Underneath the Colours

You know what a “spontaneous hook” is? A totally subjective, but nevertheless relevant thing worth mentioning – well, okay, I’ve only just decided to call it that way but I do need to have a special term for that kind of thing, especially when I’m dealing with INXS albums all the time. A spontaneous hook is a hook which is only active while you’re actually hearing it, but has no staying power or memorability whatsoever. (Of course, this doesn’t apply to extreme cases when a conscious effort is being made to memorize the song – I mean, heck, after a couple hundred listens even Mariah Carey records will become memorable).

Underneath The Colours is easily the best LP to demonstrate the power of spontaneous hooks I’ve heard so far. Every song on here becomes interesting on second or third listen, and you have no right whatsoever to doubt the compositional talents or the intelligence of the composing team. But nothing actually agrees to stick in your head, not even a tiny bit, and I know I’m not alone on that issue, either, so there just must be something strange about the record. There must be something weird. Maybe it’s the lack of emotion; in fact, now that I’ve said it, I’m pretty sure this is the basic problem of the INXS, just as it used to be the basic problem of XTC in the Seventies. Underneath The Colours is a lot of fun while it’s on – it’s jumpy, bouncy, and modernistic without being too annoying in a bad Eighties way or too dependent on their influences, especially now that they have toned down the ska thing. But it’s also a cold, cold, unmoving record, an exercise in soulless formalism. Or maybe it’s just a kind of soul that I don’t ‘get’. Whatever.

With this, there’s just no emotional substance to the hooks, and since you don’t have a really colourful pattern to accompany the chords, there’s no hope to really memorize them. That’s how it looks to this particular reviewer, anyway. That said, while the album is on, it’s still a gas. You just have to get past the opener, ‘Stay Young’, which tries to get by on the force of the atmosphere alone – a ridiculous attempt, with all those breathy whispered vocals in the background and thin wimpy isolated synthesizer bleeps instead of full sonic landscapes. Even so, there’s a great guitar line almost lost in amidst all the mediocrity, which just goes to show that the INXS didn’t suck at having interesting ideas, they sucked at applying them and putting them into context.

In a certain sense, one could just argue that at this particular point Hutchence’s sense of romance vastly differed from the commonplace one. ‘Horizons’ is lyrically a love ballad, but musically just a minimalistically arranged New Wave “popper”. Maybe there are even people in this world that can be moved by the way Hutchence croaks out ‘I see the horizons of your love’, but I wouldn’t know about that anomaly. Gimme some Al Green instead, please. Or, at least, if we’re talking INXS here, something bouncier and snappier like ‘Big Go Go’. Now that’s a good song while it’s on. Raunchy, energetic, aggressive – ‘watch the world GO GO, it’ll spin ’til it stops… people gonna FLY OFF… when they turn it off’. But nothing remains once it’s over.

Probably the best hookline on the album is the chorus to ‘Fair Weather Ahead’, although the song itself is rather senseless, more like a blind lyrical imitation of Jim Morrison than anything else. Who are the ‘strange new creatures’, are wonder, and what’s their connection to fair weather? And is that hookline really good, or is it just because they repeat the chorus for so many times?

The dumbest thing of all is how everything on here sounds the same even if the songs are essentially different. There’s slow moody atmospheric stuff like ‘Horizons’ and ‘Just To Learn Again’. Or poppy upbeat stuff like ‘Big Go Go’. Or even a couple of really fast rockers like ‘Night Of Rebellion’. But the production sucks big time, with the same minimalistic grooves over and over again. Very few ska beats, like I said, mostly Police- and XTC-inspired New Wave pop rhythms, with a steady drumbeat and, say, a three- or four-note ringing guitar riff. And synthesizers, of course. All very tasteful, subtle even – but none of the musicians are virtuosos, and none of them can add any soul to the performances. And all of this is in major dire contrast to the nature of Hutchence’s lyrics, which – with a few disrespectful exceptions like ‘Fair Weather Ahead’ – are surprisingly mature and evocative.

30 Bands

Today, I hit 30, and in honor of my birthday, I’ve been working on my favorite 30 bands list for almost a year. My blog is actually inspired by music I grew up listening to. I have shuffle countless times ranking of bands back and forth.  It was really tough to leave few bands out. My basis of ranking is upon influence and discography.

Here it goes…

1. Led Zeppelin
2. The Beatles
3. Nirvana
4. The Doors
5. Pink Floyd
6. Queen
7. Radiohead
8. The Rolling Stones
9. Black Sabbath
10. The White Stripes
11. Pixies
12. AC/DC
13. Soundgarden
14. Rush
15. Jane’s Addiction
16. Faith No More
17. Arcade Fire
18. The Smiths
19. Rage Against the Machine
20. Alice in Chains
21. R.E.M
22. Aerosmith
23. Guns N’ Roses
24. Queens of the Stone Age
25. Muse
26. Foo Fighters
27. The Black Keys
28. Red Hot chili Peppers
29. INXS
30. Green Day

L.A. Woman

Following ‘an incident’ where it was alleged Jim indecently exposed himself on stage, The Doors found themselves banned from almost every major concert venue in the states. The result of this was actually they had a lot more time to focus on the recording of a new album. It’s a record that continues from ‘Morrison Hotel’ in the sense of The Doors being aware of the blues. They had help on bass guitar from Jerry Scheff. He did such a fine job, they wanted him to go out on tour with them to promote ‘L.A. Woman’. Around the same time, Jim announced he was leaving, and he didn’t know when he was coming back. At the same time ‘L.A.Woman’ was being released to critical acclaim Jim was in Paris trying to rediscover himself. He would never return. All this is by the time when it comes to actually listening to the record! Does it matter? Not really – here is the album. Do you like it? Well, it is relevant, the time they had to prepare new songs, the great bass player. Jim’s voice may well have been the worse for wear but he certainly gave it a go. His new gruff voice suited the material, actually.

The way this record begins…..THE WAY THIS RECORD BEGINS!!!!!!! Well, we have ‘The Changeling’ and ‘Love Her Madly’. ‘The Changeling’ is prime Doors, no question. The guitar, the great keyboards all over the place. Great bass and vocals. What can you say, its groovy! Its rocking! It makes you want to scream with joy. Well. You know, it’s pretty good. ‘Love Her Madly’ is a great Doors pop song. Perfectly done, great little break in the middle. You can really hear Jerry Scheff here especially – he did a fantastic job and fitted into The Doors perfectly from a musical point of view. Both these opening songs are classics. ‘Been Down So Long’ isn’t a classic, just a blues number. Its well done though, and here Jim’s voice especially suits the material. It’s a voice that’s lived, shall we say ‘Cars Hiss By My Window’ is pure blues which benefits from wonderful guitar work from Robbie.

The title song, placed in the middle of the album, is almost an album by itself. Almost eight minutes long, never dull or repetitive or boring for a single second. It cooks! It’s a great driving song! ‘City of night, whoa!’. Fantastic stuff. Wonderful playing from everyone, again. Musically, The Doors were probably at the top of their game at this stage. ‘L’America’ is slightly quirky in its melodies but does open atmospherical with strange-sounding guitar. It sounds pretty intense, builds up as it goes along – ray does a great job on keyboards. ‘Hyacinth House’ is simple and fun, ‘Crawling King Snake’ a classic blues tune converted to The Doors style. Done very well, actually. We are nearly at the end. ‘The Wasp’ is the only thing here which probably should have been thought about a bit more. It’s one of the more silly things I’ve heard in my entire life. Why is it so much fun? The melodies are simple, quirky. Jim’s poetry borders on the ridiculous. The whole thing is done with such concentration…..that its funny! The guitar solo that appears in the middle is great though.

We have ‘Riders On The Storm’ to end. Like ‘LA Woman’ – this is almost an album in itself. Jim sounds in fine voice, the music is stupendous, everything came together. All Doors together. It matches anything they ever did. Anything. We have an utterly hypnotic keyboard solo – it’s just beautiful. We have doses of brilliant guitar work. The keyboards continue, the bass continues. Jim soars above it all, in the clouds, in the heavens. ‘Riders On The Storm’. I dream about the melody. It appeared to me in my sleep. I probably shouldn’t be saying that should I? I dream of music. This ‘Riders On The Storm’ though is one of the most dreamlike pieces ever created. It’s a sheer work of genius. I can’t help myself, I can’t explain. The Doors reborn. This was called their ‘comeback’ album by some. I can understand why. Although the high points of the record do overshadow the rest, it works as a whole nonetheless. Jim would never return. This is some way for the original Doors to go out. Going out on a high as ‘Riders On The Storm’

Morrison Hotel

After the production effort of ‘The Soft Parade’ this record saw a return to basics. A bluesy, rocking sound. An effective sound. The material doesn’t always support it, but its a return to something, though I’m not quite sure what that is. In any case, ‘Roadhouse Blues’ is simply stupendous! A fantastic sound, no question. You can drink to it, dance to it, sing along with it. It thumps and pounds along its groove. Its good, I like it! Jim gives a fantastic performance, as does everybody actually. ‘Waiting For The Sun’ follows, left over from the album of the same name. Its absolute classic Doors and by this stage you are getting quite excited! A classic album beckons, surely? Well. ‘You Make Me Real’ is little more than a thrash. ‘Big Sunday’ is doomy and miserable and lacking in atmosphere. ‘Ship Of Fools’ is good, supported by a happy melody and interesting lyrics. ‘Peace Frog’ has such a funky guitar line, its hard to believe its The Doors! The keyboard comes in and you smile. A wonderful song, no question.

The record continues with a basic rock sound but the playful nature of the melodies also continues. ‘Land Ho!’ is a fine, fine song! Its entertainment! Its groovy and funky! This is a fine album. ‘The Spy’ is a failed ‘Crystal Ship’ but more bluesy in tone. The piano here is pretty good though and provides the main hook in the song. ‘Queen Of The Highway’ isn’t a highlight but ‘Indian Summer’ is classic Doors. A Morrison vocal that sends a chill up your spine and a lovely guitar figure. The closing ‘Maggie M’Gill’ is more blues influenced rock and perfectly fine. As you may have gathered, I consider this a fairly inconsistent album. The thing is, the good songs are so hugely enjoyable, on a basic level. And, that’s all they need to be. This is a return to basics, past and before even the ideas and ambitions for their debut. The playing is great throughout the album and holds even the weaker songs together. Their best for a while. Yes! Even though half the actual songs are no good!

The Soft Parade

Producer Paul A Rothchild encouraged The Doors to employ lavish production and really try to make use of the studio. I’m not sure if all The Doors were keen on this idea but Ray Manzarek politely said ‘we had a lot of fun in the studio’ concerning the sessions! It sounds that way in places, actually. And, a couple of tracks are just dandy! Lets take opener ‘Tell All The People’. Brass instruments and a full sounding production are mixed in with an admittedly decent melody. It sounds even less like The Doors than parts of ‘Waiting For The Sun’. Still, it is a good song. Its a pop song really. And! ‘Touch Me’ is just stupendous! One of my favourite Doors songs. Its a simple song again, a pop song but here we do have Doors sounds and styles amongst the string section and poppy melodies. The rhythm of the keyboards inbetween the verses is a thing to behold! ‘Shamans Blues’ is slightly more Doors of old, though judged by those past standards – hardly classic Doors. I’d actually rather the first two ‘un-doors’ sounding tracks than a weak song in their old style. ‘Do It’ and ‘Easy Ride’ wrap up the first half – neither are essential if judged by previous Doors standards.

The second half continues the mix of the first but adds another element as well. The melodies take on a quirky mode. ‘Wild Child’ is delightful in its rising and playful keyboard lines, ‘Runnin Blue’ sounds like a country hoe-down. It sounds something of a mess but even considering it sounds NOTHING like The Doors famous sound, does possess a certain dumb charm I suppose. ‘Wishful Sinful’ overdoes the string section just a little for me. A perfectly fine string section that soars in places – but not integrated into the actual song too well. It obliterates it. Jim can hardly be heard. One fine moment on the album does remain, however, it will make you smile. And, that’s a promise! It’s eight and a half minutes long and borrows a samba rhythm from Jazz master Stan Getz. The opening Jim in preacher mode ‘PETITION THE LORD WITH PRAYER!’ makes you smile for a start. When the jazz samba kicks in, well. The whole thing becomes an impossible triumph and its only a quarter of the way through! The song proceeds through a bluesy section and gets rockier as it goes along. Jim is going all out by the end. Its a great song. ‘Touch Me’ is actually the only other moment of a similar quality.

Waiting for the Sun

A change of pace for this, the third studio album by The Doors. Gone is the dark brooding of old, gone is the rock blues jazz mix. Well, everything gone for the most part, but all of these aspects do reappear in places. They’d used up their backlog of songs of course and a couple of tracks here do sound like definite filler. Open your eyes and ears however, go through with repeated listening and ‘Summers Almost Gone’ almost becomes your whole universe. The difference between this and previous Doors recordings is emphasized simply by the feel of this song. Imagine a sunset, sitting alone looking out of a window as the world flows by. Summers almost gone, and where will you be? What have you done? Jim sounds in fine voice and the music is dreamily relaxed. The musical mix is enhanced by piano, especially during the middle of the song. Didn’t I tell you The Doors always do great breaks in songs? Ha! This is no exception. This is still The Doors we know and love! This isn’t exactly Rock n Roll and not too many people out there appear to love this song in preferance to say ‘You’re Lost Little Girl’ but really, this is just beautiful and haunting. The opening ‘pop’ ‘Hello I Love You’ borrows its melody from The Kinks ‘All Day And All Of The Night’ and really isn’t too great. It sounds tired, sounds under pressure to provide a commercial moment on demand. They were under strain and pressure to produce this set of songs as they largely had nothing prepared. ‘Love Street’ is funny! Again, like ‘Summers Almost Gone’ this is an evocative song musically and Jim once again sounds in fine voice. Another relaxed and mellow song full of hooks. The hooks are there!

Jim wanted a 12 minute plus song called ‘Celebration Of The Lizard’ to be included on the record. None of the other Doors did so instead they took out a section from that song and turned it into ‘Not To Touch The Earth’. Now, the old Doors sound fully returns – the pounding organ swirls, Jim sounding demonic and mystical as the track winds itself up and up further and further as it progressives. It ends up sounding dark as hell and very enjoyable! As the piece finishes Jim claims the title of ‘Lizard King’ and off we go into ‘Summers Almost Gone’. Fabulous stuff! Not everything is fabulous of course. I’d already hinted at that earlier hadn’t I? Yes! And? Well ‘Wintertime Love’ is lightweight for sure but again, its just so very entertaining. You can’t exactly take this short silly thing seriously but it does raise a smile when you realise this is The Doors doing this! This happy, jaunty little thing! ‘The Unknown Soldier’ I certainly don’t care for. I don’t like the tone of the lyrics and the music seems uninspired and repeating previous themes. ‘My Wild Love’ is hard to describe or explain. Some sort of chanting appears to be going on. Really, I just don’t understand what’s going on! It is actually unsettling though which may have been the point but all that’s really acheived is a desire in the listener to skip to the next track.

The album carries on through an unusual path. ‘We Could Be So Good Together’ again appears to be a lightweight composition by past Doors standards but it does sport decent melodies throughout. ‘Yes, The River Knows’ is the closest we come to Doors as easy listening here, something previously unimaginable. Yes, whilst the likes of ‘Summers Almost Gone’ created an atmosphere with a marriage of lyrics and appropriate music here the lyrics don’t entirely appear suited to the music at all. Nice piano though. And! After all of that we have some old style Doors music done very well with ‘Five To One’. The keyboard and bass pounds, the guitar is dramatic and Jim sounds on the edge. A good way to close something that remains an inconsistant listen, certainly when compared to the first two Doors records – but does have enough moments sprinkled throughout to ensure an enjoyable listen. The very fact that some songs here are so different sounding to previous Doors material is actually a good thing. The lack of a ‘Light My Fire’ or a ‘When The Musics Over’ is of course noticeable but if taken on its own terms, then yeah, this is certainly a good album.

Strange Days

The vast majority of these songs had already been written and arranged prior to the recording of the debut. Many of the songs hail from the same song writing sessions that produced their first long player. Since they largely already had a bunch of material ready this album appeared only six months after its predecessor. They sound more assured this time round, perhaps due to greater experience in the studio. The keyboard bass was replaced by a sessioneer on regular bass guitar for part of this record. It sounds slicker than previous recordings. We open with the title song. The keyboards swirl in madness, Morrison’s voice booms out loud and clear and it’s a fine song. A good start to the record all round as ‘You’re Lost Little Girl’ and ‘Love Me Two Times’ follow. The lyrics to ‘You’re Lost Little Girl’ and the tone of Jims voice gets to me every time. ‘Love Me Two Times’ is just stupendous! Especially arriving on the heels of the previous track. ‘Love Me Two Times’ works as a great rock song with a groovy rhythm! The Doors once again prove themselves adept at middle section breaks when great piano comes in guaranteed to raise a smile! A superb song all round.

‘Unhappy Girl’ despite the lyrical tone is lighter musically but extremely melodic with it. The music contrasts the lyrical content and helps you focus on the words, actually. Fine words they are too. ‘Horse Latitudes’ is very hard to take seriously. Musical effects bordering on the humorous despite their admittedly unsettling nature accompany Jim in preacher voice, reading out his spoken word poetry. Thankfully its short. It does serve a purpose breaking up the record sonically. In a sense its there to provide variety. One of the Doors earliest songs gets a recorded appearance next. ‘Moonlight Drive’ is another fine song on an album full of them. Very little faulting this record, actually. ‘People Are Strange’ has been covered a number of times and with good reason. Another fabulous set of intriguing lyrics and music full of hooks but without neglecting depth. ‘My Eyes Have Seen You’ is a great phrase to build a lyric around and the music is up-tempo and features plenty of Ray attacking his instrument with vigour! ‘I Can’t See Your Face In My Mind’ slows things down, sounds unusual but perfectly natural at the same time. Some exotic sounding guitar playing in particular a highlight of this track. Another great piece of cover art, incidentally, cementing The Doors position as a band that were indeed different from the norm.

The epic eleven minutes plus ‘When The Music’s Over’ closes the record. Strange Days indeed? It features Rays keyboard bass, is wonderful throughout and drags the album up a notch all by itself. Very intense and full of passion. Great playing from Ray, Robbie and John. We do have ‘Horse Latitudes’ however. We also have admittedly ‘Love Me Two Times’, ‘People Are Strange’ and ‘When The Music’s Over’. But, these apart, the record lacks obvious standouts of such a quantity as their debut. All the songs are still pretty great though and overall this is another fine and frequently exhilarating ride, no doubt about it!

The Doors

They called themselves The Doors, as in ‘the doors of perception’ – Jim especially liked their name. It suited the kind of lyrics he had prepared. The group were formed by College buddies Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek. Ray played Piano, Keyboards, Organ. He had a love for the blues and a heavy liking for Jazz music. After Robby Krieger and John Densmore were added to the line up on guitar and drums respectively – they still lacked a bass player. The solution arrived partly due to a technique ray learned from boogie woogie piano ( the left hand plays all the bass parts ) and also with the aid of a Fender Rhodes keyboard bass sat atop rays vox continental. Ray Manzareks left hand became the groups bass player! It would continue that way through live concerts – though as the Fender Rhodes wasn’t so great in recording studios in terms of fidelity – they would switch to using assorted session guys for later albums. On this, their debut, Rays Fender runs through every song. I guess they stopped using it due to the way it would threaten to break up and distort. For me though it’s a key element to the sound and appeal of this record and sets it apart from other Doors albums. This isn’t really a slick sounding record but maybe because of that, it does have a certain edge.

John and Robbie were both adept at blues, rock and possessed knowledge of jazz. The long extended soloing in the middle section of ‘Light My Fire’ takes its inspiration directly from Jazz, certainly. Its also a thing of sheer hypnotic splendour! Its hallucinogenic – I can listen to that part over and over, and when it swings back in to Jim’s vocal – is a thing to behold. This entire middle section was cut out from the single version. Consequently, although it became a massive hit for them, lost much of its power. The full extended album version however, well. This rocks! A similar although much shorter break was featured on opening song ‘Break On Through’. Two and a half minutes of perfection. Everything The Doors ever were or would be is right here, in this one song. Plenty more to come though! Themes to be developed and expanded upon. ‘The End’ is also an important song, being the first extended epic The Doors produced. Well, the LP version of ‘Light My Fire’ clocks in at six minutes fifty ( although actually runs just past seven minutes ) but isn’t an epic in the terms of ‘The End’ or their latter ‘When The Music’s Over’. ‘The End’ is all atmosphere. An excuse for Jim Morrison to provide us with poetry but it remains captivating given his vocal performance. A vocal full of doom and preacher like intensity.

With all of this heaviness the likes of ‘Soul Kitchen’ and the slightly silly ‘Twentieth Century Fox’ provide welcome diversions. Lighter material but still in keeping with the sound of the overall record. We have highlights with a suitably intense version of Willie Dixon’s ‘Back Door Man’ as well as another cover, a dramatic, superb take on Brecht and Weills ‘Alabama Song’. Here, the keyboard takes on a weird European circus flavor that combined with Jim’s deep but playful vocal certainly raises a smile. And! Still more highlights! The wonderful ‘Crystal Ship’ almost defies musical explanation. A number of shorter, simpler songs appearing towards the end of the album perhaps lack the genius of other cuts here but each plays a part in adding to the album as a whole. An album that bears up well to repeated listening. A classic debut that even manages to have classic artwork on its front sleeve. The way Jim’s face is shown coming out at you is striking and it all combines to provide a wonderfully complete and superb album.