Saturday, September 27, 2014

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn by Pink Floyd (1967, EMI Columbia)




WHY I NEVER GOT AROUND TO LISTENING TO THIS ARTIST/ALBUM
  • Many people I know have often indulged in hallucinogenics and/or barbiturates. I have not. It isn't really my thing. Not that I didn't experiment in mood alteration as a youth – the late 1980s are pretty much a blur – but I was more of a beer, whiskey and hashish kind of guy. It is significant to point out that the consumption of psychedelics and sedative pills is the preferable prescription for maximum enjoyment of Pink Floyd's music, at least they are from my point of view. This could explain why I never was much of a fan (in high school, I would often referred to them as Dink Floyd); I never understood the trip the music was trying to take me on.
  • That being said, I am very well acquainted with the 1970s-era Pink Floyd. Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975) and The Wall (1979) are standard fare for FM radio, basement keggers and outdoor bush parties anywhere from Mississauga to Malabon. I also seem to remember a summer evening in Montreal circa 1991 with Jennifer Brodawka, Claudia Valenzuela, my brother Andrew and me vegging out to side two of Meddle on a rooftop in Mile End. Animals (1977) is part of arguably the best comedic moments in television: the WKRP in Cincinnati episode “Turkey's Away”. Click here to watch the clip. So, whether I like it or not, David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Richard Wright have been influential in my musical development.
  • All the while, I always knew there was this sevant-like songwriter and guitarist named Syd Barrett in the band during their formative years in the late 1960s. But this was a period of Pink Floyd I never explored. As I mentioned in a previous entry regarding the 1960s-era Kinks records, the quirkiness of the psychedelic era was never something I dug.

WHAT I KNEW ABOUT THE ALBUM BEFORE THIS PROJECT
  • This record has been lauded as one of the best psychedelic albums ever written and recorded.
  • The opening track, "Astronomy Domine", was covered by Montreal metal band Viodvod on the their album Nothingface (1989). I couldn't get into that version either.
  • I remember seeing Jim Bravo and the Beethoven Frieze playing tracks from this album at a gig in the mid-1990s.
  • I always got the impression from guys like Gaven Dianda that the mystical Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd was lengthy and prolific. It turns out this is the only full-length album Barrett recorded with the band. Famously, Barrett left Pink Floyd in 1968 due to mental illness exacerbated by drug use.
AFTER A WEEK OF DIGESTING THIS ALBUM
  • For most of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, I could not get the mocumentary This Is Spinal Tap (1984) out of my head. It seems most of the cliches that Spinal Tap – a fictional band that parodies the self- indulgent artistry of British hard rock musicians – depict in the movie came from Pink Floyd, and it was difficult for me to take the lyrics seriously. The subject matter of astronomy (Neptune, Titan/Stars can frighten); drug-induced delusions (Lazing in the foggy dew/Sitting on a unicorn/No fair, you can't hear me. But I can you); and fantasy worlds (A gnome named Grimble Grumble.../He wore a scarlet tunic) are satirized in the film.
  • The musicianship is top-notch, with some catchy riffs and melodies. The main riff from "Lucifer Sam" and middle section of  "Matilda Mother" could be in a James Bond film. Conversely, while melodically engaging, “Flaming”, “The Scarecrow." and “Chapter 24” end before they can take you anywhere.
  • Sonically, one of my issues was producer Norman Smith's generous use of the effect of panning the sound from one side to another, done to almost nauseating levels on "Interstellar Overdrive". But again, this was probably done to induce those listeners who had taken pharmaceuticals into some sort of trip. As usual, I just don't get it.
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Sunday, September 7, 2014

Teenage Dream by Katy Perry (2010, Capitol)




WHY I NEVER GOT AROUND TO LISTENING TO THIS ARTIST/ALBUM
  • I love pop songs. And what I mean by that is that I really like the pop song format. This really shouldn't be confused with the term pop music. I view pop music as a collective noun, made up of whatever music is popular for masses at any given time. This can usually be classified as disposable and lacking of any real legacy, other than the sentimental shlep when someone utters the phrase “Do you remember this song?” A good pop song, however, stands the test of time. No matter the artist, the songwriter, the instrumentation, the accompanying video clip or the amount of radio airplay, a good pop song can win over the hype machine any day.
  • And speaking of pop and hype, I have been noticing a lot of buzz around Katy Perry lately, with her new record and tour in full swing. She has never been on my musical radar – which doesn't mean I had no idea who she was. If you know me, it is no secret that have a proclivity towards curvy brunettes with dark, brooding eyes. But that wasn't enough to get me to listen to her music. I remember a few years back that she was briefly married to comedian Russell Brand, which brought up her cred, as far as I was concerned, but again, I still had no interest in getting into her material.
  • When her latest tour brought her through Toronto for a couple of dates a short while ago, there were a handful or so people that I know who unabashedly got tickets to her shows. That's when I figured there might be something to explore. I spent a week with her 2010 monster hit album Teenage Dream.
WHAT I KNEW ABOUT THE ALBUM BEFORE THIS PROJECT
  • That track that had Snoop on it (“California Gurls”) was all over the place a few years ago. And that “Firework” song – because they play it at Toronto Blue Jay games all the time. Otherwise, not so much.
AFTER A WEEK OF DIGESTING THIS ALBUM
  • As stated above, I didn't think I knew much from this record, but I quickly realized that wasn't the case at all. Many tracks on this album are ubiquitous; on TV shows and advertisements, at the baseball stadium and the hockey arena, and in video games. Apparently, I've been listening to Katy Perry for the past four years without knowing it.
  • The songs are anthemic in scope – exemplified by "Firework" and the title track. I think it has a lot to do with Perry singing at the top of her register on the choruses of those tunes. At times, Perry verges on shouting, which is perhaps the reason why a song like "Not Like in the Movies" is a nice reprieve from the rest of the album.
  • Katy Perry's lyrical content is anything but subtle, i.e. "I wanna see your peacock." The double entendres - hell, the single entendres show up in every other line. She seems to try a bit too hard to show how far she can push the lyrical envelope. The feminist in me applauds Perry's uncompromising expressions of overt sexuality. As an uncle of a five-and-a-half year-old niece who sings Katy Perry songs she hears on the Just Dance video game, I am a bit more cautious.
  • Make no mistake, there is a reason why Teenage Dream set the benchmark for an album having the most number one singles (seven) on Billboard's Dance/Club Play Songs chart: this shit is catchy as hell. I still find myself humming “Hummingbird Heartbeat” and "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" weeks after listening to it. But after seven days with the talented Ms. Perry, I felt I owed to myself to a subsequent week of listening to Billie Holiday, just to even things out a little bit.

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