Strong pop melodies often get a bad wrap. If a song is too catchy, too poppy or, heck, sometimes even too 'fun', the 'intelligent'-self-serious half of my musical mind is immediately suspicious. "Why yes, it is catchy...But is it 'real' music?" Then, hopefully, I tell that side of my brain to, "Shut up and enjoy the tunes." Electric Light Orchestra (ELO for short) represents a high-water mark in pop music for me. Their hit singles are a masters course in constructing effective, catchy, well-produced, and memorable songs. And for that reason, I often take them for granted and the rest of the world seems to as well. ELO holds the record for having the most US Top 40 hits (an impressive 27 singles) without ever reaching number 1. Many of their songs are radio standards, soundtracking commercials and movies, and I forget just how really, really good most of these songs are. So I decided to spend a couple of weeks getting to know the band's 1977 double album 'Out of the Blue' and dust these songs off and hopefully give them a fair shake.
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| Respect the hair. |
Formed in 1970 out of the ashes of a few other groups, Electric Light Orchestra, spearheaded by singer and chief songwriter Jeff Lynne, aimed to give rock a more orchestral quality as well as "pick up where The Beatles left off". It took them a couple of tries but by their fourth album, 'Eldorado, A Symphony' in 1974 (featuring their first big hit, Can't Get It Out of My Head), Lynne and the group had struck a balance between solid melodious songwriting and grand orchestral arrangements. By 1977 and 'Out of the Blue', their 7th album, ELO had their formula down to a science and, lucky for us, delivered an expansive album chock-full of wonderful music.
Jeff Lynne is a man of singular vision and he records and produces ELO's music in an equally singular way. Everything is large. Very large. 'Out of the Blue' is absolutely full to bursting with sweeping and swirling strings, gloriously grand and over the top choirs, pulsing synths, playful background harmonies, shimmering guitars, and Lynne's vocals soaring over all of it (i.e. Standin' in the Rain and its excellent breakdown at 1:38). Lynne's cohesive, glossy sound is the first thing that struck me as I listened these past weeks. With so many sounds stacked on one another, you can always hear everything; it doesn't become muddled. Even on the tracks I don't love, there is always something interesting going on sonically and that is a testament to the grand feat of production that Jeff Lynne and company have pulled off. Can you possibly expect anything less with a cover like this?
In an album so jam packed with excellent songs, I'm finding it a little difficult to single out a few standouts. Turn to Stone gets the album to a rollicking start; wasting no time in getting the party going. One of my absolute favorite ELO songs follows shortly thereafter: the gem that is Sweet Talkin' Woman. There is a lot of good here; an infectious chorus, playful strings, perfect background vocals, and one of my favorite musical moments on the entire record. At the the 3:13 mark most of the instruments drop out and only vocals and the beat remain and, man!, does it just get me every time. And the goods keep coming. Starlight's shimmering vocals and synths, Jungle's awesomely shamble-y nonsense chorus ('Chooka chooka koo la ley.' It's right up there with 'Ob-la-di Ob-la-da'), and Sweet is the Night's heartbreakingly gorgeous refrain prove time and again the ELO are a musical force to be reckoned with. And if all this wasn't enough, we still have Mr. Blue Sky waiting for us. Mr. Blue Sky is in a rare category of song that I never tire of hearing, I never tire of singing along to it, and even though I've heard it a hundred times, I still find new little corners in the production to explore. It's new every time and it's arguably the best song that Electric Light Orchestra ever recorded.
As with the great majority of double albums, there is some chaff amongst the wheat. With seventeen tracks there are bound to be some that just don't live up to the high standards of the songs surrounding them. Thankfully, no real clunkers are present, just a couple of tunes that don't really add anything special to the mix. The first, Across the Border, comes at the end of the first side and after the previously mentioned brilliant, Sweet Talkin' Woman. Though featuring some interesting production and horns, it's just a little too much of a paint-by-numbers rock number for me. The other bump in the road comes near the end of the record on the fourth (and overall weakest) side of the album. Birmingham Blues is another song that just plays it a little too safe for my liking; with a dime-a-dozen blues rock riff during the verses. But both of these songs are still a treat to listen to thanks to Jeff Lynne's production and instrumentation choices; always giving your ear something new to latch onto.
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| Hair. Hair everywhere. |
If you are new to the wonders of Electric Light Orchestra, 'Out of the Blue' represents an excellent starting point, but also an excellent next step if you've worn through your greatest hits compilation. While perhaps too glossy and shiny for some, the wonderful songs found on 'Out of the Blue' are a strong argument for the importance of fun and whimsy in music. Big hair, big melodies, and big production may seem a tad silly or cheesy to some; but it is hard to care when it's all so goldarn fun. Grit and grime and gloom and doom have their places but sometimes the answer is simply singing along to the chorus of Mr. Blue Sky.
The Breakdown:
Stand-Outs: Turn to Stone, Sweet Talkin' Woman, Starlight, Jungle, Summer and Lightning, Mr. Blue Sky, Sweet is the Night
Let-Downs: Across the Border, Birmingham Blues
Rating: 9/10
Up Next: Moving from 1977 to 1986 for the next record selection. The Smiths are a band that I've been familiar with for a long time and even quite familiar with a number of their songs. But I'm confessing to you all now: I've never listened to their most acclaimed record 'The Queen is Dead' front-to-back before. I know. For shame. My musical cred is dropping by the second. So I'm going to remedy this gross oversight by spending some quality time with Morrissey and Marr for the next two weeks. And as always, please feel free to comment with your thoughts and let me know if you have any record suggestions. See you in a bit!
Reggae is so much more than Bob Marley. I don't mean anything snarky or antagonistic by this statement. Bob Marley is an one-of-kind artist who put the music of a third world country on the global stage to be enjoyed by millions, if not billions, of people. He is one of my favorite artists and has released some of my favorite albums of all time. His songs have become part of the musical tapestry of the world and he will endure in the minds of many people as a true legend and pioneer in music. He deserves it; Bob Marley completely and totally rules. But unfortunately for many people, reggae equals Bob Marley; full stop. And that is shame to me because some much more worthwhile and rich reggae music exists beyond the Marley-sphere. Bob Marley is a perfect and essential starting point in exploring reggae as a genre, but there is so much more out there as my own quest into reggae (and this week's record) has taught me. Whether its Peter Tosh or The Congos or Burning Spear or Culture or Toots & The Maytals or Black Uhuru, an embarrassment of riches exists within the genre and its always exciting when I discover another record that furthers my love of reggae.
'King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown' is one of the those reggae records that really dug its claws into me this past week and made me remember why I love reggae so much (The record is also known as 'King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown' due to a misprint on the original sleeve adding that extra 's'). It also served as a nice introduction to dub music which is a sub-genre within reggae that I have spent much time with thus far. What is dub, you ask? Well, dear readers, in the late 60s dub began simply as instrumental versions of reggae singles placed on the b-side of those singles. Shortly thereafter, producers began doing more to the tracks than simply just stripping out the vocals and reducing the track to drums and bass. They started adding effects to these b-side dubs like echoes, delays, and reverb to give each track its own unique feel apart from the single, as well as to put their own producer stamp on it. These quickly caught on in dance-halls throughout Jamaica because it allowed the DJ of the night to add his own vocals ("toasting" they called it) over the dub track creating an entirely new experience from night to night. This "toasting" is seen by many as one of the many precursors that lead to the formation of rap & hip-hop in the late 70s. By 1973, thanks to pioneers on the mixing board like Errol Thompson, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Osbourne "King Tubby" Ruddock, and others, dub was a fully realized sub-genre within reggae. Producers became musicians themselves and the sound board was treated as an instrument; no longer relegated to straight forward sound mixing. Dub quickly moved from being confined to b-sides to having full length LPs of pure dub tracks.
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| King Tubby |
Though credited to Augustus Pablo, 'King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown' is a sort of meeting of the minds of a few big players in the reggae/dub world of the 70s; featuring all-star reggae players like Robbie Shakespeare on bass and Augustus Pablo himself who helped put the melodica on the map as a legitimate instrument in reggae music. Both Pablo and King Tubby handle producing/mixing duties on the LP and the results are simply magical; especially when you consider that this was made in 1976, completely analog and without any of the help that modern digital recording brings. It's a true testament to the record that the wonderfully foggy, nebulous, and bass-heavy production makes these songs seem effortless; as if they are simply popping into existence as I'm listening to them.
What struck me over and over again as I listened to the LP this week was just how well-crafted this record is and how well it works on multiple listening "levels". On the one hand, 'King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown' is a perfect album to throw on your choice of player, kick back, and just let the music and sounds wash over you. But alternatively, it's also a record that really rewards active listening with subtle production effects and sounds that you may not catch otherwise; like when you discover the weird, scraping-echoey-something on Skanking Dub is actually an extremely muffled, delayed, and distorted guitar strum. This only adds to the depth and re-playability of the album for me. The record is a totally immersive experience from the first bass thump and drum kick of the opening track, Keep On Dubbing, to the expansive closer Satta Dub; and at 31 brief minutes the record never overstays its welcome. As vocals echo and melodica melodies fade in and out and hazy rhythms are built, Pablo and Tubby display track after track the transportive power of music to really put the listener in another mindset. Truly awesome stuff.
As with all records after multiple listens, favorites begin to form in my mind as well as tracks which don't quite gel with me. 'King Tubby Meets...' is a record with very few flaws and the flaws that I find are mainly that of my own personal preference. Tracks like 555 Street Dub and Brace's Tower Dub No. 2 are wonderful in and of themselves but when held up to the high standards that surround them, I feel like Augustus Pablo and King Tubby could have pushed the production just a bit more and given them that extra edge. They just seem a little plain or even tame when compared to the out-there dub stylings of the stand-outs on the LP and they keep 'King Tubby Meets...' from being a truly perfect record in my eyes.
In a record full of stand outs, a couple tracks stand head and shoulders above the rest for me. The first being Each One Dub, which is one of the few tracks of the record to incorporate vocals into its production. But here they are used as merely another effect, another coat of hazy paint on Pablo's and Tubby's dub tapestry. My favorite moment on the whole record comes when the vocals, in one of the few intelligible lines, sing, "Tomorrow might not be the same-say-say-say-say-say" and that last half of the word "same is drawn out and reverb-ed into the stratosphere. Oooh, its great. The title track, King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown, is probably the best overall track on the record and probably the first place I would point someone interested in hearing first-hand what dub music is. It's an education all unto itself.
So if reggae is new territory to you, first, go out and purchase Bob Marley's 'Legend' and once you have worn that out, you could find few better albums to follow it up with than 'King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown'. Putting this record on and just letting my mind wander and relax has been an absolute joy and pleasure and I can only hope that a few of you will go out and seek the wonders that Augustus Pablo and King Tubby have brewed up for you. A truly, truly enchanting and out-of-this-world album that deserves its place in dub and reggae history along with a place on every music lover's shelf.
The Breakdown:
Stand-Outs: King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown, Each One Dub, Satta Dub
Let-Downs (but not really): 555 Street Dub, Brace's Tower Dub No. 2
Rating: 9.5/10
Up Next: We are heading into the present day this week with a 2013 release that I have been hearing nothing but positive buzz about: Chvrches (pronounced 'churches') debut album 'The Bones of What You Believe.' Time for some synthpop goodness!
I've been enjoying my time with Augustus Pablo/King Tubby and their reggae-dub stylings thus far this week. Dub is a hard thing to explain so I thought I would share with you one of my current favorites, Each One Dub, from 'King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown' so you can get a little taste of the spacious, wonder I've been enjoying the past couple day. Great music to get lost in.
