Cheers! Time again for the countdown challenge of listening to 30 vinyl albums from the collection before buying any ”new” album. The 30 albums are ones that I have listened to only once since buying, or not listened to for a (long) while. I will listen to them from start to finish - and review them for you. Swedish albums in both Swedish and English, all other in English. It has been a fun project, and it’s a nice way to enjoy (mostly) great music from different genres. There is just two types of music anyway, good music and bad music, in all genres. We are halfway into the challenge now. Here we go, albums 15-11:
Dags igen för nedräkning. Jag antog min egen utmaning att lyssna på 30 redan inköpta vinylalbum i samlingen innan jag köper ett enda nytt album. De 30 utvalda är album jag bara lyssnat på en gång sedan inköpet, eller album som jag inte har lyssnat på på en tid. Jag lyssnar nu igenom hela albumen, och recenserat dem för er. Svenska album på svenska och engelska, alla andra på engelska. Och hittills har det varit kul, ett bra sätt att ta sig tid att lyssna på bra musik från olika genrer. Det finns ändå bara två sorters musik, bra och dålig, inom alla genrer. Vi är halvvägs i utmaningen, så nu kör vi, med album 15-11:
Samy Deluxe: Samy Deluxe (2 LP).
Have you missed me?
First track on Hamburg hiphop legend Samy Deluxe’s album is titled just that, in German (Habt Ihr Mich Vermisst). Samy is one of the main characters on the hiphop scene in the German hiphop capital, so, yes, he’s been missed. The album still starts somewhat cautiously, but by third track Blablabla (featuring Y’akota) we hit a first highlight, cleverly commenting the blablabla nonsense we are surrounded by, when there should be so many important things to discuss.
One great thing with German hiphop albums is that they usually, and wisely, include the lyrics. Actually, why don’t all hiphop albums do that? It’s the lyrics that made hiphop into ”the black CNN”, so why don’t spread them and make sure they’re understood correctly by all listeners? Germans usually do. Thank you.
Samy Deluxe name-checks (listening to) Berlin hiphop-legend Bushido in a booming Probleme that starts a stronger and heavier side B. Probleme and Fantasie Pt. 1 paints a rather bleak picture and Klasse Klassiker sounds like a self-boosting explosion, but it is perhaps also self-ironic and comments increasing pressures and stress. The whole B-side, with its dreams and fantasies and all, is like being invited to a Samy meeting with a shrink; it’s bare, personal, emotional, and, simply, breath-taking.
Is searching for love in a Discotheque the solution to this lonelieness? Liebe In Der Discotheque starts side C on a dance-friendly up-beat, it’s one of the definitive highlights of the album and as close Samy Deluxe comes to a captivating party groover on this album. Brilliant. Masculinity is discussed on side D, before the album ends with a spectacular collaboration with Die Fantastischen Vier, Halt Dich Gut Fest.
All in all, a very good album, with two superb highlights, Blablabla and Liebe In Der Discotheque. However, all cuts deserve their place here. The album is perhaps a tad darker than expected, but the convolute clearly signals there will be much darkness and no light lunches served here. It’s occasionally a bleak and dark album, but not always and not everywhere. And what it does not include is pointless fillers. Great.
The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights (2 LP).
A tour document of power duo The White Stripes live in Canada. This fascinating tour was also documented on film, resulting in a splendid, highly entertaining and unusual, tour documentary. Here we have the documentation of the duo on record, and it is mesmerizing, showing this super-class power duo performing in different, bigger and smaller, venues and locations in Canada. Yes, fascinating, and some mind-blowing live tour highlights. Impressive throughout, White Stripes proves why they became a global phenomenon. It’s to the surprising sound of bagpipes that the album starts, but from there on it is a fierce duo affair. Black Math is an early highlight and Little Ghost showcase their versatility, before the first heavy riff chords of Blue Orchid. A splendid, moody The Union Forever closes a very varied first side, where the combination of only drums and guitar explores wildly various moods.
The second side is slightly more experimental, with a significantly more pronounced jam-feeling, and therefore longer tracks. Side three begins with an intense Jolene and ends with a very inspired I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself, that is among the best moments on this album. A soundscape of old-school, sing-along, rural Americana greets us to side four, before an inspired Fell In Love With A Girl and When I Hear My Name. The album closes, as expected, with the superb Seven Nations Army, and one of the most well-known and greatest guitar riffs in modern rock. It is fabulous, but then ends somewhat surprising, mellowing down instead of an expected electrifying and blistering over-the-top burst of force. And then we hear the melancholic bagpipes again, wishing us farewell.
The bagpipes also signal it’s time to sum things up, and it feels like the bare, austere, atmospheric and earthy soundscapes of The White Stripes were almost formed for the wide, open landscapes of Canada. It’s a good match. And a very good record.
Hurula: På En Grusbelagd Parkeringsplats.
Hurulas låtar berör, och fungerar utmärkt live, det bevisar liveslbumet På en grusbelagd parkeringsplats. Redan titeln anger tonen, det här är musik från och om utsatta liv i utsatta miljöer. Det är skitigt, kyligt rått, och hopplöst grått och dystert där utanför, och inuti, det är starkt och berörande. Hurula är naket reflekterande redan i det grovt avskalade inledningsspåret Livstid, med textrader som ”på en grusbelagd parkeringsplats/ett instängt lägenhetsliv/mellan fjorton dar/och livstid”. Utmärkta blek-gråa Åtta trappor tar vid med sina frustande distade power-gitarrackord. Det är ljudet av krossade miljonprograms-drömmar i ett sönderfallande och kollapsat svenskt folkhem. Det är kanske inte musik för vår tid, men det är definitivt musik om vår mörka tid.
Hurula sjunger om krackelerade livsdrömmar, dystopiska verklighetslandskap, angst och utanförskap. Det är starkt och utlämnande, för att parafrasera ett berömt uttryck om amerikansk ganstarap, det här är ”fattigdomslandets aktuellt”, nyhetsförmedling om verkligheten därute som kritvita medelklassmedia aldrig belyser, bara demoniserar. Med låtar som Husen Här Ute, Varje Ensam Natt, Ont Som Jag, Självmedicinering och Om Jag Tänker Alls riktar Hurula strålkastarscenet mot det osynliga folket, det svenska samhällets dolda massa med sin gråa vardagsresignation och hopplösa tristess, fångade i de utsatta storstadsförorternas nedgångs-spiral. Det är starka och berörande texter till energisk och medvetet gråblek rock med distade gitarrer.
Världen som beskrivs i ord och toner är inte vacker, men musiken är stark och uppskakande. Att själva plattan är snygg och läcker i rosa färgvinyl känns därför inte långt från ett utstuderat uttryck för ironi. Smart hursomhelst, för det får lyssnaren att tänka, förhoppningsvis. Bland höjdarna återfinns bland andra Åtta Trappor, Allt Ska Försvinna, Järnvägsbron (med krassa, svarta textraden hälsningar från självmordsbron). Ljudbilden är bra, tillräckligt klar och tydlig för hemmastereon, utan att förlora livebruset och -närvaron i soundet. Starka Inte Min Son utmynnar i ett otroligt frenetiskt tryck, innan hela skivan dämpat avslutas med den sorgsna, lugna och djupt berörande Innan Ljuset.
Ett utmärkt och angeläget livealbum om livet som levs därute, i anonyma, sönderfallande förorter. En välbehövlig väckarklocka. Imponerande.
It’s dirty, nitty, gritty, cold, raw, and hopelessly grey and bleak. Hurula’s songs are moving, affecting, and works great live. The live album På En Grusbelagd Parkeringsplats describes the bleak and resigned boredom of live in doomed Swedish urban ghetto-suburban districts. The songs are basically naked reflections of live and despair in forgotten places of urban decay. The album start with a stripped, almost spoken-word and almost unbearable, Livstid, that ends with screaming guitar sounds before the disted power chords of Åtta Trappor comes in. It is the sound of crushed million-program dreams in a crumbling and collapsing Swedish wellfare-society. Perhaps not music for our times, but it’s music about our dark times.
Hurula sings about shattered dreams, dystopic reallife-landscapes, angst and alienation. It’s a strong album, self-reflecting, and to paraphrase a great line about american gangstarap, this is the ”poor man’s Aktuellt”, reporting news from a real world reality that white middle-class media never covers, only demonize. Hurula puts the spotlight on the invisible people, the vulnerable lives and situations and the grey-bleak dullness and resigned despair of the hidden masses in downward-spiraling crumbling districts, in songs like Husen Här Ute, Varje Ensam Natt, Ont Som Jag, Självmedicinering och Om Jag Tänker Alls.
It is an ugly world that is described in lyrics and sound, and it’s strong and up-shaking. That the actual vinyl plate is a beautiful colored vinyl in pink feels not far from thought-out irony. Either way, it’s clever, and it makes the listener think, hopefully. Among the highlights here are Åtta Trappor, Allt Ska Försvinna and Järnvägsbron (with the sinister lyric-phrase hälsningar från självmordsbron, greetings from the suicide bridge). Inte Min Son climaxes with frenetic, uncompromizing power before touching, sad and slow-tempo showstopper Innan Ljuset ends the show.
The soundscape is fine, clear enough for home stereos, without losing its valuable live-presence. This is a great - and important - live album about lives that are lived out there, in crumbling, vulnerable districts. A well-needed wake up-call. Impressive.
Various: Seenotrettung Ist Kein Verbrecher - Benefizcompilation zu Gunsten von Sea Punks (2 LP).
Bought this in a fine Plattenladen in St Pauli, Hamburg.
Excellent benefit compilation, full of great tracks by great artists. Comes with astonishingly beautiful vinyls in sea-blue colour, fitting for a double album in benefit of Sea Punks.
Superb start with Tocotronic (Jugend Ohne Gott Gegen Fascismus), Die Ärzte (Our Bass Player Hates This Song aka Demokratie) and Danger Dan (Das Ist Alles Von Der Kunstfreiheit Gedeckt). Danger Dan is solo artist and member of great Antilopen Gang. Here are also many other big names in German music present (like Jan Delay, Turbostaat, Die Toten Hosen, Thees Uhlmann, Bosse and Deichkind) as well as more unknown artists. Mainly, but far from exclusively, it is a compilation leaning on hiphop and punk, and it is in short purely brilliant. Steiner & Madlaina (sweet and reflective Das Schöne Leben) and Antje Schomaker (electro-bursting Ich Muss Gar Nichts) before the electric outburst Sommer ’89 by Hamburgers Kettcar. Yes, brilliant, and the six songs mentioned form only the first of four album sides.
Wonderful start, and it is of course even more rewarding listening to great music when you simultaneously benefit a worthy cause. Saving lives out at sea, on the Mediterraenean, is just that. As humans we can’t turn a blind eye when other humans are dying. Be they poor refugees fleeing inhuman conditions or wealthy western billioneers, a human life is always a human life. Saving lives at sea is not a crime, says the title plainly. And a great line-up of Germany’s finest artists agree, with superb tracks on this benefit compilation.
Thees Ullmann starts Side B with a beautiful, political Junkies And Scientologen, followed by fine songs from The Notwist, Ilgen-Nur, Schrottgrenze feat. Sookee, Neufundland and Kummer feat. Fred Rabe. They are all well represented here by strong tracks.
Well-known artists Jan Delay, Deichkind, Bosse and Casper in turn are all present on side C. Yes, it’s a hiphop-heavy side, and it’s yet another great album side. Spass by Jan Delay feat. Denyo is a personal favorite but, again, they are all well-served by fine tracks. Indie-poppy Gurr and Giant Rooks was totally new, and nice, acquaintances.
Another fine side, D, and the whole album, concludes and ends with Europa by punk legends Die Toten Hosen. Before Hosen, five other good tracks rolls along fine on D, including electro-sounding Es Nervt by Die Goldenen Zitronen and a theme-wise relevant Das Boot Ist Voll by Faber, mixing talk and spare singing. The doomier and slower tempo on side D countinues and highlights on an excellent Hinuber by Mine feat. Sophie Unger, as well as on a very fine Blaue Augen by Ami Warning.
When Toten Hoses closes the album with Europa, which fits the side 4 vibe far better than a fierce and fast punk rock explosion, the common verdict of the album can only be excellent. Compilation albums are seldom this great throughout, track by track. It holds together very well as an album too, and the water-blue coloured vinyl discs are simply beautiful. Top marks. It’s a stunner.
John Fogerty: 50 Year Trip - Live At Red Rocks (2 LP).
One of the first three albums I ever heard was Creedence Clearwater Revival’s timeless classic Cosmo’s Factory. I first heard it on my cousin’s small (probably Philips) portable record player. And it’s an album I’ve carried with me ever since, and still love. Six tracks from that album is on John Fogerty’s anniversary live album that commemorates his 50 years as an artist. That’s quite cool. It’a also a good reminder of how excellent CCR were and Fogerty was and still is. I seldom listen to either CCR or Fogerty solo these days, but CCR:s music is forever embedded in my spine. This excellent jubilee live album is a waterproof reminder of how great that music legacy is. It’s the simplicity combined with uniqueness that is so spell-binding. Everybody that can play guitar can easily play Creedence-songs, and well too, but nobody else sound like Fogerty and Creedence playing them. Simple but unique. For a short time CCR was the biggest band in the world, making five classic albums in just over two years. That’s magic.
We will most likely never see the remaining three Creedence members perform together again, unfortunately their internal relations turned sour at the end of CCR:s lifespan. Cook-Clifford have since then performed together for many years, I met them once and they signed my Cosmo’s Factory vinyl album. And yes, that’s cool, especially to have Cosmo Clifford’s signature on it. I’ve also met Fogerty once, actually just a few weeks after meeting the others, and he signed a poster and a CD. That’s also cool. Sadly I didn’t bring my Cosmo’s Factory album with me, if only, then perhaps I would have all three signatures on it. But Fogerty was then so irritated on Cook-Clifford that he might not have signed it. That we will never know. Nevertheless, Fogerty has written dozens of rock’n’roll classics and is a given A level american rock star. He also recorded quite a few solo albums, and a handful of them are truly great.
This live album compiles many Fogerty-written songs in their latter-day live versions, recorded 2019. A few even in slightly rearranged fresh versions, that works very well. Fogerty has a good band supporting him, sounds inspired, and is in good voice. Unfortunately, my old Creedence favorite Lodi is not on the album, neither my favorite from Centerfield, I Saw It On TV. But Fogerty has written so many great songs, and many of the others are included here. It is truly a great song list, including six tracks, no less, from Cosmo’s Factory.
The album starts without any fuss or counting off, just diving straight into Born On The Bayou, like Creedence concerts of old. But unfortunately it takes Fogerty time to find his voice, which is slightly too high-pitched, and, well, too anxious, here. By Green River his voice is already stronger, perhaps relieved that the concert finally is on. Lookin’ Out My Back Door is the first track that sounds ever so slighty different from the original, with harmonica added and new guitar solo. It’s a small update, and it works fine. Fogerty shortly note ”Hard to believe it’s been over 50 years since Suzie Q”, and then bash into the first CCR hit. It’s the best song thus far, and the groove on Suzie Q is excellent, and so is the band and Fogerty’s own guitar work. Who’ll Stop The Rain follows, with beautiful keyboards behind the guitars. Intensity and some higher speed is picked up on Hey Tonight that ends side A.
The tempo continue increasing on Side B with an excellent Up Around The Bend, a song Fogerty has performed live in this high tempo and intense form since at least the 90’s. Rock And Roll Girls follows, a welcome surprise and the Centerfield song is performed in a fabulously swingin’ version. It is a mesmerizing highlight, which the recorded audience also acknowledges. This is directly followed by superb instrumental workouts in a highly inspired I Heard It Through The Grapevine, before Long As I Can See The Light, yet another Cosmo’s Factory stunner, slows the tempo down and ends the splendid, magical, side B. By now the concert is unstoppable and in full steam forward. It’s simply amazing.
Side C starts with another fine Cosmos Factory-track, Run Through The Jungle, before a much more up-tempo and shorter version of Keep On Chooglin’, including a fierce drum solo. I’m generally no friend of drum solos on records, but all in all this version is an improvement of a live staple that I have never taken to my heart. This time it’s ok, and on stage at the venue probably stunning, but for the listener it would have been preferable with versions of for example Lodi and The Night Time Is The Right Time or Travellin’ Band. However, Chooglin’ has for some reason always been a live staple for CCR and Fogerty. It is followed by classic Have You Ever Seen The Rain, where the audience is also invited to join in. You can hear the excitement, and then Fogerty offers Down On The Corner, slightly speeded up. It’s fine, but not outstanding.
Side 4 starts in Centerfield solo territory with the title track and the hit The Old Man Down The Road. Being a great baseball fan, Centerfield is probably an important track for Fogerty and the live delivery here is strong. A better version than on Centerfield. Somewhat surprisingly Fogerty deliver three tracks from Centerfield but not a single one from fabulous solo album Blue Moon Swamp. On the other hand, Centerfield is a cornerstone in his solo production and all three, including The Old Man, are among the most inspired songs on this live record. This is also a far better version than the original on Centerfield with some absolutely stunning and energetic guitar work.
And then we are back in Creedence classics territory with Fortunate Son. The band and Fogerty’s own guitarwork sound tight and simply amazing throughout this album. There’s no breathing space at all between songs on side D, it’s just a continuosly intense and sweaty rock’n’roll feast.
A swingin’, stompin’ Bad Moon Rising, with some very nice keyboards in the soundscape, rolls along before the finale Proud Mary brings us full circle back to earlier Creedence days, but with a new arrangement, including a marvelous horn section, and some steaming keyboards lower in the mix. A pumping, grooving band and artist and a sing-along chorus by a mesmerized crowd brings it all home.
50 Year Trip is proof of Fogerty’s great form, right before the whole global live circus closed down for covid. An exceptional live document of John Fogerty and a 50 year career in rock, now up to and over 55, and running. Respect.
