Talking Heads - "The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads" (1982)

Today's theme is a live album with Talking Heads, a double album as is often is with live records, released before their more known live album Stop Making Sense (not a double). Less known but as good.

I have read that at the time of the release, it was rumored that the band might take a break for an indefinite period, or even quit altogether, so the label (Sire) became worried and hurried to release this album while the band still existed. It turned out the band continued to play for a number of years, so all the worrying for nothing.

The first record has songs recorded in 1977 and 1979, and the second was recorded during the 1980-81 Remain In Light tour. On the first record, the band appears as a quartet in its original setup. The songs here are mainly from the first two albums 77 and More Songs About Buildings And Food. In addition, Air and Memories (Can't Wait) from the Fear Of Music album appear as well. As a treat, the band also performs the previously unreleased song A Clean Break and Buildings On Fire, only released on single at the time.

The second disc contains songs mostly from Fear Of Music and Remain In Light. At these concerts, the band has recruited help from lots of fellow musicians to be able to perform the more complex songs from Remain In Light, and they are about ten people on stage. On guitar you'll hear Andrew Belew, best known from King Crimson, in several of the songs. He has a distinctive style of playing that makes a certain mark on the sound.

In other words, there are songs from the band's first four albums that are performed, plus the two mentioned. You can really hear the band's growth, on the first disc there are smaller venues, it almost sounds like they are in my living room playing, and the audience is fewer in numbers. On the second disc, you'll hear there's a larger audience and the band has grown into a ten man orchestra on stage, the distance feels bigger.

Personally, I like the first record better. In the band's original form, the sound is tighter, clearer and cleaner. The songs are easier to listen to and embrace. As there are so many participants in the performances of the second  record, the sound is more messy and unclear. In addition, Remain In Light is a very produced album with a sound that is difficult to recreate outside the studio, making these songs more different than those on the first record, compared to the original songs. The songs feel more unpolished and raw, and are significantly heavier than on the studio album, the same goes for the songs from Fear Of Music. But it's a  question of taste, and many certainly prefer the second record with the heavier sound. With this being said, I don't dislike the second record, not at all, but I like the studio version of Remain In Light better.

If you like Talking Heads and don't have this album, I think you should get it. It's fun to hear the band live, and the live versions really give the songs something new. Additionally, you get the songs A Clean Break and Buildings On Fire that are not found on any LP with the band, and these two songs have grown over the years to become two favorites of mine. During my teens I didn't listen so much to this album, I liked it, but usually preferred the songs in its original versions. But the older I've become, the more I like it. And Take Me To The River is such a groovy finish of the album.


Tracklist

Side A
1. New Feeling
2. A Clean Break
3. Don't Worry About The Government
4. Pulled Up
5. Psycho Killer

Side B
1. Artists Only
2. Stay Hungry
3. Air
4. Buildings On Fire
5. Memories (Can't Wait)

Side C
1. In Zimbra
2. Drugs
3. Houses In Motion
4. Life During Wartime

Side D
1. The Great Curve
2. Crosseyed And Painless
3. Take Me To The River

Röda Bönor (1976)

Röda Bönor (which means both Red beans and Red chicks) is considered to be the first girl band in the Swedish music-political movement in the 70s, and one of Sweden's first feminist bands. The band existed from the mid-70s to the early 80s and released two full-length albums, of which this self-titled one was the first.

This was a record I rescued from my parents' collection when they were about to get rid of all their vinyl albums. One might suspect that this album was my mother's. Looking purely from a musical angle, this is not my thing, but it's fun as a time document. The Swedish prog music of the 70s was not like the international version (King Crimson, Yes, Gentle Giant etc). Instead it was a musical-political movement (left, of course) where bands sang songs about socialism, a fair and just society, fought for society's forgotten people and despised the factory owner. This scene consisted of two kinds of bands, according to me, those who had their message as priority one and where musical know-how was secondary, and bands which had a balanced priority between political messages and musical quality. An example of the latter could be Nationalteatern, which has created many songs and albums that are real classics today. Röda Bönor I would spontaneously sort into the first group.

The messages on the record are the women's struggle - gender equality  - and the socialist struggle, prioritized in that order, as I see it. These are two questions you can quite easily sympathize with, but as I primarily listen to music for an auditory beauty experience, I don't like the songs. They have stripped down arrangements, the sound is relatively dry and primitive, and there is honestly not much that appeals to them. It's a mix of own songs and some traditional, with newly translated lyrics. Lots of harmonies in the singing.

The song lyrics about the socialist struggle feel pretty outdated today, and it's with a inner smile I hear these messages. The perspective has somewhat shifted, and the struggle is done in a different way today. But the lines about the women's struggle feel more current, although I rarely hear these thoughts delivered so coarse and straightforward as on the album. You would blush if you knew. But that's fun! The 70's seems to have been more radical and the struggle more aggressive. I grew up in the 70's, but the will to fight doesn't seem to have spread to me. Maybe it was color TV that got in the way.

Röda Bönor was formed in Lund, where I lived in the 90's for some time. For some of these years I lived in Smålands Nation, a building with student dorms, at the time the socialist-communist center of the town. Surely, Röda Bönor would have been a popular album. But to me, this is primarily a time capsule from an era that is gone, when the leftist struggle was more important, and a real hope of change existed. But musically speaking, it's not much to have. No good songs.


Tracklist

Page A
1. Oh Carol 2:19
2. Sången Om Ann-Marie 4:33
3. Diskoteksjakt 3:49
4. Kotten1:02
5. Nya Songes 3: 3
6. Det Ska Bli Slut På Rumban 4:45
7. Skärp Dig Ann-Marie 2:03
8. Faellesang1:42

Page B
1. La Lega 3:33
2. Sången Mot Familjen 2:37
3. Denna Karl 3:43
4. Kärlek4:30
5. Vaggsång 1:00
6. Sången Om Kvinnans Otäcka Roller 6:20

Marie-Pierre Arthur - "Si l'aurore" (2015)

Marie-Pierre Fournier, as her real name is, comes from the small town of Grande-Vallée, located in the Gaspesie area of ​​Quebec. I traveled there this summer and must have passed the village without knowing it was Marie-Pierre's native village. Now, I don't know if it had made a big difference to the quality of that day, but maybe I would have taken a photo which I could have included in this post for a more genuine feeling.

Nowadays, Marie-Pierre lives in my new hometown of Montreal, so in other words, local music is on the agenda today. Perhaps I have met her on the street, without knowing it? Had it been even more impressive if I had a photo of me and her together in this post? But only dreams and fantasies.

Si l'Aurore is her third album, and I bought it because I have and like her self-titled debut album from 2009. Unfortunately, I don't like Si l'Aurore as much, and have trouble becoming a good friend with it. Actually, there's nothing clearly bad about the album I can put my finger on, the sound and song quality is of good craftsmanship, but I just don't like a lot. I think it's a little too poppy for my taste. It works OK as background music when you do something else, or maybe you have a local visiting. It's a simple trick if you want to become friends with a Montrealer, to show you have some local albums in the shelf. They like that.

The album is produced by Marie-Pierre's husband Francoise Lafontain, and a bunch of other Montreal musicians with French sounding names are involved. Marie-Pierre is a bass player in addition to singer, and manages that instrument on the songs. It's sung in French, which may have somewhat of a negative impact on my experience, as I have been brainwashed during life to associate music with the English language (or Swedish). French is a beautiful language, but when I hear it in movies or music, the experience often gets an extra intellectual layer, which is not always good for a more emotional enjoyment.

So personally I would rather recommend Marie-Pierre's debut album than Si l'Aurore. I haven't heard her second album.


Tracklist

Page A
1. Rien À Faire
2. Cacher L'Hiver
3. Si L'Aurore
4. Il
5. Come Avant

Page B
1. Le Silence
2. La Toile
3. Papillions De Nuit
4. Dance Ma Tête

Alt J - "Relaxer" (2017)

The third album from one of my favorite bands, when it comes to contemporary groups. Recorded in London with Charlie Andrew as producer, who also produced their first two albums. It's a really good album, one of the few records where each song is qualitative and worth spending time on. No fillers. OK, Adeline on side B I find a little boring, but the rest of them all have their unique character and beauty.

The band offers a varied musical journey. Many songs are quite suggestive, calm and a bit dark, but sometimes they go on a more high speed travel, such as Hit Me Like That Snare, which describes quite brutal scenes at a Love Hotel. An interesting version of House Of The Rising Sun with some new verses, created by the band, is kind of a odd bird, but works well. The closing number / hymn Pleader is a great song, with a powerful arrangement that makes one associate with church choirs' descriptions of paradise and salvation. A nice end of the album, and you might find yourself considering joining the Salvation army.

The album was marketed, among other things, by a computer game created specifically for the album by Osamu Sato, based on his PlayStation game LSD from 1998. All the artwork on the record and in the marketing was taken from the game. It was made available to be played on the band's website, but I haven't tried it. My mother told me to stay away from mind expanding stuff.

So I can definitely recommend this album. Alt J is a band which creates music that is often not that simple, much of what they've done one needs to hear a few times to get to know. Sometimes they make me think of the 70's progressive bands. Alt J is usually more accessible, but they create music that can often be something of a challenge for the listener, which requires focus. Despite that, they have been successful and must be considered a rather big band. This delivers hope for today's music world and listeners.


Tracklist

Side A
1. 3WW
2. In Cold Blood
3. House Of The Rising Sun
4. Hit Me Like That Snare

Page B
1. Deadcrush
2. Adeline
3. Last Year
4. Pleader

Distant Days - "Dying Of The Light" (2017)

Probably I'm the only one in Montreal who owns this Swedish album, maybe the only one in Canada. I received it as a birthday gift from my brother, and the members of the band are friends to him, of whom I have met and spoke with a couple of them. Crème de la crème of the Uppsala and Stockholm musicians. At times like these, it's easy that one's objectivity takes vacation.

The company that released the album is Open Mind Records, which is also a record store in my hometown of Uppsala (Sweden), where I spent many hours and quite a bit of money. Probably my favorite store in Uppsala, though I was unaware that the owner also had a record label. They release vinyl records with bands from Uppsala, as I've understood it.

Distant Days consists of four members, of which the singer / guitarist Erik Illes is also the main songwriter. The other members are Anders Vretenäs (bass), Ulf Eklund (drums) and Michael Funke (guitar). My expectations of the record were not that high, what can some local guys from my little hometown create, I thought a bit snobbish, but was immediately put in place. Dying Of The Light is a good album, where rock / alternative rock may be a suitable label. It's generally a relatively quiet mood, and often the band's music is compared to the Swedish band Weeping Willows (for those of you who happen to know them). Personally, I get more vibes of the British band James, their calmer songs, which also happens to be one of my favorite bands. I can definitely hear Tim Booth sing several of these songs. Both of these similarities are to be considered compliments.

The album is filled with many strong songs that tend to get stuck in the head. Several times I've found myself humming a chorus while taking care of everyday life. The opening song Search & Rescue has become a favorite, just like A Song From The Basement and The Loved Ones. Should I find something that the band could do better, it would be a bigger variation in the sound. Although some fast-paced songs are thrown in with a the calmer ones, it's the same soundscape that we're constantly in. Some excursions here and there to something more different would be fun and also show a wider repertoire of the band. Maybe this is primarily a producer issue.

If you like a bit calmer music, with a dark touch, Distant Days debut album can definitely be recommended. If you want to know more about the band, visit their website https://distantdaysmusic.com/

Tracklist

Side A
1. Search & Rescue
2. September
3. A Song From The Basement
4. The Loved Ones
5. The Moon Is Too Pale

Side B
1. Out Of This World
2. Falling Apart
3. Mixed Blessing
4. Sarajevo
5. Strange Things Will Happen Here