t get for Low; Bowie’s bad business decisions (occasioned by sexual relationships with his managers); album recording as experimental accident, the result of tinkering and trailblazing with DIY instruments and novel interpretations of sound; a close listen of “A New Career in a New Town”; a close reading of Marc Spitz’ description of Low:

The rhythms of Low sometimes emulate factory floors and chemical labs. Drums crash like steam shooting from a vent pipe; the bass burbles lightly like a toxic substance in a glass beaker being purified over a Bunsen burner. The guitars come in cold and impossibly mellow and the misfit synthesizers, especially on the more modal second side, float every empty sonic space like a new pollution. It all shakes and bends like it’s being played by hand and not machines but feels riveted together, a modern machine.

Next album, courtesy of Consigliere:  Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, Sex Pistols (1977)

This Sunday, when the Album Club convenes to discuss the Sex Pistols solitary studio effort, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, we will welcome a new member, Charlie with the Face On, or Charlie Face for short.

Shortly after a special guest appearance during our discussion of David Bowie’s Low, Charlie Face submitted a formal application letter for the Club’s consideration. ILoveDisco resented his suggestion that liking disco is some kind of problem which needs to “be admitted,” but welcomed another disco supporter nonetheless. Swedish Oxers and Ms. Mistoffeles quietly questioned Face’s name dropping of Cock Robin, but Plan B advised they’re an old school punk/new wave band, not early 80’s beta porn as the name suggests. And in the end, we decided Charlie Face’s omnivorous appetite for all types of music, his fearless admission of liking Maroon 5 and Train, and his British accent made him an excellent new addition. Plus, Cuban Pete needs another Eurythmics fan to geek out with when we get to the 1980’s.

Face’s application letter follows:

Dear Venerable Members of the Album Club,

I would be honored to be considered as a permanent member of your worthy institution and hereby explain my credentials for applying:

I am a Brit who has resided now in the US for 15 years and have been a music fan since my first bought record - T-Rex’s ‘Hot Love’ in 1971. My music taste swings wildly from glam rock in the 70’s, disco (yes, it does have to be admitted), through the new romantics and synthesizers of the 80’s and 90’s - everything from Madness, Heaven 17, Ultravox, Simple Minds, Split Enz, Eurythmics and ABC to the Cure, Human League, Cock Robin, Lloyd Cole, The The and Fine Young Cannibals. But after spending 7 years in Germany in the 90’s,  I do have a penchant for French, German and Italian pop of that time too - France Gall, Eros Ramazzotti, Falco, Achim Reichel.

During the 80’s and 90’s in the UK I was a music presenter and record librarian at a major hospital radio station (community radio) with a regular oldies show. It was a soft rock, easy listening station to best suit the music tastes of the patients but we had a black list of records we couldn’t play - anything that might remind patients of their predicament, so no ‘First cut is the deepest’, ‘Suicide is painless’ etc(!).  More recently I’ve been into Train, Maroon 5, Nellie Furtado, Dido, Peter Bjorn and John and Beyonce…

I hope this does provide an introduction to my musical taste, and I do believe I can provide some valuable musical insight and opinion to the Club from the other side of the Atlantic, so hope you will consider my application.

Thank you in advance,

Charlie Face