That's right folks, its Music Monday again and instead of a single track list I'm coming at you with five albums that I think are amazing and if you love them even half as much as I do then we are in for a music love in!
Lets get started shall we?!
ERIC CLAPTON/UNPLUGGED by Eric Clapton
Yes, this is the MTV unplugged session and yes I could have delivered you the classic Nirvana one but no! This is something that needs to come out, stand on its own and say 'I AM AWESOME! HEAR ME...being bewitchingly acoustic.'
You get fourteen tracks and they run through Clapton's brightest and best but this is not a 'best of', nope, its more of an invite into a dimension of relaxing cool notes that sooth, smooth and remove all the stresses from your day. At points it can be depressing, heartbreaking, numbing and touching but as with that there is always a sense of infinite cool that flows through the whole album and performance.
I could hit you with some 'Tears In Heaven' or 'Layla' but instead I want to put a song on here that takes me to a different place; one I love to sit in.
As I write and carve ideas out of my head I have to hope that what I'm doing is good enough. You could say I'm powered by Tea, or even sugar (you'd be right), but actually...I'm Running On Faith.
CYPBERPUNK by Billy Idol
Its 1993 and I'm facing a Billy Idol album with a mixture of fear and interest, realistically I couldn't have been prepared for what I was about to be hit by. It's synth, rock, industrial, mesmeric madness!
Idol still hammered it with tracks like 'Shock To The System' but it was in the flow of the album that the true feat was achieved. It starts love and melodic, pumps it up, drops it down, twists around with short tracks and grips you with longer onslaughts like Adam In Chains and Heroin.
I bought the album again for the first time in over a decade as my last one was in fact my flatmates and the bastard (fucking diamond gezzer actually) took it with him when he moved out. The copy I bought after he'd gone went missing (as all the best albums do).
This arrived on my mat, I opened it and yes, I was blown away all over again. It probably isn't to everyone's tastes but it damn well is to mine!
AS IF TO NOTHING by Craig Armstrong
I was walking through M.V.C (LOL that was a long time ago) when I heard something playing above me. I thought; 'Wow, what the hell is this?' I walked right around to the desk, saw the c.d on display and bought it. I took it home, I played it, I played it again, and again, and again. I played that bastard till my player bled.
Fifteen tracks that go through mellow, haunting and beautiful and never lose their power. It's the kind of album I can bang on and my brain can switch off and by the end I've got the seed of an idea forming, the music has allowed me to slink off somewhere and just chill.
That chilled out zone can be so hard to find and if I can get some music to find it then I love it and always will. This boasts featured vocal tracks and stuff by Bono, King Crimson and Mogwai amongst others but here I give you something instrumental and amazing.
Ruthless Gravity
THE BEST OF JOHN DENVER by John Denver (shock horror)
Yes, we are going here! I defy anyone to sit with The Denver and not feel good! He was a true talent taken way to early and this here is twenty tracks of classic D!
What's my favourite? No, can't tell you. THERE ARE TOO MANY!!! This is a country King in a best of that really lives up to the name! Am I going to hit you with 'Leaving on a jet plane,' or 'Country Roads,' perhaps 'Wild Montana Skies,' or 'Annie's Song' or even 'Sunshine on my shoulders'?
Nope.
I just thank god he was a country boy...
Finally we come to a soundtrack because you know I love soundtracks from films. This week its from a film I love and the soundtrack is beguiling in its passive, cool vibe.
Seven wasn't a friendly film.
Try the album though and you get a subtle, soft, almost friendly/cool sound that has the likes of Charlie Parker at one end and Gravity Kills at the other. Somewhere in between them we find a legend at his very best, delivering a moody, soulful masterpiece.
The last two tracks on the album are instrumental score that do chill and intimidate with the threatening sense of impending doom that so characterises the film itself, brilliantly brought to us by Pitt, Freeman, Paltrow and of course Spacey, directed by one of my favourite directors of all time; David Fincher.
Ignore all that above though, sit back and let this track sweep you away.
Marvin Gaye is in the house and he has this for you...
That's it for this week, hope you enjoyed the tracks and maybe think about checking out the albums. If you have any suggestions for next week then hit me up here and I'll see what I can do.
Thanks for reading and listening.
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