A début album to be proud of.
Recently I came across a song on the radio, this is a little unusual as the radio station I listen to doesn't play much in the way of music. Sometimes however my radio station also drops out of reception on the way to and from work, so something being better than nothing I have to get hit search, at least for 5 minutes until the signal comes back or i'm not listening to my itunes tracks.
Unless I am lucky enough to wander into range of, Kerrang or Planet Rock then most music I hear is not particularly my 'cup of tea'. At this moment in time it was. While continuing to work and trying to remember the artist and song name so I could write it down (which ironically puts me in the minority of drivers who do actually, only drive when they get in the car, as oppose to the majority I pass on motorways, who seem to think they can; use mobiles, add make-up, read, eat pies and train dolphins to catch unicorns.)
With the task completed I returned home and 'googled' (this is now a real word!) them. They are here and they are called, Half Moon Run. They are Canadian. They are good. These two go together, Canadians & Good, musically at least. I have never come across a bad Canadian musician (No, I do not count Celine Dion as a Canadian musician for two reasons; 1) She's from Quebec (essentially, French) and 2) not a musician.
These guys are from, British Columbia (Which, ironically, could have been the name of United states of America as one of the names considered, was to name the new nation, Columbia, after the discoverer of the new world, Christopher Columbus.
I managed to listen to their début album, Dark Eyes and quite frankly it is mindblowingly good, great in fact. It is possibly the best début album I have heard in years. This then got me thinking. When you hear an amazing début album it is perhaps, to me, one of the most wonderful experiences you can have in life. That moment when you listen to something that is new and you have not heard before and it turns out to be a sonic experience that just seems into your consciousness and makes the world for that album length the best place to be as your mind is being taken to such heights that rarely get scaled frequently. It made me think of my personal favourite, debut albums. The one record that introduced me to that 'peak' experience which in a few cases hold a really close place to my heart as life altering moments. So here, I have listed them. They may not be my favourite bands (some obviously are, but the albums I love)
1 - Pearl Jam: Ten 1991
I love this band. This fact is borne out by the fact that I have travelled to a foreign country to see them perform live, because I couldn't get UK tickets and it was worth every single penny. This is only improved by the fact they then released a live album of the very night I attended, which I can now play and transport myself to that evening, experiencing one of the finest bands and frontman music has witnessed. I remember buying this album, on cassette, from Tower Records, in London, on a school trip. I then remember spending the journey back to Devon playing the life out of it on my, maroon, ALBA walkman. Every single song, even now amazes me. There is probably still a debate to be had as to whether this is still their best album, me personally? I think it may be. Which is why it's number 1. It had and still has everything I love about music. The voice, the sound, the lyrics, the different styles, passion, intelligence.
2 - Hothouse Flowers: People 1998
I absolutely love U2. They are without doubt the greatest and most commercially successful band to have been exported from the shores of Ireland. Yet, not all the record breaking statistics belong to them. In 1998, Hothouse Flowers released their début album, People. It still remains the biggest selling début album by an Irish artist, in Ireland. It was a tough choice as to whether this was number 1. In the end, I gave it to Ten, as Pearl Jam are just so hugely important to me still. But this album, with its softness and vocal
provided by Liam Ó Maonlaí combines, with some wonderful lyrics to produce something that is just so blindingly good.
3 - Kate Bush: The Kick Inside 1978
A true love if ever there was one, is the artist who released this in 1978, Kate Bush. Almost perfect in its entirety; it spawned some of her iconic hits; 'Wuthering Heights', 'The man with the child in his eyes', 'Them heavy people'. I first fell in love with Kate Bush's music with the release of, 'running up that hill', only later did an ex-girlfriend introduce this album to me. It literally knocked me off my feet by it's sheer scale. And it must always be remembered that Kate Bush was only, 19 years old when this album came out and had written some of the songs from the age of 13. Some of the songs are so sexually mature that for a 19 year old it is astonishingly grown up. It also has a lovely homage to James Bond, in 'James and the cold gun'. Kate Bush's influence on female singer songwriters cannot be overstated enough, her particularly English style is essentially a continuation in the quirkiness of artists like, PJ Harvey & Tori Amos.
4 - Jeff Buckley: Grace 1994
The saddest entry here as Jeff Buckley only ever had a début album. Released in 1994 he then drowned in 1997 having not released another. The hardest part is having listened to Grace, you realise just how much great music he may well have gone onto making over the last 20 years. His impact was such that rolling stone magazine considered him one of the greatest singers of all time. Taken at the age of 30 proved a terrible shame for those who love good music and left a huge what if? behind. He took an old Leonard Cohen track, Hallelujah and made it his own, bettering the original. He left behind one album, but it was quite an album and will always be one of my favourites though always tinged with sadness when listening.
5 - Coldplay: Parachutes 2000
Remove the front man and all the hilarious outside interests and focus on the music and, Parachutes released in 2000 is perhaps one of the best first albums in the last 20 years, possibly longer. It arrived when British music was struggling; the once mighty, Radiohead had disappeared up their own bottoms following the titanic OK Computer and a huge vacuum existed and Coldplay, filled it with this. It is majestic. It is the best thing they ever did. I had no interest in the following albums as they just churned out identikit music. Yet, the first, the original was so fresh at the time. It really was ground breaking. There was nothing else like them on the music scene at the time. Ignoring, Yellow that has been played to death and is also not even the closest to being the best album on the CD. There was no weakness in it.
6 - Portishead: Dummy 1994
One of my most favourite bands arrived in the very year I turned 18, found beer amongst other pleasures and provided the soundtrack to most of that year with their album, Dummy. The sonic foundations of Geoff Barrow and Adrain Utley were good, what made them great was that magic final ingredient, Beth Gibbons who possessed a voice divine. Almost sounding from a smoke filled 1920/30's cabaret age, it took the sound and turned the lyrics into something extraordinary. A voice above all other female voices outside of opera, yet her total reservation about few interviews, no TV, total recluse adds to the enigma of how good she truly was. They reformed for Glastonbury last year. I watched the set, they were still the best thing there by a country mile.
7 - Skunk Anasie: Paranoid and Sunburnt 1995
Providing some of the hits of 1995 off of this album, such as 'weak' & 'Charity' which became all enveloping, the début album is so much better than the commercially popular singles. They were so much more than that; They broke the ground with an aggressive lyrical and musical style and leading this was a black female named Skin, with an incredible voice and a huge amount of wonderful attitude to rip the world apart and it is found in every song. They recently reformed again.
Of course, there are plenty of other artists who I really enjoy, such as the Beatles, U2 and Led Zeppelin, INXS for example that are far superior to quite a few bands named here, but that isn't really the point out of those bands I would only really argue that they grew into the bands they became over a long period. Some of these bands above really only had the incredible first album and struggled to defeat the second album syndrome. These are just albums that really stood out as first albums that made you sit up and take notice.
And while I originally started this about a band called, Half Moon Run. There is another pretty new couple of bands I would hat tip towards; those are Deap Valley and Warpaint continuing the evidence building that I have a huge weakness for female singer/songwriter/bands, except Madonna & Garbage!
provided by Liam Ó Maonlaí combines, with some wonderful lyrics to produce something that is just so blindingly good.
3 - Kate Bush: The Kick Inside 1978
A true love if ever there was one, is the artist who released this in 1978, Kate Bush. Almost perfect in its entirety; it spawned some of her iconic hits; 'Wuthering Heights', 'The man with the child in his eyes', 'Them heavy people'. I first fell in love with Kate Bush's music with the release of, 'running up that hill', only later did an ex-girlfriend introduce this album to me. It literally knocked me off my feet by it's sheer scale. And it must always be remembered that Kate Bush was only, 19 years old when this album came out and had written some of the songs from the age of 13. Some of the songs are so sexually mature that for a 19 year old it is astonishingly grown up. It also has a lovely homage to James Bond, in 'James and the cold gun'. Kate Bush's influence on female singer songwriters cannot be overstated enough, her particularly English style is essentially a continuation in the quirkiness of artists like, PJ Harvey & Tori Amos.
4 - Jeff Buckley: Grace 1994
The saddest entry here as Jeff Buckley only ever had a début album. Released in 1994 he then drowned in 1997 having not released another. The hardest part is having listened to Grace, you realise just how much great music he may well have gone onto making over the last 20 years. His impact was such that rolling stone magazine considered him one of the greatest singers of all time. Taken at the age of 30 proved a terrible shame for those who love good music and left a huge what if? behind. He took an old Leonard Cohen track, Hallelujah and made it his own, bettering the original. He left behind one album, but it was quite an album and will always be one of my favourites though always tinged with sadness when listening.
5 - Coldplay: Parachutes 2000
Remove the front man and all the hilarious outside interests and focus on the music and, Parachutes released in 2000 is perhaps one of the best first albums in the last 20 years, possibly longer. It arrived when British music was struggling; the once mighty, Radiohead had disappeared up their own bottoms following the titanic OK Computer and a huge vacuum existed and Coldplay, filled it with this. It is majestic. It is the best thing they ever did. I had no interest in the following albums as they just churned out identikit music. Yet, the first, the original was so fresh at the time. It really was ground breaking. There was nothing else like them on the music scene at the time. Ignoring, Yellow that has been played to death and is also not even the closest to being the best album on the CD. There was no weakness in it.
6 - Portishead: Dummy 1994
One of my most favourite bands arrived in the very year I turned 18, found beer amongst other pleasures and provided the soundtrack to most of that year with their album, Dummy. The sonic foundations of Geoff Barrow and Adrain Utley were good, what made them great was that magic final ingredient, Beth Gibbons who possessed a voice divine. Almost sounding from a smoke filled 1920/30's cabaret age, it took the sound and turned the lyrics into something extraordinary. A voice above all other female voices outside of opera, yet her total reservation about few interviews, no TV, total recluse adds to the enigma of how good she truly was. They reformed for Glastonbury last year. I watched the set, they were still the best thing there by a country mile.
7 - Skunk Anasie: Paranoid and Sunburnt 1995
Providing some of the hits of 1995 off of this album, such as 'weak' & 'Charity' which became all enveloping, the début album is so much better than the commercially popular singles. They were so much more than that; They broke the ground with an aggressive lyrical and musical style and leading this was a black female named Skin, with an incredible voice and a huge amount of wonderful attitude to rip the world apart and it is found in every song. They recently reformed again.
Of course, there are plenty of other artists who I really enjoy, such as the Beatles, U2 and Led Zeppelin, INXS for example that are far superior to quite a few bands named here, but that isn't really the point out of those bands I would only really argue that they grew into the bands they became over a long period. Some of these bands above really only had the incredible first album and struggled to defeat the second album syndrome. These are just albums that really stood out as first albums that made you sit up and take notice.
And while I originally started this about a band called, Half Moon Run. There is another pretty new couple of bands I would hat tip towards; those are Deap Valley and Warpaint continuing the evidence building that I have a huge weakness for female singer/songwriter/bands, except Madonna & Garbage!
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