Month 2: September 1980 / November 2023
September 1980
After a rough start in the first month, I started listening to this month with some trepidation. However, after a quick scan of the releases for September 1980, I was excited. There were some killer names on the list: David Bowie, Dead Kennedys, Kate Bush, Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, and the list went on. This was it; this month would be the reason I started this project, discovering classic albums I would never have found.
I don’t know if the drugs in the summer of 1980 were too good or not good enough, but a large handful of these fantastic artists decided to release from absolute tripe.
David Bowie moved to Berlin to kick his cocaine habit in 1976; he stayed there for two years, recording 3 albums. The “Berlin Trilogy”, the albums “Low“, “”Heros“”1 and “Lodger” were later defined by Bowie as his “DNA”. He then returned to New York, and in April 1980, he started to work on “Scary Monsters“, launched in September 1980 to critical acclaim and commercial success. But I just don’t get it. “Ashes to Ashes” is insanely good, “Ashes to Ashes” is “Play at your funeral” good, and “Ashes to Ashes” is almost perfect. “Ashes to ashes, funk to funky
We know Major Tom’s a junkie” is a refrain that pops into my head about once a week. I can’t express how much I love this song in words. The rest of the album is over-considered drivel (with maybe the exception of “Fashion”). Bowie’s peculiar, loosely tight vocal delivery seems flabby on most of the tracks on this album, and the music stinks of 80s New York cocaine. Even if Bowie was clean, the band doesn’t sound like it.
If the cocaine boom of the 80s was ruining more pretentious forms of rock music, I thought maybe Punk would be immune, even potentially enhanced by the CIA accidentally flooding the USA with Colombian marching powder. The Dead Kennedys’ debut album “Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables” is identified as a defining moment in the West Coast Hardcore Punk revolution. Listening to it, I was conflicted; it’s excellent but far from perfect. “Kill The Poor”, “California Uber Alles”, and “Holiday in Cambodia” rank as some of the best Punk (not just hardcore) songs ever recorded, but there is a lot of filler on this album. However, part of me feels that a Punk album should never be perfect by the pure definition of Punk. This album was close to being “The One” this month, but I must move on.
Kate Bush and Stevie Wonder both released albums in this month. Sure, fire bets for a couple of excellent albums, right? Meh. I always thought I was a Kate Bush fan, but listening properly to “Never for Ever” made me realize I’m just a “Kate Bush Singles” fan. Other than the surprise jiggy 808 beats on “Delius”, there was nothing for me on this album outside the epic “Babooshka”. I am willing to admit that possibly listening to this album 44 years later might be slightly diluted by the crazy influence Kate Bush has had on almost every solo female artist since, but I just didn’t enjoy it.
So, was Stevie Wonder a safer pair of hands? Absolutely, “Hotter Than July” is an absolute classic. As younger folks might proclaim, “He ate and didn’t leave any crumbs”. It’s odd that this was released so late in the summer, as it has some pure summery vibes. It also, quite surprisingly for a Pop R&B album from the 80s, has a lovely ebb and flow. This was almost the choice for this month until I made a terrible mistake.
The ’80s were a formative period for Hip-Hop. I’m a big Hip-Hop fan, and the Kurtis Blow song “The Breaks” is such a seminal track that I had to check out Kurtis’ self-titled debut that was released in this month. However, the whole album isn’t available on any streaming services. The best I could find was someone playing Side 1 of the Vinyl on YouTube. My Bias, the first three tracks (which include “The Breaks”) and the album cover — which goes harder than it really should, tipped me into taking the risk and rushing off to buy this as this month’s album. Listening to side one solidified my choice… then I flipped the album to side 2.
At first, I thought there must have been some mistake. You heard about these legendary vinyl albums with some printing mistakes, such as the wrong album being pressed on the second side. Had I discovered one of these? Is this Vinyl I hold worth thousands of dollars to collectors? Nope, it’s just that the second side of this album is horrific, which is why no one decided to make an effort to put it online. It sounds like a session band covering some soft rock drivel with Kurtis chitty-chatting over the top; it’s a complete miss.
So, this month’s choice is Kurtis Blow—Kurtis Blow, but it should have been “Hotter Than July.” I will try to be more diligent in the future and just pretend the second side doesn’t exist.
November 2023
The actual album for this month should have been Fred Again and Brian Enos’ “Secret Life.” Mr V developed a fun habit this month of starting to scream around 5 p.m. every evening until he decided to stop and go to sleep for the night. The beautiful ambient noodlings from these long-time collaborators seemed to soothe his anger and were the soundtrack for this month. However, it was released in May, so it doesn’t qualify.
The first album I investigated that was released this month was Marnie Stern’s “The Comeback Kid“. I’d never heard of Marnie before listening to this album, and this was my second delightful discovery (after L’Rain last month). This is a lovely, jangly rock album in a genre that I can’t usually say without a bit of vomit appearing in the back of my throat… math rock. It’s an amazing album. However, I can’t make a math rock (bleurgh) album for this month.
Pitch Fork recommended checking out Hotline TNT’s “Cartwheel,” which is 33 minutes of my life that I’m never getting back. Also, Suede called to let them know it’s 2023, not 1993.
Kenny Anderson, commonly known by his stage name King Creosote, is a prolific Scottish singer-songwriter from Fife. He is highly regarded, but I’ve never really investigated his music. “I Des” is his most recent album in a long line of over 40 releases. My mother, a Scot who grew up on the other side of the Firth of Forth and has a brother with exactly the same name as Kenny’s, will turn in her grave when I say this: This album sounds like U2, but Scottish, written for people who don’t like to admit they like U2.
I can accept that this might sound epic sitting on top of Arthur’s Seat on a misty morning, with a wee dram, looking over to Fife in the distance. However, I live in Berlin, and someone is currently having a chemically induced rave to techno just outside my window. This just doesn’t work for me.
So, I carried on and quickly discounted a few albums.
- Vidrio—”Titanic“: This testified to my commitment to saying, “Sometimes I quite like Jazz.”
- Patrice—”9“: “German Reggae” could have gone either way. Partice does well to avoid any Germanness bleeding into his music. It’s fun but not unique.
- Forest Swords – “Bolted“: In my late teens and early 20s, this “Ninja Tunes by Numbers” would have given me wet dreams, but it’s a bit stale now.
- Silent Planet—”Superbloom“: I’m not a metal fan, so I’m not sure if this is what metal now sounds like now, but it felt fresh, exciting, and engaging. Also, while researching, I appreciated the lead singer’s approach to faith in his relationship with the band. I listened to this a few times, but I’m not a metal fan. However, this NEARLY convinced me.
Then I found it. Something I hadn’t heard of, something that sounded challenging, fresh, new and exciting. “I<3UQTINVU” (pronounced “I Love You Cutie, I Envy You”) is a remix album from Jockstrap, based on their 2022 release “I Love You Jennifer B”. It wasn’t particularly well received critically, but I loved listening to this album; it’s mental and steers very close to the dark hole of hyperpop but skirts around the edge, not falling in. This album was one of the first albums in this project to make me feel something. I felt like a 16-year-old again discovering Fatboy Slim and Big Beat and bugging my parents to let me sell my bass guitar and buy decks.
I immediately ran to Google to grab this vinyl to make it the album of choice for this month, but when I got to the checkout, something stopped me from clicking the buy button. A dark shadow loitered in the back of my mind, preventing me from committing to this album 100%. The shadow took the form of a math rock.
Since listening to Marnie Stern’s “The Comeback Kid” at the beginning of the month, I’d kept returning to it, again and again, enjoying it more and more. “I<3UQTINVU” had tickled my brain and tugged at my heartstrings, but Marine’s album had dug deep into my soul.
There is a possibility that it is some kind of math rock cancer that will grow inside of me until I throw on a King Crimson t-shirt just before my heart makes its final beats in an 11/8 polyrhythm, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take.
“The Comeback Kid” is this month’s album.
- Not a typo, the album was released as “Heros” with the speech marks, I decided on the stylistic choice to use speech marks around all of the album titles, so now I’m stuck with this double speech mark issue. ↩︎
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