Album Journal

In order of entry date. Starting from 01/09/24.

Everything on this page is purely biased and written from emotion and not a technical stand point :)

Boingo Alive. Celebration Of A Decade 1979-1988 - Oingo Boingo (1988)

Date: 05/09/24

Elevator Man (1988 Boingo Alive Version)

I've listened to pieces of this album for a long time but only today did I put the whole thing on to listen through. I think I've always been intimidated by the fact it's over 2 hours long and the fact that I've already listened to most Oingo Boingo songs to death. I always enjoyed the fresh sound of the songs I had listened to on here previously though and I usually don't care for live albums that much. This album was recorded live in a rehersal studio with no audience to celibrate the 10th anniversary of Oingo Boingo. It had been a project the band had planned for a while, not liking the "lack in energy" in their studio recordings.

I think Dead Man's Party is a great song to open the album with. I really think an energetic song is the best to start most albums with. I really like this album's version of the song, it feels like there's more build up to the different parts of the song. I'm not a huge fan of Dead or Alive but I think it sounds fine here. If you already like the song then I think you'll like this version too. No Spill Blood and Stay come next and I think they sound amazing. No Spill Blood sounds so fresh and I honestly prefer this version of Stay. The way the lyrics are layered in the chorus sounds so much better to me. Other honerable mentions of songs I really enjoy the live version of are We Close Our Eyes, Grey Matter, Private Life and Violent Love.

My favourite song on this album is Elevator Man. I've heard this song before on Boi-Ngo but I don't think it made that much of an impact on me. For some reason, hearing it on this album just got me totally addicted to the song. It gave me more appreciation for the studio recording of the song too. I will say, I do prefer the backing vocals on the Boi-Ngo version more than the Boingo Alive version!

Cinderella Undercover was the first song on this album I hadn't heared already. I'm a big fan of the trumpets and the chorus sounds real nice and different compared to the rest of the song. The two songs afterwards I hadn't heared in a while so it kind of felt like I hadn't ever heard them before. It Only Makes Me Laugh sounds so damn good on this album. It feels like it leans way more into its ska influence here with its brass instruments and drums. Totally more upbeat and funky.

I've got to say, the way the album starts with Dead Man's Party, the first CD ends with Return Of The Dead Man and then the entire album ends with Return Of The Dead Man 2 is such a great way to tie everything together! That song is one of the most Oingo Boingo songs I can think of so using the motif of it throughout the album is such a good way to pay homage to the past 10 years of Oingo Boingo, in my opinion.

I like a lot of the songs on the version but when it comes to Nothing To Fear (But Fear Itself) I honestly prefer the original version. The way it's mixed on the original just sounds great and I know the whole point of a live album is for it to sound more raw but I don't think it works in the favour of this song that much. I sort of feel the same with Wild Sex (In The Working Class). I really love the intro that's added in this version but why did they make the little xylophone type melody that plays during the pre-chorus practically unhearable and make the metal clacking sound louder!? I understand it thematically works with the song but I think it sounds so much better in the original with the xylophone being louder than the metal clacking because the xylophone paired with the quiet metal clacking like in a factory is the best part of the song to me. No One Lives Forever also doesn't sound the best here. I feel like it actually loses a lot of its energy with the live version. The vocals just sound kind of stale and it feels like a lot of the depth the instruments have in the original are lost. I enjoy the sound of the trumpets in parts though, I think trumpets are what this album does best.

I recommend this album if you're an Oingo Boingo fan but if you haven't listened to them much I would say listen to the original versions of the songs I criticised above first then maybe give the live versions a go if you like them.

Freaks. Ten Stories About Power, Claustrophobia, Suffocation And Holding Hands - Pulp (1987)

Date: 02/09/24

Life Must Be So Wonderful

I really didn't think I would like this album and had originally only listened out of curiousity since I've been a fan of Pulp since I was really young but only ever listened to their 90s stuff. Life Must Be So Wonderful showed up on my Tumblr feed the other day, I listened because it was Pulp, really enjoyed it and thought I just had to give the whole album a go.

I wasn't sure I'd much further after listening to Fairground, though I do like the circus feel to it, but then I Want You plays and it sounds like it could be from His N Hers which is such a nostalgic album for me. Straight away I'm hit with the nostalgic sound of Jarvis Cocker's vocals and the instruments sound amazing. It made me realise how much I miss Pulp and now I wanna run through the rest of their albums that I've been sleeping on!

I've got to loop back around to Life Must Be So Wonderful now. Funnily the most depressing meloncholic songs on this album are my favourite despite me usually prefering more intense and funkier stuff. This song is the best of the whole album to me, it's totally hopeless and it sounds amazing. It's so calming but lyrically unnerving.

I do think a few of the songs on this song are a little boring, not bad but not special (maybe my opinion will change with more listens?) but I highly recommend the songs I've mentioned here or even better the entire album because it's pretty good.

The Age of Plastic - The Buggles (1980)

Date: 02/09/24

Living In The Plastic Age

I'm completely obsessed with this album right now. The themes and genre really align with m interests right now. The Age of Plastic is a concept album about technology, it's poppy and new wave; peak 80s. I first listened to this album in April and enjoyed it then just sort of forgot about it until a couple of weeks ago I randomly thought "I want more songs about computers, maybe I should listen to The Buggles again" and somehow it sounded even better than before after giving it that time to marinate. Trevor Horn is very cute also, my second favourite bass playing Trevor.

Living in the Plastic Age is my favourite song on the album. It's the perfect introduction to immerse you in the album, it feels like it could play at the start of a movie. It's about the culture of technology in the 70s and the harshness of it. I'm a big fan of the piano in this song and the drums pair with it so well, it makes me want to dance around. The chorus I can't describe as anything but epic. If you haven't seen the music video to this song I also highly recommend that, the visuals are amazing and aged like fine wine. It depicts a futeristic sort of city and uses a lot of green screen but most eye catching to me are the costumes.

Everyone knows the next song, Video Killed The Radio Star. It's about nostalgia of old tech and the technological changes of the 60s. I don't have a whole lot to say about this track other than: it's catchy, nostalgic and Thomas Dolby is on the keyboard!.

My other favourite songs of this album are I Love You (Miss Robot), Elstree and Johnny on the Monorail. Though I know some of the songs on this album are criticisms of technology, I can't deny that I'm obsessed with songs about a deep love for technology, that's the easiest way for a band to get me hooked. I highly recommend this album if you want some new catchy synthy pop songs to add to your playlist.

Angel Dust - Faith no More (1995)

Date: 01/09/24

Everything's Ruined

Angel Dust is an album I now find myself coming back to every once in a blue moon for a nostalgia trip to my first year of university. I've been a Faith No More fan for years, probably since I was around 15 years but I never fixated so hard on this particular album until I was a few months into living alone for the first time ever. Faith no More in general was the soundtrack to the later half of my first year while I was usually in my apartment bedroom doing nothing except listening to music and reading comics, rotting away. It also reminds me a lot of highschool as I had a lot of the songs on that album on my playlist.

I have Angel Dust on cassette, vinyl and even twice on CD (the normal version and deluxe). Just because I love this album so much. Despite it being something I listened to so much before I got Last.fm too, it's still my top album on there (after adding scrobbles from the normal version and deluxe together).

I think every song on this album hits. At first I would find myself listening for a few songs I knew I liked but then I would keep coming back, slowly growing to like other songs I didn't care for too much previously. Every listen would bring something new to the table to me and I would cycle through different groups of songs being my favourite at the time of me listening. I got this album on vinyl when I was a teenager and usually I would ignore the deluxe content after I had already heared it once. But now I have grown to really love the deluxe content with Mike Patton's cover of 'As The Worm Turns' being one of my favourite Faith no More songs (though I do appreciate the original version with Chuck Mosleys vocals).

Everything's Ruined is a song I still come back to to this day. The intro is iconic, and the vocals are really fun; I've always got to sing along. The way Patton delivers some of te lines in an comedic deep throaty voice is amazing and only plays to the theatrics of the song. I'm a huge fan of the extremely dated music video for this song, recorded entirely infront of a green screen displaying random video clips. Some of the outfits are ridiculous and the entire thing is enhanced by the inclusion of a keytar.

Kindergarten is the 8th track on the album and another one of my favourites. Thematically I always interpreted the song to be about not wanting to grow up hence I found myself relating to it heavily when I was finishing highschool. I think the lyrics to this song are great. The line 'Will I graduate?' is answered by the end of the song with 'Held back again.', showing how impossible it feels to mature.I think I can relate to any song with these themes as a 21 year old guy but Faith no More really pull it off with this one. The aggressive delivery of the lyrics is great too, great song for when you're feeling down.

I would argue the most important song on this album is Be Aggressive. The song was written by Roddy Bottum, the openly gay keyboardist of the band. In interviews he mentioned how he wrote the lyrics, which are about giving felatio, in an effort to embarass Patton. This is another song on this album with extremely catchy lyrics and vocals that are great to sing along to.

Crack Hitler is the most upbeat song on the album to me. It's super energetic and fast. I love the diversity in the vocals with this song and the effects through every song on this album exhibits great vocal diversity. The instruments also go from heavy to melodic and all around the place, every part sounds fresh to your ears.

Angel Dust is an album I despirately with I could erase from my memory to experience again for the first time but so much of my enjoyment of it comes from the way it helped me through times that music was all I had and my life was going through such big stuff. I have years of memories attached to this album, easing my stress as well as karaoke in parties with all my friends. I heavily recommend it as, again, it is also so technically interesting album with so many different influences.