Visionary Albums (a vague definition, yes i know)

[Rit]

coolness. this is the kind of talk i created this board to hear.

[Paul]

I love them. I've had the chance to see them 3 times here in DC, twice at the 9:30 Club, and once at the Black Cat. For one of the 9:30 shows, I was front row, elbows on the stage; it was awesome, and loud. I yelled out for "fun world", the bassist looked at me, and said "good song", but they didn't play it.

[Kensterberg]

OK, since I really don't want to draft the pleading that I need to be working on right now, I'm gonna be a bad boy and kill some time here. As a reminder, here's my working definition of a "visionary album"

one that presages later musical trends, despite the fact that it may seem out of place in its own time; an album that opens the door to a new sub-genre or musical cross-polination.

So with that working definition, I'm gonna pick up on another five (or so) albums/songs that fit that criteria. I'm going to try not to duplicate any of the selections from my earlier list (see post #7), so no VU or Talking Heads here, and none of the Beatles or Dylan discs mentioned previously. So with those caveats, and in no particular order:

1. The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds. I didn't say these would be "great" albums, I said they were visionary. There's a difference. Pet Sounds was the critical bid in the sonic betting going on between various groups in the mid-sixties to push the limits of rock. With this salvo, Wilson threw the door to complex orchestrations and overdubs wide open. This record revealed new possibilites for arrangements and instrumentation which could still be considered "rock and roll," the result of which almost swamped the original idea of rock as guitars, bass, drums, and piano/organ. Without this record, Sgt. Pepper would have sounded very different, maybe better, maybe worse, but definitely different. And you change that LP, and you change the evolution of rock as we know it.

2. The Who, Who's Next. With Abbey Road, the Beatles had reached a pinnacle of production values for a rock and roll album. On Who's Next, Townshend and co. equaled that, but in a much harder rocking context overall. Just as importantly, Townshend's use of synths as rythym tracks was groundbreaking, and an essential step in the incorporation of new technology into rock. Without this record's synth loops (and the ones Stevie Wonder would experiment with across the pond), synths might have remained just melodic filler on art-rock dreck (such as ELP's awful Tarkus, etc.). Imagine modern dance music w/o synth rythym tracks. Impossible.

3. Radiohead, Kid A and Amnesiac. OK, part of why I'm listing these here is b/c "Like Spinning Plates" [live recording from I Might Be Wrong] is currently playing as I type, and this stuff STILL sounds out of place. These are really difficult recordings, but they were certainly looking ahead of where mainstream rock was at the time, and we've yet to fully make sense of this, IMHO.

4. "Lady Madonna" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash," singles by the Beatles and Stones. It's the summer of 1968, everyone is expecting further pyschedic musings from these two groups. Instead, the Beatles release a rollicking piano boogie that Fats Domino could've written, while the Stones quarry their purest, hardest rock to date. This helped to kick off a revival of interest in back to basics rock and roll, which kept the world from being swamped by increasingly arty and complex recordings. (Arguably, this was set in motion by Dylan's release of John Wesley Harding the year prior, but whereas that record rejected not just psychedelia but also rock itself in favor of folk and country settings, these two singles (and the subsequent albums by each band) instead signalled a resurgence in basic rock and roll).

5. London Calling and Sandinista! both by The Clash. Punk rock means three chords, shouted vocals, and primitive production, right? Wrong. With this record the Clash showed that not only could they stretch out stylistically, but also that they could do it without losing their identity and core attributes. In doing so, they pushed the limits of what "punk rock" could be, and opened up a brave new world of musical possibilities, not just for themselves but for countless others.

6. (Bonus!) Double Nickels on the Dime, The Minutemen/New Day Rising, Husker Du. Within the more limited context of hardcore punk, these records had the same sort of impact that London Calling had. With these albums, the Minutemen and Husker Du both served notice that no topic or style was off limits to them, all without losing the brutal sonic attacks which characterized hardcore. On these albums, hardcore grew up (even though myriad hardcore bands since have remained blissfully stuck in extended adolescence).

[Rit]

right on. Husker Du needed to mentioned at some point. I need to hear Zen Arcade again soon.

[Kensterberg]

IMHO (I don't know if Luke would agree with this or not), the records before and after Zen Arcade are both stronger releases. New Day Rising and the later Flip Your Wig each surpass ZA by almost any measure, if you ask me.

But regardless of which of those albums you're talking about, it's really hard to describe today just how much Husker Du represented a quantum leap in hardcore at the time. Actual melodies, still a three-piece, but lots of musically complicated stuff going on, but no wankery, no pandering, no concessions to anyone else what so ever. The stuff hit you like a sledgehammer, and stuck with you like glue.

[Rit]

yup. Husker Du is ridiculously visionary, by the criteria generally mentioned here...

their story in Michael Azzerrad's book Our Band Could Be Your Life was also one of the best ones there.

[rockysigman]

I love that book, although I found the Minutemen to be the most interesting story in there.

[RocDoc]

Re Marquee Moon - To me that disc is all about 'Elevation''s inCREDibly sublime ringing tandem guitar 'solo'...Lloyd and Verlaine IMO never again approached that sort of perfectly realized artistry...came close, but here was the apotheosis.

_{Hey if bow can use big words...}

[Rit]

this is the visionary albums board, so this is as good a place as any to place this... an honest ode to Barrett, and to anyone of you inclined to give him a try. (perhaps especially you, kMc, as i think you'd like it if you gave it a chance)

starting with this compilation, which i think encapsulates the best of Barrett's two eras (one with the Pink Floyd and one solo). My goal with this is to capture an appealling quality about him, so that more people listen:

50 minute long compilation (in more-or-less chronological order):

(1.) Arnold Layne
(2.) See Emily Play
(3.) Lucifer Sam
(4.) Apples and Oranges
(5.) Vegetable Man
(6.) Bike
(7.) Matilda Mother
(8.) Scarecrow
(9.) Jugband Blues
(10.) Golden Hair
(11.) No Man’s Land
(12.) No Good Trying
(13.) She Took A Long Cold Look
(14.) Opel
(15.) Love Song
(16.) Waving My Arms In The Air
(17.) I Never Lied To You
(18.) Effervescing Elephant

-----------------------------------------------
The Write-up:
The songs contained here are extraordinary slices of fragility, colour, imagination, and sensitivity. The first 9 songs were done with his band The Pink Floyd; the second set of 9 songs were done solo, though with extensive help from members of the Floyd. In essence, this is the alternate story of Pink Floyd, the bizarro version, if you will. A version of events that I hold in higher regard, truth be told.

Why? Hard to say. I just know that it is damned arresting. Perhaps because its worldview is very tactile, and bizarrely immediate, with instant sensations and powerfully lyrical images. Overflowing with wistful (and wilful) nostalgia for a mythical childhood – celebrating an unpolemical and unpoliticized instinct of spirit. When you are free from polemics, you leave yourself vulnerable, and that is what Syd did, which is why listening to his music is often an exercise in quiet-but-wide-eyed horror in its own way.

Musically, it’s often unhinged and playful, with a powerful aversion to creating massive architectural wonders. That impulse, so common to many who are filled with their own self-importance (such as with this little write-up itself) was absent in Barrett. He just plugged into his imagination without the aid of normal civilizational protectors and guards and he perceived objects and space-and-time as things in themselves – a dangerous way to live. Barrett paid the price for such unfettered living, but he left behind these glowing alien artefacts.

[ScottsyII]

I'd have to put a hand up for Peter Gabriel's third album - indeed, quite a visionary piece in my book! He tried so many different sound and production techniques on it - no use of cymbals or metallic percussion, those really processed guitar sounds, the strage effects on the vocals and synths - the whole thing is a bizarre and very avante - garde (at least for the time) sounding experience.

And from this very odd and sometimkes confronting atmosphere, you get some of the most commonly used sounds in some of the better recordings of the eighties - so I think he was onto something there in terms of sound and production.

Not to mention the scope of the lyrics, the concepts and how solid the whole album was as an entire experience...

[Paul]

R.i.t., that Sid Barrett comp looks intriuging....I'd be curious to hear it. I know some of his work w/ Pink Floyd, and absolutely nothing of his solo career.

[maarts]

I'll nominate Talking Heads- Remain In Light, the album that in the pro-punk pre-wave-period in New York managed to merge world music (I Zimbra) and Eno's sense of translating that in a modern setting introduced a whole new continent to the world.
As early as that perhaps was, it set a trend- Eno was working with his own label Obscure and got right into the scene, releasing music by Edikanfo- later he reorded with David Byrne the excellent My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts where, amongst many other samples, the Arabian world of music was brough.

Before that you could credit many jazz and classical artists for doing the same, yet no band had done it in such a fashion as Talking Heads done that on Remain In Light, nor the, equally as visionary Byrne/Eno-combo, who laid out a template for the world of sampling.

[Paul]

So I posted this in another thread, but no one replied; I'll try here. I just completed a two volume Kinks mix in my iTunes (I'm working on a third, but some of those disc are out on loan). Volume 1 covers 1964-1966 and has 28 songs, Volume 2 covers 1967-1970, Volume 3 will cover 1971-1976 (the RCA years), and Volume 4 will cover the rest (1977-1983). If anyone is interested in Vol. 1 & 2 PM me and I'll try to get some of the disc out this weekend.

On a side note, Volume 2 had 31 songs, but the CD only holds so much, so I had to cut it down to 23 songs. One of the songs I cut was "Lola" b/c it's a popular song and I figured most eveyone has heard it at some point.

[Paul]

I only have a compilation of the Talking Heads, but it has about 30 songs...I really like almost the entire CD. On my short list is their debut album.

[dolly]

Pcook - you have reminded me that Ray's new solo album should be out earrly next month. I've been hanging out for him to release something since he played some of the songs live way back in 2003 I think it was - which got delayed due to his mugging bullet wounds. Uncut have given it a decent review saying it contains some of his best material since the Kinks disbanded. Ray's been passed over in comparison to John, Paul and the Stones in the legend stakes - time to put that right. I'm anticipating a far more valid offering than anything McCartney or The Stones have released in recent years.