About Kieran Baddeley

There’s a beautifully mournful moment about half way into the first track on Scott 3, It’s Raining Today, which sums up the whole of Scott Walker’s career. The strings which envelop the song, subtly change down a chord or two and suddenly Walker’s words have added gravity:
“We go like lovers / To replace the empty space /
Repeat our dreams to someone new.”
The first line is hopelessly romantic: a vision of something complete, two people in love going through life together. The next lines however, send shivers down your spine. This is love that is trying to fill something that’s lost, a repeated vignette that has not yet succeeded. Someone who’s been hurt before but goes into every relationship with the same gusto, sure that this time will be the one. This flip from happy to sad in the space of a few words sums up the whole song, the whole album and Walker’s whole career.
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At the bottom of the bed of sensuous purple that backdrops the cover to Can’s 1973 album Future Days is one of the ancient Chinese ‘I Ching’ symbols. Traditionally used as a way of telling the future, its inclusion is by no means a coincidence. Title aside, the similarities to Can’s discography are prescient.
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Pop music, in recent years, has become slightly disillusioned to the masses. A whole article could be taken up explaining how streaming and other technological advances have led to the increase of talentless artists creeping into the charts and the consciousness of the masses. While this may hold some truth, it’s an extremely cynical world view. In many ways, Pop music is better now than it ever has been. It’s become such a broad term that myriad artists and genres fall into its scope. Naysayers may argue that truly original and worthwhile Pop music is dead. 2015’s Emotion is an album that refutes this claim.
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In the pantheon of rock icons, there remains no one as singular or influential as Brian Eno. His career is one that would have been chronicled on terracotta pots a couple of centuries ago. It serves my purpose just to mention a couple of the artists he’s improved due to either his presence or production: Roxy Music, David Bowie, Talking Heads, David Byrne, Nico, U2, Laurie Anderson, Genesis, Paul Simon and many more. His run of four rock albums from 1974-77, is an unrivalled one in regards to innovation. But after this run came his greatest left-turn yet: Ambient.
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“Hipster” is defined as a person who follows the latest trends that are usually out of the cultural mainstream. More recently, the term has become more and more ironic- as if those who identify as a Hipster are doing it in a hipster way. Granted, it’s a difficult logic to follow. The very act of being a hipster is even more hipster than ever. In 1999, the term had been around for a while, the earliest I know of it in music is on Orange Juice’s 1982 song Untitled Melody.
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Before you go into this review looking for a objective, neutral and fair evaluation of one of David Byrne’s late-career albums, an album you’ve probably never heard of but are willing to read a decent appraisal of, in a fashion that lays out the facts bare and for all to see so that you, the reader, can form your own opinion as to whether to listen to it based on the review – before you’ve done all that, be warned:
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“It’s about the problem of being monogamous; wanting to be in a loving and monogamous relationship but being tempted away from it.” In a 1990 interview regarding their latest single So Hard, Neil Tennant just happened to fall on the best description of their latest album in the process.
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In 2015, Björk was heartbroken.
Vulnicura was an album of pure heartbreak. Björk’s most lyrically direct and distressing work to date. It was the sound of an artist who could seem so God-like, crashing down to earth. Hard. It was a hard album to listen to at times as a result. But I have no reservations in saying it was Björk’s best album.
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Almost exactly three and a half minutes into Runaways, the first track on XTC’s magnum opus English Settlement, the guitars become hushed and lone piano notes drop as if into oblivion. It’s one of many moments of sheer brilliance that litter all of the fifteen songs on the record. They act as lily pads in ponds of circling 12-string guitars, off kilter drum patterns and pan-optic lyrics.
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Disclaimer: In no way do I wish this to be a hate post, it’s just a re-evaluation of some of the core beliefs of many on the subject of Depeche Mode. In my opinion, Depeche Mode’s best album is 1988’s Music for the Masses. It presents itself as the best culmination of their repeated attempts to marry provocative lyrics with their stadium-sized ambition and hunger for popularity. It has been nearly matched twice, with 1986’s Black Celebration and 2005’s Playing the Angel. All three of these releases show Depeche Mode at their best, perfecting their formula to create albums that stand out among their 14-album discography. I’ve always had a problem with Depeche Mode despite these solid releases.
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