Rocktrospectiva: R.E.M.s Breakthrough Single "Losing My Religion" Turns 35

Released on 19 February 1991 "Losing My Religion" was the first single from R.E.M.'s 7th., studio album "Out Of Time". It developed from a mandolin riff improvised by the guitarist, Peter Buck. The lyrics, written by the singer, Michael Stipe, concern disillusionment and unrequited love.

"Losing My Religion" was R.E.M.'s highest-charting hit in the United States, reaching No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and expanding their popularity. Its music video, directed by Tarsem Singh, features religious imagery. At the 1992 Grammy Awards, "Losing My Religion" won Best Short Form Music Video and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. Its video won awards for Video of the Year, Best Group Video, Breakthrough Video, Best Art Direction, Best Direction, and Best Editing at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2017.

The R.E.M. guitarist, Peter Buck, wrote the main riff and chorus for "Losing My Religion" on a mandolin. He had recently bought it and was learning how to play, recording as he practiced while watching television. Buck said that "when I listened back to it the next day, there was a bunch of stuff that was really just me learning how to play mandolin, and then there's what became 'Losing My Religion', and then a whole bunch more of me learning to play the mandolin". He said he likely would not have written the chord progression in the same way had he not played it on mandolin.

In July 1990, R.E.M. recorded a demo version with the working title "Sugar Cane" in a studio in Athens, Georgia, featuring banjo and Hammond organ. Mike Mills wrote a bassline inspired by the Fleetwood Mac bassist John McVie. The final version was recorded in September at Bearsville Studio A in Woodstock, New York.

Finding the song lacked midrange between the bass and mandolin, R.E.M. enlisted the touring guitarist Peter Holsapple on acoustic guitar. Buck said, "It was really cool: Peter and I would be in our little booth, sweating away, and Bill and Mike would be out there in the other room going at it. It just had a really magical feel." Michael Stipe recorded his vocals in a single take. The strings, arranged by Mark Bingham, were performed by members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra at Soundscape Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, in October 1990.

The lyrics of "Losing My Religion" were based on Buck's mandolin part. Buck said, "The verses are the kinds of things R.E.M. uses a lot, going from one minor to another, kind [of] like those 'Driver 8' chords. You can't really say anything bad about E minor, A minor, D, and G ... We are trying to get away from those kind of songs, but like I said before, those are some good chords.#  He felt "Losing My Religion" was the most "typical" R.E.M. song on the album. The song is in natural minor. 

 

The title phrase is an expression from the Southern United States that means "losing one's temper or civility" or "feeling frustrated and desperate". Stipe said the song was about romantic expression and unrequited love. The lines "That's me in the corner / That's me in the spotlight" were originally "That's me in the corner / That's me in the kitchen", describing a person at a social event too shy to approach the person they like. Stipe compared the theme to "Every Breath You Take" by the Police, saying, "It's just a classic obsession pop song. I've always felt the best kinds of songs are the ones where anybody can listen to it, put themselves in it and say, 'Yeah, that's me.'"

The music video for "Losing My Religion" was directed by the Indian filmmaker Tarsem Singh. Unlike previous R.E.M. videos, Stipe agreed to lip-sync the lyrics. The video begins inside a dark room where water drips from an open window. Recreating a scene from the Andrei Tarkovsky film The Sacrifice, Buck, Berry, and Mills run across the room while Stipe remains seated as a pitcher of milk drops from the windowsill and shatters.

The video originated as a combination of ideas envisioned by Stipe and Singh. Stipe wanted a straightforward performance video, akin to Sinéad O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U". Singh wanted to create a video in the style of a certain type of Indian filmmaking, where everything would be "melodramatic and very dreamlike", according to Stipe. Singh said the video was modeled after the Gabriel García Márquez short story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings", in which an angel crashes into a town and the villagers have varied reactions to him. He also drew inspiration from the Italian painter Caravaggio, and the video uses religious imagery such as Saint Sebastian, the Biblical episode of the Incredulity of Thomas, and Hindu deities, portrayed in a series of tableaux.

The "Losing My Religion" video was nominated in nine categories at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards and won for Video of the Year, Best Group Video, Breakthrough Video, Best Art Direction, Best Direction, and Best Editing.

"Losing My Religion" was released on February 19, 1991, in the United States as the lead single from R.E.M.'s album Out of Time. Their record label, Warner Bros., was wary of the choice of lead single. Steven Baker, then the vice president of product management., said there were "long, drawn-out discussions" about releasing such an "unconventional track" as the single until the label agreed.

R.E.M. did not tour to promote Out of Time, but visited radio stations, gave press interviews and made television appearances. On November 10, 1991, R.E.M. performed "Losing My Religion" with members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the tenth anniversary of MTV. It was recorded at the Madison Morgan Cultural Centre in Madison, Georgia, about 20 miles south of Athens.

Warner Bros. worked to establish "Losing My Religion" at campus, modern rock, and album-oriented rock radio stations before promoting it to American Top 40 stations, where it became a success and became R.E.M.'s biggest hit in the US, reaching No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. It stayed on the chart for 21 weeks. It topped the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart for three weeks and the Modern Rock Tracks chart for eight weeks, the best performance of any R.E.M. song on either chart. It reached number 19 on the UK singles chart, No. 16 in Canada and No. 11 in Australia.

With "Losing My Religion", R.E.M. crossed over into mainstream pop culture. Asked if he was worried the success might alienate older fans, Buck told Rolling Stone, "The people that changed their minds because of 'Losing My Religion' can just kiss my ass." Mills said R.E.M. understood they had a worldwide hit when they heard it on local radio in the jungle of Paraguay. Years later, Mills said: "Without 'Losing My Religion', Out of Time would have sold two or three million [copies], instead of the ten [million copies] or so it did. But the phenomenon that is a worldwide hit is an odd thing to behold. Basically that record was a hit in almost every civilised country in the world."

Critics said: This was R.E.M. at their most tender and unsettling, Stipe's careworn voice filled with inexplicable sadness, but as warm and familiar as ever." R.E.M. had returned to its "trademark jangle", and that "Stipe touches again on what seems to be ambivalence about his role as a pop star, and about the need to communicate with an audience".

 

Losing My Religion Track Listing: 

 

7-inch

 

1. Losing My Religion

2. Rotary Eleven

 

12-inch and CD

 

1. Losing My Religion

2. Rotary Eleven

3. After Hours 

 

UK Collector's Edition CD one: 

 

1. Losing My Religion

2. Stand

3. Turn You Inside-Out (Live)

4. Wolrd Leader Pretend (Live)

 

UK Collector's Edition CD two: 

 

1. Losing My Religion

2. Fretless

3. Losing My Religion (live acoustic version/rockline)

4. Rotary Eleven   

Albums: Wormslayer

Kula Shaker are back and releases their eighth studio album "Wormslayer", the 11 track album featured the singles "Charge of the Light Brigade", "Good Money", "Lucky Number" and "Wormslayer". 

Emerging in the mid 90's in the days of rising Britpop sound, but the band decided to give their touch and mix it with classic 60’s psychedelia and various stylings of Indian music. On their new album, that is "Wormslayer," the band plays with elements that remarks what Kula Shaker's music is: both energetic and stylistically broad, indeed, there's something very British about their sound that fuses Anglo and Indo styles, a style that continues a trend with certain artists such as Cornershop in the 1990s.

Last year, the band shared a handful of new songs that showed they were still spreading their creative wings. The group delved into their funky side with "Good Money", incorporating R&B rhythms and girl group backing vocals for a song that sounds like a lost 70's club banger. They explored the darker edges of britpop and haunting alternative sounds on "Charge of the Light Brigade", played around with certain Bob Dylan when he was electric type melodies on the organ-led sing-along "Broke as Folk".

Apparently and despite the band have risen in the 90’s, their musical heart seems firmly in the 60’s, as the throwback elements of these tracks never feel like an homage. A "folk" song to them isn’t just a man and an acoustic guitar – it's a fully orchestrated, lush production like the dreamy "Little Darling". The pop tune "Shaunie" with uplifting guitar chords, other songs can be just as twisty and poetic as the music, as they spill out lines like "Your crooked smile dances on a serpent for your lover's eyes" on "Be Merciful".

Another element clearly evident is their Beatles (Sgt. Peppers era) journey sound on the excentric "Wormslayer", a song that evolute from heavy into a head-banging denouement. You can also hear Dylan elementes it in the simple melody and thoughtful delivery of "Day for Night", or in the mix of plaintive vocals and group harmonies on the philosophical closer "The Dust Beneath Our Feet". And really, if the music of the 60's is your sound, this album was created for you.

 

Wormslayer Track List:  

 

1. Lucky Number

2. Good Money 

3. Charge Of The Light Brigade

4. Little Darling

5. Broke As Folk

6. Be Merciful

7. Shaunie

8. The Winged Boy

9. Day For Night

10. Wormslayer

11. Dust Beneath Our Feet  

Rocktrospectiva: The Beautiful And Calm "The King Of Limbs" Turns 15

Released on 18 February 2011 "The King Of Limbs" was the 8th., studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was self-released on 18 February 2011 as a download, followed by a physical release on 28 March through XL Recordings internationally and TBD Records in North America.

Following In Rainbows (2007), Radiohead sought to explore less conventional song structures and recording methods. They developed The King of Limbs with their producer, Nigel Godrich, through sampling and looping their playing. The singer, Thom Yorke, described it as "an expression of wildness and mutation". The artwork, by Yorke and his longtime collaborator Stanley Donwood, depicts nature and spirits inspired by fairy tales.

Radiohead released no singles from The King of Limbs, but released a music video for "Lotus Flower" featuring Yorke's dancing, which inspired an internet meme. In 2012, they began an international tour, with several festival appearances. To perform the complex rhythms live, they enlisted a second drummer, Clive Deamer. 

Radiohead worked on The King of Limbs intermittently from May 2009 to January 2011 with their longtime producer, Nigel Godrich. The sessions included three weeks at the home of the actress Drew Barrymore in Los Angeles in early 2010.

Radiohead wanted to avoid repeating the protracted recording process of their previous album, In Rainbows (2007). According to the singer, Thom Yorke, they felt they needed "a new set of reasons" to continue. The cover artist, Stanley Donwood, said that whereas In Rainbows was "very much a definitive statement", Radiohead wanted to make an album that was more "transitory ... to have something that was almost not existing".

Whereas Radiohead had developed In Rainbows from live performances, The King of Limbs developed from studio experimentation. Yorke sought to move further from conventional recording methods. The multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood said: "We didn't want to pick up guitars and write chord sequences. We didn't want to sit in front of a computer either. We wanted a third thing, which involved playing and programming."

After Yorke and Godrich became interested in DJing during their time in Los Angeles, Godrich proposed a two-week experiment whereby the band used turntables and vinyl emulation software instead of conventional instruments. According to Godrich, "That two-week experiment ended up being fucking six months. And that's that record, the whole story of all of it."

 

Radiohead assembled much of the album by looping and editing samples of their playing using software written by Greenwood. Yorke wrote melodies and lyrics over the sequences, which he likened to the process of editing a film. The guitarist Ed O'Brien said: "The brick walls we tended to hit were when we knew something was great, like 'Bloom', but not finished then Colin Greenwood had that bassline, and Thom started singing. Those things suddenly made it a hundred times better."  According to Godrich, the result of the recording sessions was a "gigantic mess that took me about a year and a half to unravel".

 

Yorke said The King of Limbs was a "visual" album, with lyrics and artwork about "wildness" and "mutating" inspired by his environmental concerns. The title derives from the King of Limbs, an ancient oak tree in Savernake Forest in Wiltshire, near Tottenham House, where Radiohead recorded In Rainbows. The King of Limbs saw Radiohead move further from conventional rock music and song structures in favour of "moody, rhythm-heavy electronica, glacially paced ballads and ambient psychedelia".

 

The first track, "Bloom", was inspired by the BBC nature documentary series The Blue Planet. It featured a piano loop, horns and complex rhythms. "Morning Mr Magpie" has "restless guitars". "Little by Little" features "crumbling guitar shapes" and "clattering" percussion. "Feral" featured scattered vocal samples and "mulched-up" drums. "Lotus Flower" featured a driving synth bassline and Yorke's falsetto."Codex" is a piano ballad with "spectral" horns and strings and a Roland TR-808 drum machine. "Give Up the Ghost" is an acoustic guitar ballad with layered vocal harmonies. The final track, "Separator", has guitar, piano, a "brittle" drum loop and echoing vocals. At eight tracks and 37 minutes in length, The King of Limbs was Radiohead's shortest album.

 

Critics were favorable praising the calm eight songs that maintained a composure all the time despite it felt they were ready to crack anytime, a collection of eerie and insidious creeping songs, that considered the album as their most elusive but a record to respect due its craft. 

The King Of Limbs Track List: 

 

1. Bloom

2. Morning Mr Magpie

3. Little By Little

4. Feral  

5. Lotus Flower

6. Codex

7. Give Up The Ghost 

8. Separator

Rocktrospectiva: The Bold "30 Something" Turns 35

Released on 18 February 1991 "30 Something" was the second album by Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine. It was recorded in 20 days on 8-track and it was regarded as a brilliante bold record amogst critics, the album spawned two singles "Anytime Anyplace Anywhere", which was a major indie hit and also included on the album and "Bloodsport For All" which was about an attack on racism and bullying in the army, was released at the start of the Gulf War and was denied airplay by the BBC.

 

The success of the album coincided at the time with the renewed success of the "Sheriff Fatman" single, which generated more sales. This helped the record to reach number eight in the UK charts on its original release.

The album sound consisted in an alternative dance and grebo heavy on puns and sampling, largely similar to their debut album 101 Damnations, but showed a growing sophistication that fleshed out both sound and lyrics, in terms of musical and lyrics, the set made references creep in from the Clash and David Bowie to traditional football chants and as well as "the still cheap-and-cheery sound of the band's keyboards, drum machines and more." 

Amogst the remarkable tracks "Billy's Smart Circus"  was flawless in its soaring anthemic power, the opening instrumental "Surfin' USM" opened with a sampled monologue of Chris Barrie in character as Rimmer in Red Dwarf Series 3 episode "Bodyswap" talking about getting fat with age–described by Raggett as "a great snippet about what growing old really means". It then gives way to a crowd chanting "You Fat Bastard", which Bob said was taken from a gig at the University of Kent. The track was an instrumental indie dance track with chainsaw guitars and a David Bowie sample. "My Second to Last Will and Testament" showed Bob "settling affairs all around, down to organ donation, melding genres, the song sees a similar aesthetic to the opener, although with "snarling punk vocals from Jim Bob juxtaposing with some lovely harmonising from Fruitbat.

"My Second To Last Will And Testament", Billy's Smart Circus, Sealed With A Glasgow Kiss….. each and every one of them a punch to the gut and performed with the same sort of ferocious zeal as a turbo charged juggernaut gatecrashing a warehouse rave, gleefully scattering its occupants in all directions. Carter were also occasionally referred to as "the punk Pet Shop Boys", and it is not difficult to see how. More than a fair few of their numbers could easily pass for the work of Tennant/Lowe in the way they share the same sequenced throb and also the synth bass and soaring keyboards – before the vocals and guitars came in. Indeed, they probably recognised this conscious comparison for the record Les / Fruitbat did happily admit to this a few times in interviews as well, when they covered PSB's 1987 hit Rent as a b-side for earlier single Rubbish – which was one of their masterstrokes and still a huge live favourite.

30 Something contained another such PSB moment the magnificent "Anytime Anyplace Anywhere". For its portentously foreboding synth intro alone! This is – and always will be – perhaps my all time favourite Carter single ever, because when they first aired it live it already had that air of magnificence about it – it sounded immense. And here in the context of its parent album it fits like a glove – perfectly. After building to its earth shattering climax before detonating in a big fuck-off bomb, it’s followed by an even more spectacular showstopper of a tune. "A Prince In A Pauper’s Grave" started deceptively quiet and solemn, with funnily enough, another lyric about drinking….this time Johnny was the eponymous anti hero protagonist who is trying to drown his sorrows….but it soon makes its intentions clear as it breaks into another surging synthesised refrain – and it’s hard not to feel the hairs on the back of your neck standing on end at the sheer dramatic vastness of the music here, "Shoppers Paradise" deftly avoids the temptation to throw in five kitchen sinks rescued from random squats in Brixton or Shoreditch, and instead is a jolly canter (with festive sounding bells) which again called to mind the obvious PSB influences : because here they had effectively done their own sardonic take on Tennant and Lowe’s already sarcastic socio-political dig Shopping, and offered a far more twisted and cynical worldview into the bargain…. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the big shop is open, it’s a wonderful world’. A nice welcome treatise on rampant consumerism and exploitation with which to end side one then.

The lyrical mood got darker with the glam punk stomp of "Bloodsport For All" – a single which was banned by the lightweights at Radio One because of the Gulf War that was occurring at the time – offering a bleak insight into the torturous disciplinarianism of life in the armed forces. A sort of 'never mind the barracks, here’s to the worst time of your life'. Seldom has a song with such a grim subject matter been so infectious – and as if to ram this particular irony home, the duo career into a refrain of a Gary Glitter song at the song’s fade. Who says that Carter do not have a wry sense of (sadistic) black humour?. "Sealed With A Glasgow Kiss", by comparison, literally pulled the doormat from under your feet and drives the 4×4 over you. Graphically violent and unrelenting in its tale of domestic abuse

"Falling On A Bruise" was exactly the sort of song you would seek unconditional solace in when your world is about to come crashing down around you and you feel as if everything you have strived and worked for means absolutely diddly squat and finally "The Final Comedown". a battle scarred, punch drunk, deflated and bereft of all hope….. it’s the sort of thing a beaten wrestler or gladiator would probably attempt to muster up the dying embers of strength to try and enunciate before he collapses in a bloody crumpled heap on the floor. And, sung wearily to the solitary backing of a lone piano and suitably sympathetic strings, it’s a beautifully tender but remorseless way to close the album on such a downer.

The album was considered a brilliant bold record that nailed down their instinctive feel for pop with a hookline and a point of view. Also they were very favourable towards the band's lyrics, saying "Carter's bluff, seedy ebullience is a welcome antidote to the rather fey self-regard that's dominated indie pop over the last decade, from the Jesus and Mary Chain to the current blissed-out hedonism of Happy Mondays.

30 Something Track List: 

 

1. Surfin' USM

2. My Second To Last Will And Testament

3. Anytime Anyplace Anywhere

4. A Prince In A Pauper's Grave

5. Shoppers' Paradise

6. Billy's Smart Circus

7. Bloodsport For All

8. Sealed With A Glasgow Kiss

9. Say It With Flowers

10. Falling On A Bruise

11. The Final Countdown

New Music: You Got To Lose

           

The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney. They're currently prepping a new album Peaches for release in early May. For the first single off the new record is a cover of the classic R&B rave up "You Got To Lose" by Earl Hooker, a Chicago Bluesman originally from Quitman County, Mississippi. The song has a long and illustrious history, being covered by everyone from Ike Turner to George Thurgood and the Destroyers. The Keys find the groove and ride it all the way down. For the video, the duo hopped in the van and made the three hour drive to the 901, where they tore the roof off Hernando's Hideaway and spun records at Earnestine & Hazel's. Director E.J. McLeavey-Fisher and cinematographer Alex Palumbo captured the action.

Rocktrospectiva: The Avant-Gardist Masterpiece "The Colour Of Spring" Turns 40

Released on 17 February 1986 "The Colour Of Spring" was the 3rd., studio album by the English band Talk Talk. Written by Mark Hollis and producer Tim Friese-Greene, the album combined elements of jazz and art pop in an effort by Hollis to embraced more organic instrumentation and production values. The album went on to become Talk Talk's greatest commercial success, spawning the hit singles "Life's What You Make It" and "Living in Another World" and reaching the Top 20 in numerous countries  including the UK, where it reached No. 8 and stayed in the UK charts for 21 weeks, other singles taken from the album were "Give It Up", & "I Don't Believe In You". 

The Colour of Spring is commonly viewed as a bridge between Talk Talk's earlier, synthesized pop sound, and their later, more improvisation-based work. Despite the extensive use of synthesizers on the previous two albums, Hollis was vocal in his distaste for them, stating that they were used primarily for economic reasons and that “if they didn’t exist, I’d be delighted. During the recording of the album, Hollis frequently listened to the music of composers such as Erik Satie, Claude Debussy, and Béla Bartók, with the latter being a particularly significant influence on the album. Like other Talk Talk albums, outside musicians were heavily utilized. Guests contributing to the album include Robbie McIntosh adding guitar, and Steve Winwood, who played organ on the hit "Living in Another World", alongside "Happiness is Easy" and "I Don't Believe in You".

Founded in 1981, British band Talk Talk achieved moderate success with their first two albums. The music on the albums The Party’s Over (1982) and It’s My Life (1984) could be classified mainly as synthpop. However, vocalist/keyboardist Mark Hollis, had higher ambitions. He wanted to create lasting art rather than chart pop. For some time, Hollis had been listening almost exclusively to art music and jazz. Unlike Talk Talk's previous albums, Hollis's favorite records did not feature synthesizers or drum machines, and he desperately wanted to get rid of those gadgets. Hollis even declared that he had only used synthesizers for financial reasons and that, musically speaking, it would have been better if such contraptions had never been invented.

As the band's first two albums had raised Talk Talk’s profile, they were able to make their third album with a larger budget than before. This gave Hollis the opportunity to make more ambitious music with a richer instrumental palette. Talk Talk had already been supported by several studio musicians but now the number of outside musicians increased significantly. The Colour Of Spring featured 13 studio musicians and two choirs. The role of these reinforcements grew so large that drummer Lee Harris and bassist Paul Webb were somewhat overshadowed; there are a few tracks on the album where neither of the rhythm section plays at all!

Producer Tim Friese-Greene, on the other hand, becomes an even more important collaborator on The Color Of Spring, with all of the songs on the album written jointly by Hollis and Friese-Greene. Friese-Greene also plays piano, organ, and Mellotron and even synthesizers on a few tracks throughout the album, and it could be said that at this point he became an unofficial member of Talk Talk.

The album opened with "Happiness Is Easy" a playfully pulsating song, with Hollis' sarcastic lyrics gave it a dark undertone. The song itself was simple, but the arrangement is meticulous and rich. It is colored by, among other things, a solo played on a Variophone and Danny Thompson's tastefully popping double bass. The song is playfully crowned by a children’s choir singing alongside Hollis. 

The melancholic yet emphatic "I Don’t Believe In You" showcased Hollis's magnificent singing voice. Hollis’s soulful voice is at its best in this song. Hollis's slightly nasal baritone voice stylistically falls somewhere between Scott Walker, Peter Gabriel, and David Sylvian. His voice blends Sylvian's luxurious softness, Walker’s crooner-like swagger, and Gabriel’s rough drama into a sufficiently original combination. This stylish song, based on a simple chord pattern, gets an extra boost from Robbie McIntosh's slightly rough electric guitar riffs. The third song, "Life's What You Make It," grooves along somewhat mechanically on a rolling piano riff, and David Rhodes's (Talk Talk also borrowed percussionist Morris Pert from Peter Gabriel six-note electric guitar riff, repeated here and there, serves effectively as a punctuation mark. Overall, the song is a bit repetitive and not the most interesting track on the album.

The next song, on the other hand, is very interesting, both musically and in terms of Talk Talk's future. The delicate and minimalist "April 5th" is the first of the two songs on the album that most clearly foreshadow the future. Its instrumentation is built on Hollis's lightly humming Hammond organ, Friese-Green's impressionistic piano, and a simply jangling percussion track. Here and there, David Roach’s lyrical soprano saxophone and McIntosh's vigorous dobro playing add a little embellishment to the simple and almost solemn-sounding music. Both are heard so sporadically and rarely that whenever they appear, the effect is extremely powerful. Hollis's wandering and meandering vocal performance is also impressive. The lively "Living In Another World," which kicks off side B of the album, was written right at the end of the recording sessions when the record company announced that the album was missing a hit song. Hollis and Friese-Greene took up the challenge and wrote a song that became the biggest hit on the album.

The brilliant "Living In Another World” was carried by a simple drum beat, with Steve Winwood's organ Winwood also plays on two other tracks humming and buzzing effectively in the background, but mixed quite far back. The song has a bit of the spirit of Winwood’s old band, Traffic and the highlight of the song is Mark Feltham’' harmonica. "Give It Up,"  featured pleasant melodic bass playing from Webb and impressive Hammond organ playing from Friese-Green. Rhodes' electric guitar also growls satisfyingly a few times. Hollis' vocal performance is once again impressive. "Chameleon Day" a very abstract, wandering song in which it can heard mainly impressionistic piano and Hollis's voice, at times, Hollis whispered his vocals, and at other times he literally roared powerfully.  

The album concluded with its most grandiose arrangement and, at eight minutes, its longest track. "Time It's Time" began with a soft, almost pastoral-sounding with soft drum track in the background. With the first chorus, the song grew as a choir begins to sang insistently in the background. This time, instead of schoolchildren, another example of Talk Talk's open-minded approach to combining elements that at first glance seem incompatible; it is rare to hear choral singing borrowed from modern art music combined with a solo harmonica. 

The Colour Of Spring became the band's most successful and ambitious album compared to its predecessors. It did not quite match the sales of its predecessor in the United States but was nonetheless their last album to enter the Billboard 200, reaching number 58. With the international hit "Life's What You Make It", Talk Talk expanded their fan base and the song became the band's fourth of four US hits, along with 1982's "Talk Talk" and 1984's "It's My Life" and "Such a Shame". The Colour Of Spring is regarded as an excellent transitional album on which Talk Talk still had one foot partly in the pop style of their early albums, but  already taken a firm step towards the groundbreaking avant-garde post-rock style of their subsequent albums.

 

The Colour Of Spring Track List:  

 

1. Happiess Is Easy 

2. I Don't Believe In You

3. Life's What You Make It

4. April 5th

5. Living In Another World

6. Give It Up

7. Chameleon Day

8. Time It's Time  

Rocktrospectiva: The Fairly "Strange Behavior" Turns 40

Released on 17 February 1986 "Strange Behaviour" was the 2nd., studio album by the US synth-pop band Animotion, the album was released by Casablanca Records, and turned into the last album to be released by Casablanca before the record label folded. The album spanwed two singles, the outstanding "I Enginner" which became a hit in several countries in Europe and "I Want You". 

Following the departures of Antonelli and O'Brien, Smith became an official member of the band, along with new drummer Jim Blair, prior to the recording of the follow-up album, Strange Behavior (1986). While several singles were released from this album, its success in the US paled in comparison to the debut album, whereas the band became very famous in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and South Africa, thanks to the LP's brilliant single "I Engineer", another Holly Knight composition which was co-written with Bernie Taupin and Mike Chapman. 

 "I Engineer" reached the Top 20 and sometimes as high as the Top 5 in those countries. This rocketeed the band into stardom over there and during 1986 and 1987 Animotion toured extensively, appearing alongside such performers as Phil Collins, Depeche Mode, Eurythmics, Genesis, Howard Jones, INXS, and Simply Red. 

The highlights on this album were the new-wave influenced "Out Of Control"; the slinky title track with a great riff; next the catchy "Stealing Time" and the more rocky "Anxiety"; and then the final track "Staring Down The Demons" which was considered a superb track, althought certain people considered "I Engineer" as the weakest track, this was the jewel of the crown and the most standout of the set, its infectious new wave sound turned into and anthem in several dance floors of the 80's and remained important today. Unfortunately the vocalist Astrid Plane's vocal seemed to change from track to track; hard-hitting on some songs and useless on others. 

The album was regarded by critics as amixed, uneven and somewhat amateurish compared theit debut album, perhaps the dull '80s synth pop sound was the main fault of this in spite the hit "I Engineer", which was praised as a new wave classic, the rest of the album were described as average with several filler despite there were some good tracks included, unfortunately the blend of electronic sound with the live feel of a US rock band didn't work as expected. 

 

Strange Behaviour Track List:  

 

1. I Want You

2. I Engineer

3. Strange Behavior

4. Stealing Time

5. Anxiety

6. Out Of Control

7. Stranded

8. The Essence

9. One Step Ahead

10. Staring Down The Demons  

In Memoriam: Legendary Actor "Robert Duvall" Dies Aged 95

Robert Duvall, the veteran actor who had a string of roles in classic US films including Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, MASH and To Kill a Mockingbird, has died aged 95.

 

“Bob passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by love and comfort,” wrote his wife, Luciana Duvall, in a message on Facebook.

 

“To the world, he was an Academy Award-winning actor, a director, a storyteller. To me, he was simply everything. His passion for his craft was matched only by his deep love for characters, a great meal, and holding court. For each of his many roles, Bob gave everything to his characters and to the truth of the human spirit they represented. In doing so, he leaves something lasting and unforgettable to us all.”

Duvall was perhaps best known for his role as the cavalry-hatted Kilgore in Apocalypse Now, released in 1979, which yielded two of the most frequently quoted lines of dialogue in cinema history – "Charlie don't surf!" and "I love the smell of napalm in the morning". But he also made an immense impact as consigliere Tom Hagen in The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, the reclusive Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird at the start of his career, and many supporting and character roles throughout the ensuing decades. He was nominated seven times for an Oscar, winning once, for best actor in 1984 for Tender Mercies as a country-music singer trying to overcome alcoholism.

Born in San Diego, California in 1931, the son of a naval officer, he studied drama at college in St Louis, Missouri, and briefly joined the army. In 1955 he enrolled at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York (alongside James Caan, Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman), sharing flats with Hackman and Hoffman. Duvall worked steadily in TV and theatre, including an award-winning role in a 1965 production of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge, directed by Ulu Grosbard, and won his first film role as the mysterious Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird, released in 1962

Further small roles in Bullitt (1968) and True Grit (1969) consolidated his reputation, but it was his role in MASH – as the self-important Frank Burns, who is repeatedly mocked by Donald Sutherland’s Hawkeye and Elliott Gould's Trapper John – that brought him to wider attention. Having appeared in Francis Ford Coppola’s feminist road movie The Rain People (1969), Duvall cemented his connection with the Hollywood new wave with the lead role in George Lucas’ 1970 debut feature, the dystopian sci-fi parable THX 1138; Tom Hagen in the first two Godfather films (he would ultimately not be cast in the third due to salary demands); and Kilgore in Apocalypse Now, in a role initially intended for Hackman.

Duvall also continued to appear in more mainstream films, including the second world war thriller The Eagle Has Landed (1976), news-media satire Network (1976), and baseball drama The Natural (1984). He made his directorial debut in 1983 with Angelo, My Love, a semi-improvised drama about a Romani street kid in New York. Despite his Oscar for Tender Mercies, lead roles rarely came his way, but he was a commanding supporting presence throughout the 80s and 90s, appearing in a wide range of films: the Dennis Hopper-directed gang thriller Colors, the Tom Cruise stock car blockbuster Days of Thunder (1990), and the Margaret Atwood adaptation The Handmaid’s Tale (1990).

In 1992, he returned to TV to play Stalin in an award-winning HBO series directed by Ivan Passer. Another lead role came his way in 1997, in his second directorial effort, The Apostle, in which he plays a preacher who kills his wife’s lover. He received his third best actor Oscar nomination for the role.

Duvall would direct two more films – Assassination Tango in 2002, in which he displayed his real-life talent for the Argentinian dance style, and the western Wild Horses in 2015. He continued to appear in a wide variety of films, from Hollywood thrillers such as The Gingerbread Man and Gone in 60 Seconds, to left-field dramas such as We Own the Night and The Road. A longtime interest in football (the “association” kind) led to roles in low-budget Scottish drama A Shot at Glory (opposite Ally McCoist) in 2000, and the comedy Kicking and Screaming (2005) with Will Ferrell.

Duvall continued working steadily through the 2010s, achieving another Oscar nomination for best supporting actor in 2015 for The Judge, becoming at the time the oldest male actor ever nominated.

Duvall was married four times: to Barbara Benjamin from 1964-81, to Gail Youngs (1982-86), to Sharon Brophy (1991-95), and to Luciana Pedraza, who he married in 2005. He had no children.

New Music: Sweet Relief

            

Howling Bells have today released their acclaimed new album, "Strange Life", via Nude Records. The UK-based Australian band’s first LP in 12 years, its release is accompanied by a new video for album single "Sweet Relief". The trio, comprising Juanita Stein (vocals, guitar), Joel Stein (guitar) and Glenn Moule (drums). They subsequently embark on a full UK headline tour in March and April. 

 

New Music: I Danced With Another Love In My Dream

           

Brigitte Calls Me Baby has shared new single "I Danced With Another Love in My Dream," the track is off their forthcoming album Irreversible, the song started with us attempting to write something happy, but somehow found its way to being about infidelity, shares vocalist Wes Leavins. We played a few different versions live and in the end decided to lean into the bright and shiny side of it, and it turned into a song where those adulterous thoughts are carried out in a dream scenario. The cool video was directed by Alec Basse.