Who: Legendary Irish rock group led by the late greatPhil Lynott
who passed away following a heroin overdose in 1986, he was
only 36. After his death, the band continued to play live, but
didn’t produce new music.
Album: JAILBREAK
Their 6th. Released on 26 March 1976,
today 50 years ago.
AllMusic said in retrospect: “A truly exceptional album with a dimension
of richness that sustains, but there’s such kinetic energy to the band that
it still sounds immediate no matter how many times it’s played”.
Californian heavyweight rockers VAN HALEN (1972–1999, 2003–2020)
scored their first No. 1 album in the US with their 7th, named 5150.
It topped the charts on 24 March 1986, today 40 yearsago.
It was the first of 4 LPs with red rocker Sammy Hagar on vocals,
replacing David Lee Roth, who left to pursue a solo career. He
would return in 2007.
Many called the new incarnation Van Hagar. The nickname was so ubiquitous that,
as Hagar later pointed out in a book, record label Warner Bros asked to consider
renaming the band as such. The Van Halen brothers refused.
The LP’s artwork features an Art Deco depiction ofAtlas
kneeling while holding a mirror-polished metallic sphere
on his shoulders.
Rolling Stone‘s verdict: “Part of Eddie Van Halen’s cheeky genius lies in his ability to think in terms of both complex orchestration and rock banalities. Eddie can still split the atom with his axe, and he knows it. It’s a Van Halen world with or without David Lee Roth, and 5150 shoots off all the bombastic fireworks of a band at the peak of its powers.”
The mighty King released his rock-game-changing, self-named debut LP
on March 23, 1956, today 70 years ago. OMG, 70! This sounds so unreal.
The album spent ten weeks at Number One on the Billboard Top Pop Albums Chart,
the first rock and roll album ever to make it to the top of the charts, and the first
million-selling album of that genre. It also topped the UK Charts.
41 more LPs (compilations not included) would follow.
Back sleeve
The photograph of Elvis on the front cover was taken
at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory in Tampa, Florida
in 1955.
The LP’s graphic styling and photo were also used on
an EP and a double-EP comprising songs from this LP,
also released in March 1956.
The design was echoed by several other artists such
as The Clash for their 1979 double masterpiece album London Calling.
Band: YEAH YEAH YEAHS Who: Alt-rock trio from New York,
fronted by the gorgeous Karen O.
Album: SHOW YOUR BONES – 2nd full-length. Released: 22 March 2006 – 20 years ago today.
Pitchfork said: “New York band follows its debut album
‘Fever to Tell’, this decade’s gold standard for transcending
indie hype, with a record that offers only one side of the
group’s multifaceted sound.”
TUTV: Seems like Pitchfork only listened to one side.
Trust me, this is a totally underrated LP.
British prog rock icons JETHRO TULL (1967–2012, 2017–present) led on one leg
by charismatic Scottish vocalist/flautist/guitarist Ian Anderson, have released their
4th LP AQUALUNG on 19 March 1971, today 55 years ago
The LP has generally been regarded as a concept album with a central theme of “the distinction between religion and God“. The album’s “dour musings on faith and religion” have marked it as “one of the most cerebral albums ever to reach millions of rock listeners“. Academic discussions of the nature of concept albums have frequently listed Aqualung amongst their number.
The album’s original cover art by Burton Silverman features a watercolour portrait
of a long-haired, bearded man in shabby clothes. The idea for the cover came from a photograph Anderson‘s wife took of a homeless man.
Anderson later felt it would have been better to have used the photograph rather than commission the painting. Also, he recalled later that he posed for a photograph for the painting.
AllMusic said in retrospect: “In the space of one album, Tull went from relatively unassuming electrified folk-rock to larger-than-life conceptual rock full of sophisticated compositions and complex, intellectual, lyrical constructs. While the leap to full-blown prog rock wouldn’t be taken until a year later on ‘Thick as a Brick’, the degree to which Tull upped the ante here is remarkable.”
HÜSKER DÜ (guitarist/vocalist Bob Mould, bassist Greg Norton, and drummer/vocalist Grant Hart) turned up the decibels between 1979 and 1988 with no less than 6 LPs.
The 5th one, named CANY APPLE GREY, came out on 17 March 1986, today 40 years ago. It was their first major label release, though Warner Bros.
Candy Apple Grey was the first Hüsker Dü album to chart on the Billboard Top 200,
but despite positive reviews, exposure with the singles on radio as well as MTV, it
only went to No. 140.
AllMusic said in retrospect: “Demonstrating that punks can mature without losing
their edge, Mould inverts the rules of conventional confessional singer/songwriter songs
with these two haunting numbers, and in doing so, he illustrates the faults with the relatively staid post-hardcore punk that dominates the remainder of the record.”
British dark-electro-pop-wave titans DEPECHE MODE, active since 1980,
released their 5th album, BLACK CELEBRATION, 40 years ago,
on 17 March 1986.
It topped the UK charts, but only went to #90 in the US.
Martyn Atkins designed the album cover, as he’d done for all of the band’s LP
covers since A Broken Frame from 1982. Originally, he had envisioned a physical
miniature building, draped in black banners and inspired by totalitarian imagery,
to be photographed.
However, the band was not happy with the original design and so the cover
was re-designed to include only a cropped, close-up of the original photograph
and they instead emphasized the logos around the image, which the band paid
to have embossed on initial pressings of the album.
The LP’s title was not a reference to Black mass or rituals of the Occult, it was meant to describe the daily boredom of a dreary life without climaxes or hope for improvement.
Martin Gore: “Our songs from Black Celebration capture the idea: Make
the most of what you have, and find consolation wherever you can.”
David Gahan: “It’s a common thing: at the end of a working day you go
out and drown your sorrows no matter how shitty you feel or how bleak your
future looks.”
NME: “Within their own parameters, Depeche Mode create a resonant, if undemonstrative techno-pop tapestry” with “a rich textured sheen that is not without a certain depth. When the songs address topics other than the composer’s state of mind, Depeche Mode sound like a lot more than just a high tech, low-life melodrama.”
British rock heroes THE WHO released their
9th LP FACE DANCES on 16 March 1981, today 45 years ago.
Despite mixed reviews, the record peaked at #4 on the
US Billboard Charts and #2 on the UK Albums Chart.
The album was originally to be titled simply The Who, but the name Face Dances
replaced it just before release. The phrase was inspired by a friend of Pete Townshend‘s who was rhythmically moving a match between her teeth, an action that Townshend jokingly termed “face dances.”
The album cover features 16 paintings of the band members by 16 British painters,
who were commissioned by Peter Blake, designer of the cover of the Beatles‘ album
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967.
French electro disco tandem DAFT PUNK released
their 2nd full-length DISCOVERY on 12 March 2001,
today 25 years ago.
The album marked a shift from the Chicago house style of their
debutHomework from 1997 to a house style more heavily inspired
by disco, post-disco, garage house, and R&B.
Thomas Bangalter (hamf of DP) described the LP as an exploration
of song structures, musical forms and childhood nostalgia, compared
to the “raw” electronic music of Homework.
Q Magazine (former reknowed British music monthly): “Discovery is vigorous
and innovative in its exploration of old questions and spent ideals. Aa towering,
persuasive tour de force that transcends the dance label with no shortage of
ideas, humour, or brilliance.’
It seems like ages ago since R.E.M. (1980-2011) was one of the greatest bands on
this planet. After 31 years and 15 LPs they went into history as a once in a lifetime
rock and pop sensation.
One of their best and most successful longplayers is, undoubtedly, their 7th one,
named OUT OF TIME. It was released today 35 years ago, on 12 March 1991.
It featured their giant hit Losing My Religion (almost 2 billion – !! – streams on Spotify).
It was the group’s first No. 1 full-length in the UK. It also topped the charts in the US
and several European countries and sold over 18 million copies worldwide.
Rolling Stone praised the record for achieving a balance between new mainstream
appeal and the band’s original identity, writing, “R.E.M. have managed to simultaneously branch out and consolidate their strengths.”
