Album Journal

Adventures in Modern Recording - The Buggles (1981)

Adventures in Modern Recording

Finally listened to this album despite it being months after my big Buggles phase and I've been listening to it pretty constantly for months now. I don't understand why this one isn't on Spotify. Funny enough, it was the first album I downloaded on Slsk. Random but, shortly after listening to this masterpiece did I learn that Trevor Horn is (or at least was) very homophobic which is disappointing because he's so cute. I'd say this is my favourite Buggles album, I believe Trevor is the only band member in this album along with some dummies.

Right from the start you have, in my opinion, the best song on the album, Adventures in Modern Recording. Like, goddamn! I thought the song was great anyway and then the bridge hits and its got that awesome mellow ska vibe to it then the chorus hits you and is super hype. Super good intro to the whole album. Beatnik is next which is another solid track. Pretty funky though I've read it was hated on quite a bit for being "pretentious" like Yes. Horn became a member of Yes for the album titled Drama (1980) while this album was being made which is probably where that comparison comes from. I Am A Camera, the fourth song of Adventures in Modern Recording, is actually featured on Drama by Yes though renamed as Into The Lens. Another great song.

Vermillion Sands is my fourth favourite song of the album. It was compared to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody which I can see. There's a lot going on in that song which gives it a sort of storytelling quality (which is present in the lyrics too!) and I find that it really draws you into the song because you wonder what will happen next. On TV is my third favourite song of the album. It's so upbeat and I love the lyrics about technology, it gives me major In The Age of Plastic vibes. Lenny is my second favourite song on the album. It feels like my souls being squeezed when I listen to it. Super mellow and beautiful. Not on the original album release but I also have to mention Dion because that's another mellow song I love. It's super sweet sounding, I've listened to it to fall asleep a lot.

I recommend this album if you've only listened to Living in the Age of Plastic so far in The Buggles discography. If you're a fan of synth pop, 80s music in general or want an album with a mix of tones, this iis the one for you.

S.C.I.E.N.C.E. - Incubus (1997)

Redefine

I first listened to this album 2 years ago when I was doing a crazy nu metal album marathon back in my old apartment. Now, I don't really consider this album nu metal though; I don't think many people would. It just sort of fits into that 90s rap metal clique. That's just my opinion though. I really enjoyed this album when I first heared it. That was back when I was big time into Red Hot Chili Peppers and 90s Incubus is just Red Hot Chili Peppers but better to me. I listened to Enjoy Incubus, Fungus Amongus then went on to Make Yourself which I didn't care for that much. From there on each release was more disappointing that the last. No hate if you like post 90s Incubus, of course. Just not my thing. I randomly got a song from this album on my spotify Daylist the ages ago and I forgot how addicted I used to be to it. Now that I no longer have Spotify, I've been ripping all my CDs and this is one I own so now it's back in my music rotation. it really takes me back to my funk metal obsessed days.

Every song on this album is great to me; I could listen to it over and over again. My favourite track on the album is the first one, Redefine. It has the best turntablism though the whole album is full of great turntable stuff. I also love the rapping. The bass solo is epic. Vitamin and New Skin are also excellent songs, they're so damn catchy. I would say those three songs are the most memorable of the whole album along with A Certain Shade of Green and Deep Inside. Calgone is also a great song but it's extremely long so I rarely listen to it. Summer Romance (Anti-Gravity Love Song) is a really fun song. It sounds a little different to everything else on the album to me. I played it to my boyfriend before because I think it sounds real sweet.

I highly recommend this album if you're a fan of early Faith No More, Red Hot Chili Peppers or need a new rap metal album to listen to.

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

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)

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)

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)

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.