I have spent a few moments of every week trying to craft the perfect opening post for this silly blog. However I made it way too difficult on myself by choosing to make a list of my top 10 favourite gigs.
What an idiot.
I am determined to complete that list (which will probably only become more difficult as time
passes), but for now, to mark the first day of summer, (as it is supposed to be anyway) I thought I'd open with a post about my favourite music for summer; namely, my favourite summer albums. In my opinion. Currently.
The best part of my day today was the fact that it was payday (:D!!!), and I was able to finally purchase a few concert tickets to start off the holiday period. Now I'm officially excited about it... and the more excited about the holidays I get, the more I start thinking about the music which makes summer holidays great. So here's a bit of a list of the albums which are regular players during my summer break, and some new ones that I think will fit in well with this years playlist.
p.s. the youtube links are not necessarily videos and may just be songs, so excuse the crappy fan made ones!
NUMBER ONE
THE AVALANCHES- SINCE I LEFT YOU
Of course, predictably, undoubtably...
It's hard to know where to start with this album, other than if you don't enjoy it, you don't enjoy music basically. But mainly, it truly, to me, is the sound of summer. The opening few minutes of the title track alone totally transform my mood from 'life sucks' gloom to 'lets just have maximum fun right now' excitement. It starts with the sound of people enjoying themselves fading out to a simple fun guitar strumming along... then the groovy harmonies and swirling flutes come in, and those people are back again. "Have a drink, have a good time now, welcome to paradise..." and the exotic journey begins. Since we've left reality, and taken a boat ride into tropical splendour, it's all uphill from here. (I mean, Holiday by Madonna... come on!)
The album was supposed to be a concept of sorts, focused on a young man looking for love across the world, and it certainly has that romantic, story-telling feel and flow (there is barely a single moment of silence between songs). But not only do the Avalanches achieve that effect, but they do so by integrating over 3,500 samples, in such a way that something completely and utterly new is created in every tune. Every moment sweeps you away into another world (a world of 20,000 girls), until the final moments of a faded out repeated mantra in Extra Kings, reminding you that the journey is over and you're back in the real world. Sniff.
Despite being one of the most critically acclaimed dance albums of the 2000's, you'd never hear anything from it in a club, not even Live at Dominoes, the most crazydanceable tune. When you think about it, hearing it in a club would perhaps cheapen it (although maybe myself dancing to it like an idiot in my room while in highschool has done the same??). No other album sounds anything like it, and I don't think anything could surpass it... 10 years later we're still waiting on a follow up from the Avalanches... and it is still in the pipeline so they say (how long does it take to clear all those samples???)... but maybe it doesn't need to be. The Avalanches gave to the world what it needed, and I for one am content with that.
*puts it on, dances like an idiot in her room for half an hour* HERE I COME I GOT FUNK
NUMBER TWO
GERLING- WHEN YOUNG TERRORISTS CHASE THE SUN (or HeadzCleaner in paranoid countries)
This really was the soundtrack of one of my summers, as I purchased it not long before the summer holidays of grade 10 commenced, and it followed me all throughout the hot months of December and January, from a 2 week family beach trip, to lazing around in our backyard pool trying to stay cool. The first track (Phazer Kids in the Windy City) does a bit what Since I Left You Does, prepares you for the summery good fun party times to come... lulling you into a relaxed, grooving trance. It's totally on from then on, the (sort of a) hit Dust Me Selecta leading you into a few Gerling sized slaps in the face. It's pretty much impossible to dance to this album, (or rather, jump up and down like a lunatic). In their most creative and obscure moment (probably my favourite Gerling moment), Birdbaths(/Windmills & Birdbaths) totally trips you out with its' incomprehensible lyrics and bizarrely wonderful combination of sounds. If you only want to hear a bit of one of Australia's most underrated (if you ask me) bands, buy this one.
NUMBER THREEE
DUNGEN- TA DET LUGNT
(Dungen means "The Grove", Ta Det Lugnt means "Take It Easy")
Oh yes, so aptly named. I saw Dungen at my first Splendour and they were the ultimate summer festival band (um, even though it was technically winter (what?? QLD has a winter??) ). So much so, they have a track called Festival, which does quite well at replicating a music festival vibe. Dungen are a Swedish band (and every lyric is Swedish, not that it matters) which have kinda flown off the radar at least here in Australia, and this album is full of psychedelic, fast paced but also slow burning chilling out tracks, some a bit experimental and ambient (Lejonet & Kulan), some incredibly catchy and total rock bliss (Panda, Bortglömd). A sort of album for every element of summer, night and day.
NUMBER FOUR
TAME IMPALA - INNERSPEAKER
Guilty as charged with the australian artists! Tame Impala is a young, affable Perth band that did what Dungen did and made it oz-popular, and did it well. Psychedelic sounds of the 60's and 70's, turned into new exciting music that either makes you want to get high or jump in the car and head for the closest waves.
I don't surf, or get high, so for now I'm content to get drunk and chill out on the front deck instead. I did this the other day with the family, Desire Be Desire Go spilling out into the neighbourhood, and it felt really really good.
NUMBER FIVE
BEST COAST - CRAZY FOR YOU
When I first heard this album, I thought it was a bit repetitive. Which it is. But I couldn't help but really get into it. The lazy, reverberating vocals and fuzz are pretty instantaneously relaxing, and the lyrics of love, desire, and fun romance (Boyfriend, Crazy for You, When I'm With You, I Want To... oh most of them) makes you want to find that summer girlfriend/boy, who'll play tennis and wear dresses and have bare feet, only to be ditched in the autumn. It's nothing entirely new or groundbreaking, but the tunes consistently conjour up images of a coastal drive as the sun sets on the horizon, with a cat emerging out of the water... No really. Put it on on your next beach trip and it will totally set the scene. Which is what I intend to do. I hope their gig in January is as promising as this album, as their timing for it couldn't be better.
NUMBER SIX
LOVE - FOREVER CHANGES
I'm seeing a pattern here. Albums one would associate with 'chilling out' and 'getting stoned'. I guess that translates to me as albums that you'd play when you're lying in the sun, relaxed and at peace. Under some peaceful influence anyway. Well geez here's another!!!!
Love are a crazy good band from the late 60's that for some bizarre reason, my 60's music loving parents seemed to miss (and won't get into). I don't get it. They're up there with the Kinks, Who, Small Faces etc. to me, but with that little bit extra insanity added into the mix. Which is why this album is perfect for summer. There are little introspective trips here and there (The Red Telephone most particularly), parts that make your feet shuffle (Maybe the People Would Be the Times...), and many moments of quiet beauty, all culminating in an epic, poignant closer You Set The Scene, the end of some philosophical personal journey (the end of summer???)
There are probably infinity ways you could interpret the album... which is what makes it so good.
NUMBER SEVEN
BECK- ODELAY
Ever since ever listening to this album (I was like, 11 or something), I always imagined it being played on a radio in a beat up car driving in the middle of nowhere to some exotic location, and myself being the driver of that car. It sounds like what a road trip sounds like, it has that desolate feel of a deserted road, the driving force of being on a long, arduous, but fun and eventful journey (See Hotwax, Derelict and Readymade for lyrics and music that really fit that mood for me). And that journey could never take place in a cool ... place.
Beck is excellent at creating moods and journeys such as these, and Seachange is another album that also fits well with the summer theme, albeit a more melancholy one. But as my first exposure to his style (that is, many of his styles), Odelay really stuck with me the most, as the album you put on when you're on a trip to a place of reward and promise. Particularly a long trip, on a hot day, shared with someone you can stand for a few hours. It's a strange invitation, I know.
NOTE!!!*** If your trip is longer than 54 minutes (and you don't have the deluxe cd set), throw on America's self titled album to see you through the rest of it****
NUMBER EIGHT
JANELLE MONAE- THE ARCHANDROID
This may kind of seem like an odd choice because this album is not particularly seasonal at all. In fact it has lots of different moods and settings, and will be perfect for any season. But I choose it because I've been getting into it quite a bit of late, and it brings a lot of funky, chilled out, but also excited moods about. In this way it's fast becoming my summer album. Janelle is a recent addition in my musical library, and I'm not typically a modern r'n'b sort of person, but when it's done well, catchy as hell, and has such interesting styles, range and excellent production, it's understandable why this has grabbed me so much. Just selecting a song like Tightrope or Locked Inside, is enough to transform an average day, into a joyous day of glee, sunshine and bliss... and that contrasted with the subtle elegance of Say You'll Go or Mushrooms & Roses, make this a very versatile, perfect summer album.
NUMBER NINE
THE BEES - FREE THE BEES
Yikes, this is my only British entry so far? What happen!?
The Bees are excellent, and have many albums of which I do not own. I do have this one however, and it is a killer. This one is all about having fun, dancing up a storm, and feeling good. It has a bit of that reverb going on similar to Best Coast that makes you feel like you're in a tropical hollywood movie dream land. It picks up very smoothly from the first track onwards, and There's funk and rock to get you dancing (The Russian, One Glass of Water), but also a lovely ballad (I Love You) which is straight out of a romantic night-time beach scene of a movie. The Bees are like the ultimate band you hire for a perfect beach party.
... I was going to end with Arcade Fire's The Suburbs, however it's also an album for any season, and I thought I'd covered enough new-ish albums. And also I'd be totally motherflipping crazy if I didn't end on this album....
NUMBER TEN
THE BEACH BOYS- PET SOUNDS
Oh come on, you knew it was coming. It would be blasphemous not to, even if it is wayyy obvious. But it's true. Whether the Beach Boys actually liked the beach or not, they sure captured that Californian sunny beach sound, and not only that but created some of the most influential music of all time, second to the Beatles. Stupid television ads may have threatened to destroy the magic of the original songs (Golden Casket, you piece of shit), but when you (ok, I) listen to Pet Sounds, it really hits me how amazing it really is... Brian had a gift for creating pop perfection like no other. And the rolling drum beats and bouncing melodies are undoubtedly bound for summer playing.
I've seen Brian Wilson play twice now, and he sits at his piano like an old man who has woken up from a bizarre nightmare and discovered that during his slumber, he had churned out all these masterpieces he didn't realise he had the potential to. He now plays them (or his band does for him), classic after classic, surprising himself at his talent. And genuinely enjoying it, albeit a few cranky confused old man moments. It feels good to have seen him a few times, even if his prime has well and truly past, because despite the band's demise and Brian's struggles, the songs still stand up amazingly, and still give way to that hazy, blissful, amazing summer vibe.
Wow, all this summer music listening has totally engulfed me tonight! Lets hope I don't sleep through my alarm and forget that I still have to work for another 3 weeks before holidays start. Good night and good vibrations.
i think "when i'm with you" is the best song on crazy for you but it's a "bonus track." wtf is with that.
ReplyDeleteit's nice to hear a positive spin on Brian's aged crankiness. :)
Ha! I did not even realise it was a hidden track. I agree too. Hummm!!
ReplyDeleteOld people can be endearing in their crankiness, can't they...? haha
in regards to only having one british entry for your summer soundtrack, from what i've heard they don't really have a summer there, so they prolly don't know what it sounds like.
ReplyDeleteGood point!!
ReplyDelete