this alien year end list 2011

ALBUMS

 

1 mirrors - lights and offerings: this is the album that caused the most excitement for me this year. the band teased very effectively for months leading up to the release (demos, EPs, a video here, new track there). can't say enough how much i love this album, and really hope they get on the road here in the states before too long (and before anymore members leave the group).

2 monarchy - around the sun: still loving this one everytime a track comes up on shuffle. they recently started teasing bonus tracks, as well, encouraging me to buy the hardcopy CD.

3 the sound of arrows - voyage: love.

4 beirut - the riptide: the only reason devotchka's 100 lovers didn't make the list.

5 moby - destroyed: very lush, very moby, very worth checking out.

SINGLES

1 blondie - "horizontal twist": okay, it wasn't actually a single, but it's the track that makes me play my [music device] the loudest. sounds more like debbie harry's last solo album, rather than a bonus track from one edition of blondie's panic album. (three non-US editions of the album included six different bonus tracks, some of which should have been on the album, like this one.)

2 patrick wolf - "together": love the song, love the keyboards, love the fox-wrapped video.

3 waylayers - "hear no lies": i want to hear more from these guys, looking forward to an album release.

4 the vaccines - "if you wanna": the greatest song intro in recent years; the album was not a disappointment.

5 the sound of arrows - "and beyond": b-side instrumental track that really struck a chord.

6 creature - "so high": should have made these guys into some sort of superstars.

EVENTS

1 blondie - panic of girls: really don't need to post anymore about this release and tour. just glad it finally, FINALLY, came about.

2 psychedelic furs - talk talk tour: i'd never seen the furs until this year. so nice to see veterans playing energetic shows for adoring fans.

3 val emmich & the veeries - aide memoire kickstarter campaign: val and his band gathered funding for this gorgeous album from the fans via kickstarter. the campaign gave contributors an inside look in the making of the album, with lots of extra goodies, depending on one's contribution level. every band who values their fans (as much as val does) should do this (for the fans) at least once, and not just out of desperation for funding.

OLDIES DOING THEMSELVES WELL

all of the following released strong albums that were consistent with what the casual fan would expect, and generally reinforced the fact that the 80's was the greatest decade.

1 the cars - move like this

2 duran duran - all you need is now

3 alphaville - catching rays on giant

4 R.E.M. - collapse into now

5 lindsey buckingham - seeds we sow

6 new york dolls - dancing backward in high heels

REDISCOVERIES

1 human league - hysteria: the comeback album that (only kind of) disappointed was the league's credo (it has its moments!), but that disappointment did send me back to re-listen to their classic stuff.

2 hambi & the dance - heartache: bargain bin find in the 1980's, that i liked well enough, sounds more relevant today than it did then. (didn't know of the relationship to a flock of seagulls until several months after i initially purchased it.)

3 go-go's - beauty and the beat: everyone knows this one, of course. i don't know what took me back to it again a few weeks ago. immense love for it, though.

4 laura branigan - the platinum collection: so here's the deal: i'm not a huge fan of branigan, though i found her death a couple years ago sort of affecting. this collection really shows how bad musical arrangements could be back then...one wishes that someone would give these songs a new layer of instrumentals to give her songs the chance they deserve.

5 annabel lamb - the flame: another bargain bin find in the 80's; nice to hear this old friend again this year.

ANTICIPATING

1 adam ant - tour stop, new album feb 2012.

2 waylayers new album?

3 new mackintosh braun

4ummm...

last.fm profile

this illustrates the top played bands in my listening history on last.fm. absolutely no surprises here, i suppose.

adam ant returns?

looks like adam ant's comeback is actually going to happen, after all...some touring now, and the new album coming up next month!


and here's an article with some appreciation for what once was. the money shot:

Ant’s multi-million selling number ones Stand and Deliver and Prince Charming are rarely played on radio, outside of 80s stations and have never been given the X Factor cover version treatment.

They are utterly unique creations, stemming from a single-minded belief that pop music should be exciting, dramatic, flash, a bit bonkers and with memorable tunes attached.

adam ant - made of money

dinner with adam

dita von teese wrote:

'I just had dinner with Adam Ant, he's in full Westwood regalia,& he's brilliant! Isn't it grand when your idols exceed your expectations?'

grand, indeed!

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1331630/Dita-Von-Teese-glorious-geisha-kimono-doesnt-stay-long.html#ixzz15ynbrug7

adam ant - friend or foe

has a day off work today (and tomorrow, thank you war veterans), and so i'm revisiting a classic from my very late adolescence, adam ant's friend or foe.

the album's very first notes are a sort of jumble of warming up trumpet and sax, then jumps right into the first of 12 nonstop rhythm-heavy songs that. all the tracks make up one very comprehensive whole, with not a dub among them.

i guess the lyrics are all very personal for a somehow fantastically successful, yet bitter, popstar. we all know the road has been difficult for mr ant the past twenty years or so, but at this time in his life, was stardom so difficult?

as for myself, when this album came out, i was a young, closeted gay at BYU, who found that an interest in british new wave popstars was a good way to meet the nicest young men on campus.

anyway...my favorites: desperate but not serious, here comes the grump. and i have no problem with the doors' cover, hello, i love you.

sidenote: sounds like adam is recovering from his recent meltdown, and might even get back to finishing off that album that was supposed to come out earlier this year. fingers are crossed.

mentoring

i find it awesome that after all, adam still speaks highly of his mentor, malcolm mclaren.

"he gave me an education. and then he told me about the construction of pop music...he'd throw 5,000 ideas at you, and you'd catch three of them; but those three of them could change history. that's, to me, i took it."

via adam-ant.net

the quietus: adam ant interview

massive adam ant interview at the Quietus

"I just don't like fucking Mr Bono. (Does an Irish accent) 'Every time I click my fingers, an African dies.' Well, stop clicking your fucking fingers, then!"

The Quietus | Features | A Quietus Interview | A Wild Nobility: An Adam Ant Exclusive By Simon Price

bunny

adam ant hits the news once again, dribbling out little bits of album news. really nice to hear he's recording a tribute to malcolm mclaren, his onetime mentor. the quietus (who are they?) posts the following:

The B-side, meanwhile, will be 'Goofy Bunny', which Ant describes as "like a lullaby" a tribute to the late Malcolm McLaren.

...

He added that he had no resentment toward McLaren for using the original members off his Ants backing back to form Bow Wow Wow. "I was sore, but not with Malcolm," Ant explained. "It wasn’t Malcolm who betrayed me. It was Dave (Barbarossa), Matthew (Ashman) and Leigh (Gorman). I’d only known Leigh for 10 minutes and I was pissed off because he was the best bass player I’ve ever fucking seen, still is."

always good to read compliments between former coworkers, instead of bitterness.

regarding the "bunny" track: that was a demo during the recording of prince charming, and can be heard here:


adam & the ants - who's a goofy bunny then


several years later, adam released a reworking of the track on his album, strip:


adam ant - libertine

i'm looking forward to hearing it anew.
and in other WTF news: muse is coming to my area on their re-tour of north america...but they're booked at a casino? i've seen shows at this venue, and it's fine and all...but muse should totally do arena shows. only.

adam ant

i don't know who this holy moly site is run by, but if they break news like this, i'm all about them:

And we can also exclusively reveal that [Adam Ant is] recording again, for the first time in 16 years.

and to celebrate, here's a favorite track from the good old days:


miss thing, adam and the ants

adam ant / & the ants

dear project leader:

this alien won't rehash a thousand other online articles re adam and his career and / or life, but report that a previous project to which i was assigned, living on this planet during the 1980's, made the subsequent projects / decades somewhat...disappointing. adam perfectly encapsulated all that was right about the decade's pop:

1. clever characterization
   
2. costuming and makeup just crazy enough to intrigue, yet not require full buy-in
   
3. a catchy, well-delivered, rhythm-heavy sound with
   
4. lyrics that tip to the "IS" end of the "is he or isn't he" scale
   
5. integrity of pop with enough bite to be recalled fondly almost 30 years later.

this alien's "college years" project: of course he'd heard of adam and the ants, but didn't really have the opportunity to view them. (early 80's midwest US media outlets were few, and most were afraid to venture off the shores of the states.) somehow, "friend or foe" hit the mainstream, and then this alien remembered he HAD heard adam and crew for a few years...but always in the back, not foreground, and the search was on to catch up. to really unplug the jukebox.

every record became a favorite and every image studied repeatedly. because there was something there that was so...alien. yet so...embraceable.

it's true this alien is on a different set of tasks now...but popping adam into the player transports this alien to a media era that made a memorable, unrepeatable yet again desired, impression.

(but empire of the sun are making a worthy attempt at repeating that impression.)

adam and the ants - antmusic.