The Welsh new wave band's only album but they absolutely nailed it first time.
I only discovered Young Marble Giants last year, after Colossal Youth won an LP Group listening session vote for "one album wonders".
I don't have a lot to say as it's still a fairly new album for me but I love the sparse instrumentation and the way that compliments Alison Statton's vocals. I know the album was one of Kurt Cobain's favourites and I can see how influential this must have been on many of the bands and artists I love.
My first draft of this top 50 had Appetite comfortably in the top 20 but as I listened to more and more contenders it slowly dropped down the rankings. My music tastes have changed considerably since this came out but there was no way it couldn't feature somewhere.
Appetite For Destruction is the perfect example of a band hitting the ground running with an album full of their best songs, there's hardly a dull moment and they managed to release seven of the twelve tracks as singles. SEVEN flippin' singles! That's frankly ridiculous. Guns N' Roses got so big so quickly they didn't have time to draw breath and they didn't release another album worth bothering with in my book.
When they first hit the scene I was 19 and a confirmed Metal Head and G'N'R seemed like the Sex Pistols for my generation. I remember hearing a radio advert for a live gig at the famous Marquee club which I was desperate to get to. I didn't make it and that remains one of my most regretted lost gigs (even though I'm sure the queue to get in would have been round the block). When I finally did see them live, at Castle Donnington in 1988, they were brilliant but already too big for their early afternoon time slot. The next (and final) time I saw them live they headlined Wembley Stadium (in what I've just discovered was Izzy Stradlin's last show as a full-time member) and had lost the edge that first got me excited.
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In the list, out of the list, back in and quite high, then still in but dropped a little. I struggled to come to terms with my love for Floyd's psychedelic debut album but in the end it had to make the list.
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was the only Pink Floyd made wholly under Syd Barrett's influence, who wrote or co-wrote all but one of the tracks, and stands apart a little from the rest of their catalogue. I got into Floyd in the late seventies around the same time that Punk was breaking big. Typical for me to be a little behind the curve, I remember seeing Floyd perform Another Brick In The Wall on Top Of The Pops and assuming they were Punk too. It took me a while to work my way back to Piper and though I liked it, I didn't truly appreciate it for quite a few years.
For me the highlights are the psychedelic space jams Astronomy Domine and Interstellar Overdrive which also formed a significant part of the early live show. Having got to know Astronomy Domine through the 8 minute live version that features on Ummagumma the 4 minute version on Piper always feels a little abbreviated to me but it's no less enjoyable. The instrumental Pow R. Toc. H and, Roger Waters written, Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk also hint at a more underground edge to the band.
Syd provided plenty of new perfectly formed psychedelic pop moments too. Lucifer Sam and Bike are my favourites though neither reach the magical heights of pre-album singles See Emily Play or Arnold Lane which were left off the album perhaps because the band were already a little fed up with having to play them live.
The video below of Floyd playing Astronomy Domine live in 1968 also features an amusing interview with Roger Waters and a journalist who is clearly not that impressed by the band at all.
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Most of the debuts on my list are also the best album the artist recorded. It seems to be often true that a first release manages to perfectly capture everything brilliant about an artist and becomes a marker point they often find difficult to surpass. Whilst Sparklehorse's 1995 debut Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot is brilliant, I think second album Good Morning Spider is even better, but Vivadixie is definitely worth your time especially if your musical bag is lo-fi alternative country.
Sparklehorse was essentially the recording name of singer/songwriter Mark Linkous. Linkous had been working as a guitar tech for David Lowery, of Camper Van Beethoven fame, who proved pivotal in reigniting Mark's enthusiasm in music. Lowery's new band, Cracker, feature extensively on Vivadixie but it's Linkous' fragile vocal and heartfelt lyrics that shine through.
It was almost worth including Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot on the strength of the title alone. It's long been a favourite album title for me and supposedly came from a dream Linkous had about Confederate General Robert E. Lee and a crude submarine used in the American Civil War. It's certainly a name that conjures up some brilliant images in my mind and brings a smile to my lips whenever I hear it mentioned.
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The last few months I've been working out my 50 favourite debut albums with the intention of counting these down on Twitter via @Chops_Top_Fives.
It's quite a big task so obviously that's taken it's toll on my ability to write some new top fives. To make it "pay it's way" I've decided to squeeze a few blog posts out of it so, barring any last minute changes of plan, I am going with the tried and trusted national newspaper click generation method of one album one post.
That's fair warning that the next few days/weeks/months will be a fairly extensive slog through my list. I apologise now.
This Top 50 list follows similar efforts for Seventies and Nineties albums and has been largely orchestrated by @StaggerLee30. I will round everything up with a full top 50 post at the end so you don't need to follow every post, in the meantime you can catch up with some of the other best Debut lists via @CLButler76‘s List of Lists page
There's been a great array of lists so far and the one common thread in all of them is they seem very personal to the person compiling the list. I've followed the same tack, so there are several entries that mean a lot to me but might not be considered truly great albums and likewise some truly great albums I decided I had to leave out.
Whatever you think of the list I hope you find something you've not heard before you like. Start the journey here >>> Top 50 Debut Albums number 50
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A very quick top five this week as I've not had a lot of spare time. I found out through Twitter that the University of London Union, known colloquially as ULU, effectively closed down as of Wednesday night. After some fifty years of student control, the University of London Union building is to be unceremoniously prised from student hands.
There is no guarantee that the notorious central London venue (that has played host to everyone from Arcade Fire to Coldplay and from Tinchy Stryder to the Foo Fighters) will remain an active music venue. This is a great shame as I've been to some cracking gigs there. Actually, as it turned out I've been to precisely five gigs there but they were all good enough to leave a lasting impression and make me sad that it might be a venue I'll never visit again.
1. The Dirtbombs (2008) - Second time I'd seen The Dirtbombs but the best and a utterly brilliant gig. I was a little bit drunk by the time they came on stage and had a fantastic night. Lots of pogoing down the front and a night I made a lot of new friends too.
2. And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead (2000) - Another sweaty night of uncontrolled abandon as the Trail of Dead tore the roof of the venue. this gig was in support of the phenomenal Madonna album and was the first time I saw them live. Bizarrely they were supported by Snow Patrol who went on to have a little bit of chart success.
3. Detroit Cobras (2004) - I was very very drunk this night. Considerably more so than the Dirtbombs gig, to the extent I lost my glasses in the melee down the front and only found their shattered remains at the end of the show. Totally worth it though, an amazing live band.
4. New Fast Automatic Daffodils (1990) - Early nineties baggie influence here. I discovered the New FADS thanks to an incredible session for John Peel. They never quite achieved those heights again but this was a fabulous gig and the first time I'd been to ULU. Back then you still had to pay a £1 fee to gain temporary Student Union membership so you could get in.
5. Hope of the States (1993) - HotS were one of the first British attempts at post rock. Clearly influenced by Godspeed You Black Emperor they ploughed a more commercial furrow that could have taken post rock to a whole new level. They were supported by Razorlight who will forever be famous for hoisting Johnny Borrell and the Hoxton Mullet on an unsuspecting audience.
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There's not many things I enjoy better than someone sending me a top five out of the blue, and this is one of those. Tony has had to put up with me discussing my latest top five down the pub for a number of years and finally decided to give it a go himself. It's a corker too, enjoy.
In no particular order, these are my top five songs from my teens which feature drums in some way and which probably influenced my musical taste for ever. I can’t play the drums myself (or indeed any musical instrument) but I have always enjoyed watching and listening to good drummers – especially if they are in a heavy rock ‘n’ roll band!
1. “Dreaming” Blondie - I bought this on 7 inch single (1979 I think) after I first heard it on Capital Radio (never really liked Radio 1). My brother and I shared a bedroom and he had a record player and I used to play it over and over again until he finally snapped and demanded that I use headphones. This meant that I could turn it up (to 11) and I properly got addicted to loud music from that point on. The drumming on this song is simply brilliant. There are a couple of videos on You Tube where the drumming is mimed, but there is one version where I’m sure he’s (Clem Burke?) hitting the skins as ‘live’. Mesmerizing.
2. “Overkill” Motörhead - To be honest the first time I heard this was in 1982 at Hammersmith Odeon when I saw Motörhead on the Iron Fist tour. I had a few of their albums but not Overkill and seeing/hearing the double bass drum crescendo of Philthy Animal Taylor really did blow me away. After the show I got hold of the album and the 12 inch single and played them to death. When No Sleep Til Hammersmith came out, the live version of Overkill got played so often that I scratched the vinyl at the beginning and end of the song!
3. “Bad Boy Boogie” AC/DC - Although the brilliant If You Want Blood live album came out in 1978, I probably got my hands on it a couple of years later. The third track, Bad Boy Boogie really demonstrates the amazing teamwork of drummer Phil Rudd and Malcolm Young on rhythm guitar. The song itself is dominated by Angus Young’s guitar solo but for me the sound of the drums makes the hair on the back of the neck stand on end!
4. “Rock ‘n’ Roll” Led Zeppelin - I don’t remember when I got hold of The Song Remains The Same album, but I do remember going up to Soho to watch the film in 1982 (in a dodgy cinema that usually showed more adult type films!). The live version of Rock ‘n’ Roll on this album is a classic – I only have to hear the ‘Okay lets go’ at the beginning of the track and I have to put my life on hold for the next 4 minutes. Jon Bonham - one of the best drummers, if not the best, of all time.
5. “In The Air Tonight” Phil Collins - I’m gonna get slaughtered for having this in the list but I absolutely loved it at the time. It’s more famous these days for having a gorilla play the drums but there’s no escaping the fact that it has great drums on it. It was either this one, or ELO’s Mr Blue Sky.
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Bit of a change in tack from the usual post, here's my Harkive story recording what music I listened to on Harkive Day, 15th July 2014.
Harkive is an annual online music project intended to take a worldwide look at what it means to be a music fan in an ever-changing digital world. Harkive first ran in 2013 and was a tremendous success, the second year should allow the chance to begin to explore how music listening is evolving. On 15th July 2014 music fans across the globe contributed their stories to Harkive in many different of ways including; email, posting to social networking sites such as Twitter using the #harkive hashtag, blogging their stories, or by posting on the wall of the Harkive Facebook page.
This is my story.
I'm not really a morning person. I woke up about Seven but it took me at least half an hour to remember it was Harkive day.
Musically things didn't get off to a spectacular start, though I did have a burst of the KISS version of "God Gave Rock N Roll To You" going through my head as I got myself up and tried to convince the boys they needed to do the same.
Par for the course to be honest, Mrs T5 has long since stopped trying to understand my musical tastes and my two boys have decided it can all be categorised under the genre Weird Stuff. Tsk!
Having dropped my youngest at school though I decided I needed a blast of something to get the day underway.
Off to work, I recently succumbed to a cheap Deezer subscription (£1 for 3 months) and this lets me download music onto my phone and listen to it offline. Been trying to make the most of that whilst I can, normally I'd be listening to my iPod in the car or occasionally the radio.
Got into work and had a meeting and a few people to see so a music free start. I'm lucky enough to work in a small office though and we often stream live radio, so when I got back I logged on and caught up with the previous night's Marc Riley show.
That lasted 2 hours and helped the morning fly by.
Went to join in the regular Tuesday kickabout at lunchtime, a bit hot but we had a decent game, by the time I got back my work mate had taken control of the music.
Later in the afternoon I got the chance to do a bit of prep work for my Top 50 Debut Albums list, which will be dominating this blog over the coming weeks if I get my act together and start writing stuff down instead of trying to pick which albums are going to be on it.
We had a late night planned to get some system maintenance down and were back on live 6music for most of this, though it was pretty quiet so wasn't really registering while we worked.
Left work around Eight and returned to that Smith's album from earlier.
Another blast of Riley while I cooked my dinner, though I was also trying to get the boys to bed and managed to squeeze in reading a story to my youngest before I ate.
After a few too many late nights due to the World Cup and the Tour de France, I was happy to get to bed a little bit early.
Really should have gone straight to sleep but managed a bit more music via my iPod before my eyelids got too heavy and I finally passed out completely.
I usually go to sleep listening to music, it helps me get to sleep more quickly, but I don't think I heard many of the next album before I was comatose.
And so Harkive ended for me. A pretty typical day.
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One of the best things about the World Cup is the chance to see players you don't know much about. I don't follow European football very closely and even in English football tend to be focused on the league Fulham are in. So these aren't necessarily the best players at the competition just the ones that caught my eye and entertained me.
1. Thomas Müller (GERMANY) - By no means an unknown player but probably my current favourite in world football. I like a goal scorer and Müller certainly knows where the goal is but he also adds a degree of guile & cunning to the German attack. None of these are the reason he's number 1 though, it's all about his style of play and those low slung socks. I've spent a large proportion of every match trying to work out if he's playing without shin pads, I've decided he is but that their really tiny old school ones. He seems to play the game at his own pace and gives the impression he's not trying too hard because he doesn't really need too.
2. James Rodriguez (COLUMBIA) - I think everyone will remember James Rodriguez as one of the stars of this tournament. Six goals are going to get you noticed and might win you the golden boot. At least two of those goals were absolute corkers and I think, despite the fact Tim Cahill's volley was outstanding, his first goal against Uruguay is my goal of the tournament.
3. Gary Medel (CHILE) - I knew Medel played for Cardiff but honestly had no idea he was from Chile until this World Cup. I'd assumed he was British, I mean how many Chilean's are called Gary!? We knew Chile were a decent footballing side but they have also been very organised & hardworking and Medel is typical of this approach. I was also enjoying Alexis Sanchez, who added a bit of flair up front to the team but it was Medel's performance against Brazil that really won me over. He ran himself into ground and until a thigh strain (picked up before the game) saw him leave the pitch on a stretcher, after 110 minutes of football, with tears rolling down his face.
4. Guillermo Ochoa (MEXICO) - There have been loads of good goalkeepers. Tim Howard's 116 saves against Belgium will live long in the memory. Raïs M'Bolhi of Algeria had a similar evening the night before against Germany. Of course Manuel Neuer of Germany was pretty impressive too, especially when he was allowed to play sweeper but it was Ochoa's performance for Mexico against Brazil that won the honours for me. He put in an amazing display, making saves he had no right to make, and was impressive in Mexico's other games keeping two clean sheets and only really being overcome by a dodgy penalty for Holland. The fact Mrs T5 had money on Mexico winning (at 300/1!) might have made me appreciate his efforts all the more.
5. Sofiane Feghouli (ALGERIA) Algeria weren't the most exciting side to watch but again proved you don't need to a have a team full of superstars to do well at the World Cup. Islam Slimani probably took most of the plaudits but Feghouli and his assortment of head bandages caught my eye and had me cheering for Algeria.
I can't ignore the Fulham connection. Technically there were four current Fulham players at the World Cup and three of them did pretty well. Bryan Ruiz captained Costa Rica who turned out to be one of the tournament's surprise packages winning Group D and being cruelly beaten on Penalties by the Dutch. Ruiz scored a couple of important goals and looked the sort of player Fulham fans knew he could be but rarely saw. Ashkan Dejagah was one of the star players in the Iranian team that also did well, drawing 0-0 with Nigeria and only losing to Argentina thanks to a very late goal by Lionel Messi. Cult hero Giorgios Karagounis also took over as captain for Greece (after previous Captain was sent off) and showed he is still capable of performing at the highest level, making me regret the fact we've let him go a little bit more. Meanwhile, on the same team, you might have missed the appearances of Fulham record signing Kosta Mitroglou. I think his record went; sub after an hour (did nothing) - started but injured after 35 minutes- missed game through injury - sub after an hour (hit bar, missed several, scored penalty). He didn't look very good but I still don't have much of a clue what he's really like. He cost Fulham over £12 Million.
The World Cup has slowed me down a little with the Top 5 production so here's the latest batch of gig review links to tide you over.
Laura J Martin at The Ivy House - Thursday 5th June 2014 - I've written about Laura J Martin a lot and was beginning to wonder if I'd have anything new to say about yet another gig but this was another fabulous night and in brand new territory for me too. In fact I'd never been to Peckham before let alone the venue and despite the myriad of public transportation options, found the venue fairly easily. A regular train followed by an overground train (after a few moments of indecision at Clapham Junction) and then a bus ride and a short walk eventually led me to The Ivy House, a smashing pub saved from closure about a year ago and now run by the local community. It used to be known as The Newlands Tavern and seems to have had quite a history of live music. Dr Feelgood played several times and other famous performers to appear include Joe Strummer, Ian Dury and early psychedelic Status Quo.
Dustaphonics at The Jazz Cafe - Friday 30th May 2014 - This was a combined celebration of the 14th anniversary of London retro club night Raison d'etre and the album launch party for the Dustaphonics new album Big Smoke London Town.
Swans at Sub89, Reading - Thursday 29th May 2014 - Swans were so amazing the last time I saw them I almost didn't bother with a date on this tour to avoid the inevitable anti-climax. I needn't have worried, the current line-up of Swans are so good could never be anything less than outstanding & are only really competing with their own high standards. They were fantastic again tonight despite a series of events that would have derailed my enjoyment of most other bands.
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