the record collection mixtapes pt 3

when i started this project back in march i knew it would be a somewhat neglected project, cos let's face it, i'm a bad blogger. i'm the kind of blogger that would never ever have any readers had it not been for rss feeds. i'm lazy, yes, but more than that i'm always having a hard time getting things out of my brain and onto paper, or onto screen as it is. i'm just not very prolific. i do have my moments, but mostly, i just can't seem to get much out of me.

that, and the fact that i don't really have the time.

so, 9 months after the last post in this series, here's the next. it's time for an album by one of my favorite bands, alice in chains. there's 5 of them in my collection and at first i thought i'd write a 5 times alice in chains post, but then 9 months went passed so that was probably a bad idea. thinking small here.



the album is facelift from 1990 and it's a good one over-all. not my favorite alice in chains album, but still one i've listened to a bit. the things i really love about the band isn't quite there yet on this album. the darker feel and the slightly heavier and slower sound that came with later productions. it's there a little, you can hear it on the song "confusion" and it's lurking behind a few of the other songs. what the album does have is layne staley and his fantastic voice and intensity. and lyrics. (and drug abuse, but that's another story.)

although alice in chains really is more of a heavy metal band than a grunge band - just listen to the intro guitar to "we die young", the opening track on this album, or to the fact that they have a lot of guitar solos - they're often bundled together with nirvana, soundgarden, pearl jam and the likes, which i guess has more to do with the fact that they were playing in seattle in the same time-period than their sound. not that i mind, i'm a big fan of grunge music, i just think it's a bit misleading.

"we die young" is, as mentioned, quite heavy metaly, as is "put you down" and "real thing". "man in the box" was the hit single of the album which i'm not sure as to why, i don't think it's their strongest. "bleed the freak" and "i can't remember" are much stronger and better songs. "i know something (about you)" is flirting with funk with a quite catchy result.

as for picking a track on this album. i'm torn. i want to pick "confusion" cos it sounds like the alice in chains i love and it's such a cheery little song;

i want to set you free, recognize my disease
love, sex, pain, confusion, suffering
you're there crying, i feel not a thing
drilling my way deeper in you head
sinking, draining, drowning, bleeding, dead

i also want to pick "it ain't like that" for the same reasons. at the same time, there's so much more to come of that alice in chains that it feels unfair not to pick a song more representative of facelife. so i'm picking "love, hate, love", a dark suggestive song riddled with dysfunction, so often a theme in layne staley's lyrics.

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cross-posted on 90s geeks - surviving in the future.

the affair

the second album of project the record collection mixtapes is new york city's the affair's yes yes to you from 2006.

i like the sound, a kind of 70s-early 80s punk new wave sound but with modern pop added to the mix. the synthesizer is a killer and singer kali holloway's voice is great, sometimes very sweet and pop and sometimes edgy and punk. here and there the affair remind me of contemporaneous the eames era, and a few times i can hear siouxsie sioux lurking behind holloway's voice. the songs however tend to float into each other and become indistinguishable. it took me several listenings before a few tracks stood out enough to be identified.

even if it's the one track here that sets itself apart from the rest the most, i have to pick "Andy". it's a really sweet and catchy song with lots of the awesome synthesizer and it almost seems like it's coming from decades lost.



also, an honorary mention of the song "the chase", a lovely punk number at just under 2 minutes.

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this will be cross-posted at pretending to be japanese.

new project part 1

so, i guess i feel like i don't have enough to do; between being a mother, writing my thesis, selling the apartment, moving to a house and all the rest of life's lovely assignments; that i need a new project of some sorts. well, here it is.

i'm going to go through my record collection, record by record, write a few lines about each one and, most importantly, pick one song off of every record to be collected in a sort of record collection mixtape.

what do you think of that?

my record collection is very dear to me but otherwise not particularly impressive; it's just a bunch of records i like. there are no rarities (i think), very few singles even by artists i really like and no complete discographies (except maybe if joy division's heart and soul box counts). if you want to take a look it's here on rateyourmusic.com. but impressive or not, it currently holds 625 titles (not counting the dvds, cos madonna's in bed with madonna isn't really a record now is it) so this project will take some time. if you're somewhat familiar with math you'll realize, as i just did, that even if i write about one record a day - which i, for the record, WON'T - it'll take a bit shy of two years to complete, and it's not like i won't buy more records during the process. so, phew.

Though, i've decided, the few singles i DO have won't be included unless they contain some really good song, cos seriously, what's the point in choosing one song out of two, or worse, three remixes of the same song?

so there are the ground rules. maybe if you're nice, you can get a copy of the mixtapes (on cd) along the way. i'll also probably start a playlist on spotify called my record collection mixtape and share with whoever wants it, but given the big gaps in spotify's selection, it will probably be far from complete.

now, for part 1 of this, the record collection mixtapes, the first title. Bigger, Better, Faster, More! by 4 Non Blondes.

look how pretty they are!

i bought this record used for 15 sek (that about $2 at the current rate), i know this cos it still has the price-tag left, and it's dusty too! mental note; need to clean or change plastic thing. so, i really didn't consider it before buying, more than that i really like their early 90s hit single "What's Up" (which is actually a clearly feminist song, something i didn't realize until years after the fact, but is really cool considering what a big hit it was), which in itself was worth the 15 sek. i really like linda perry too, the awesome singer who at the time wore ridiculously large hats. the 90's was a strange place. (what an awesome timing, too, since perry has co-written a lot of material to hole's coming album that i wrote about the other day.)

it's an okay record, some good songs and some not so good ones. the sound, albeit very early 90s sounding (think metal-grunge, red hot chili peppers funk and radio music like the spin doctors), varies a bit. there's the funky "No place like home", the bluesy "Pleasantly blue", the soundgardeny/alice in chainsy "Calling all the people" and lots of Perry's signature "What's Up?" yells. i can't help but pick the obvious song here, but i am sorry that i never really listened to the album until now. this is already turning out to be a great project. i think i'm gonna have to check out Perry's solo albums soon.

the chosen song, of course, being "What's Up?".

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now i need to tidy this text up a bit and cross-post it on pretending to be japanese, cos the boss wants CAPS!

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EDIT: here's the video.