Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

Now the astute readers may be saying to themselves hmmn.....didn't this album come out in 1979, and isn't it called Metal Box? Well you'd be a hundred percent right. The only problem is Metal Box literally came in a metal box and was made of four vinyl discs, so I've never listened to it, and most people my age have instead heard this version re-realeased one year later named Second Edtion. So I've decided to included it as an eighties record because this is one of the definitive post-punk records. One of the biggest departures from the seventies era defining punk sound. Welcome to the new generation, the new sound, the new decade, welcome to death disco. You have to give it to John Lydon after setting the world on fire in the 70s with Never Mind The Bollocks he then took a huge departure and brought us the greatest avante guard punk album of all time. Opening with the 10 minute long Albratross it was positively evil dance music with a killer wobbly baseline and some incredible guitar work while Lydon haunting wailed away, it was different, it was challenging and best of all it was groovy as fuck. Jah Wobbles should be considered one of the greatest bassists of all time, listening to Second Edition its staggering ever single track is built on the back of these huge irresistable bass lines. It's worth looking around for a good version of this record online as the basslines have been terribly muted on some MP3s. Keith Levene's gorgeous sliding guitar is another highlight a huge contrast to Matlock's Sex Pistols work. While Pil will never be considered as influencial as the Sex Pistol in Second Edition they spawned one of the boldest and most creative records in rock and roll history. A Giant leap forward.

So how do you top Zen Arcade the then career defining album, that accross twenty three tracks did whatever the hell it wanted with remarkable creative brilliance. Well you tighten up, make the album more concise (a plutry 15 tracks by comparision) and you set about launching a vital punk assault. New Day Rising forgoes the punk asthetic slightly, it has a big pretentious cover, the songs on this album actually sound as if a producer has got to grips with them but fear not none of the pace, fury or bounce has been lost. Instead the all encompassing powers of Husker Du have been channelled into short sharp brilliant tracks. Now don't get me wrong Husker Du haven't transformed into Blink 182 your gonna have to look long and hard to get through the waves of disortion and studio fuzz, this is still a gritty punk record. After a rather take it or leave it album opener, New Day Rising suddenly bursts into life with unrelenting rock of Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill and then the goregoues melodic rocker I Apologise. Looking back now you kind of feel bad for Husker Du they get all the creative critical acclaim while ten years later when the world was truly ready Green Day took their formula gave it the whiny teen sheen and turned it into a globe straddling phenominon. Listening back to Celebrated Summer you can't help but think what could have been. When it comes to rock and roll history make sure that when you talk about The Pixies, Dinosaur Jnr. and Sonic Youth, remember to throw Husker Du into the mix, they've more than earnt it.

Now the more astute among my readers, yes those of you who knew that Second Edition was really a re-release of an album from 1979, they will surely point out that this is not an album of original materiel. This is a live album, and not just any live album, it's the live album that is the soundtrack to a movie, a movie which is a concert movie, that concert being of course a Talking Heads concert. Okay so why does a live album make the cut? Is Stop Making Sense the best live cd you'll ever hear? Probably not I could imagine better live cds, most of Iron Maiden's spring to mind. However it is stacked from top to bottom with stone cold classic tracks and it's a darn good performance. You may wonder why things sound a little odd, well to answer this question you need to watch the movie Stop Making Sense quite simply the greatest concert film of all time ever. It's not even close, it set the tone for the genre and as a result Stop Making Sense was a landmark album, it stayed in the charts for two years! It's the only Talking Heads album to manage this feat which staggering considering how great the Talking Heads were. The concert was shot superbly but the film and the record is carried by the performance of David Byrne my choice for the greatest front man of all time, he has this nervous energy, you just can't take your eyes of him. A revolutionary record, the concert record these days is a necessarily evil, back in '85 it was an artistic statement.

Okay do you know one thing I regret more than anything else in my musical life? That I didn't go to see Leonard Cohen on his recent and possibly last tour. You may be wondering why I didn't go, well consider this; have you ever tried to say the sentance "hey wanna go see Leonard Cohen?" to a bunch of twenty year olds, it's impossible to force those words out of your mouth. Then I thought okay I'll ask my mum she likes Leonard Cohen and of course by then it had sold out. So I thought no worry I'll sit back and enjoy his performance at Glastonbury on the telly, well no the BBC wouldn't or couldn't show it? Seriously what a pain in the arse. So why did I tell you this story, I'm not sure, maybe I'm just venting, but maybe it's because I'm Your Man is so mind bogglingly awesome that I simple had to see Leonard perform it live.

The album kicks off with First We'll Take Manhatten arguably Cohen's second most famous song (behind the obvious) and it kicks like a mule (for a Cohen track) the lyricism is anthemic and awesome. It's musical sloganeering at its best "You Loved Me As A Loser / Now Your Woried That I Might Just Win / You Know The Way To Stop Me / But You Don't Have The Discipline". With lyrics that cool no wonder every band walking the face of the earth wants to have a crack at covering it. I'm Your Man was Cohen's bold leap forward bringing the big arrangements and most noticably some keyboards, but unlike the rest of his eighties cohorts he avoids the cheese factor. Cohen's voice is as seductively nilhistic as ever especially on the stand out Everybody Knows. Cohen's voice is perfect on this record, the shrug and sigh which marks the end of his lines are just sublime, the ultimate apethic despair love record.

So no compound word sends me running to the hills like the dreaded term Double-Album. When you think of double album the terms that normal come to mind are pompous, bloated, overstretched, repetitive and pretentious, and lets face it most of them are just self indulgent bollocks. So could Prince pull it off? Could he fuck, of course he could, the most multi-talented genius of his time simply could not fail at anything, expect failing of course, kind of like Gomez Adams. The big rumour in the lead up to this album was that Prince was going to get serious, talk about politics and socail issues and those fears were borne out with first single Sign 'o The Times. Showing off Prince's serious side and it didn't take a genius to figure out that AIDs was a theme on this album, however it was a small theme. This wasn't Prince's serious album, this was still a sticky sexy funky groovy album. Prince was showing off all his skills he'd talk about abadoned children on one hand and then launch into the mega eighties funk of Hot Thing, If I Was Your Girl and of course the brilliantly ever so eighties sexathon of You Got The Look. You can never quite tell whether Prince is self indulgent or just having a laugh at our expense, whatever your opinion it matters little, because this album is just wall to wall genius, pop songs like Strange Relationships simply cannot be denied. As much as I'm pleased at contemporary pop's revival you feel that we'll never see another talent like Prince again. This album showed off all of Prince's skills expect one, this was Prince the god of sexy bass, Prince the guitar God was yet to come. I have never seen this album get a review lower than 5/5 or 10/10, and I can't say I wish to buck that trend, not in the slightest.