Michael Jackson - Black or White

The crowned prince of pop, Michael Jackson has had... let's just say... a little bit of a successful pop career. He's become one of the most famous figures in the world, and his face is perhaps the most easily unidentifiable (for many obvious reasons). Tracks such as Billie Jean, Beat It, Thriller... the list is endless even when we don't include his hits in the fantastic Jackson 5!) In the years before his death, Jackson was plagued with allegations that he was a card carrying member of the Gary Glitter fan club, but this blog is not here to discuss somebody's perverse sex life, it's here to talk about the hypocrisy of releasing a song stating 'It Doesnt' matter if you're black or white' whilst selecting your own skin colour from a Dulux paint chart.
Ok, ok, It's not! I'll just talk about the song. Happy now? Got it.

Side A is Black Or White, starting with some sound effects before locking into the Prince-like groove, a funky beat and Michael comes in singing. It repeats itself, like, it's quite a boring song to be honest. The groove is not enough to carry itself over constant repetitions like a P-Funk groove. We get a bit of a harder electric section and rap by Bill Bottrell, but it's all superficial, and just feels like jumping on the trend. This really is a sign of the times, where jacko had become a parody of himself, and this song really doesn't hold well when compared to tracks like Beat It or Thriller.

Side B is an instrumental version, and to be honest, it just really emphasises how musically boring this track is, and without a proper solid groove, it's even hard to dance to. Nothing more to say really.

This is Michael Jackson trying to take Prince on, but without the intelligence or carisma of the man's music. It comes out as shallow, superficial and just extremely boring. Jacko had achieved such great heights in the eighties, but after you reach the mountain's peak, the only way is down, and Jacko seemed to have banged on a couple of rocks on his way down(musically speaking... though it would explain away his need for surgery!) I would say it's one of Michael's worst songs... but then I remember The Earth Song, and (shudder) Scream, and I think again.

COMPILATION SPECIAL #2!

ok, so here's three more groovy compilation albums, today with a more electic taste. I think we can say that these compilation specials occur when I wake up with a hangover! I need proper focus for a regular review, but these are short and sweet.
Today's involve Daevid Allen, Funkadelic and Miles Davis:

Daevid Allen: The Man From Gong The best Of Daevid Allen

Daevid Allen is widely regarded as a musical genius, and rightfully so. From Soft Machine to Gong to a successful solo career and collaborations with Acid Mothers Temple, Daevid has never stopped experimenting and playing with his own unique world of music. This little CD serves as an excellent introduction to the man, with highlight tracks such as Floatin' Anarchy (with Planet Gong), Why Do We Treat Ourselves Like We Do, and the post-punk excitement of Pearls and Bananareggae, you'll get a glimpse at an eccentric genius from another planet. His discography is vast, and you should all dive in!

Funkadelic: You Got The Funk We Got The Funk

2 CDs of pure Funkadelic, what can go wrong? Featuring trademark tracks One Nation Under A Groove, Electric Spanking Of War Babies and Maggot Brain, you know this disc is for true funksters only. George Clinton propelled Funk into a new territory during funkadelic's early albums in the seventies, and this sampler shows us the more refined P-Funk sound of the second half of that decade, grooves in total control, and an excellent tightness in the playing, whilst still staying true to the mothership. Also included are two instrumental versions of previously mentioned tracks, which are just perfect for sampling or backing tracks for jams. A good introduction to these crazy mothas.

Miles Davis: The Very Best Of Miles Davis The Warner Bros. Sessions 1985 - 1991

It's a widely held (and widely inaccurate) opinion, that Miles Davis' eighties work is cold, clinical and lacks the emotion and skill of his previous work. This is a total fallacy. Here we have a true artist going against the contemporary jazz scene (which became dominated by the 'mouldy figs' such as Wynton Marsalis, during the eighties, and still stays true to this day) and carrying on experimenting. Hip Hop production techniques brought Davis down to a real street level, enigmatic playing brought a new unease to his music, and his rendition of Time After Time turns a good pop song into a truely emotive jazz standard, and one of my favourite recordings of all time. Pure emotion that literally brings me to tears everytime I hear it. Tracks such as Chocolate Chip, Mystery, Amandla and Summertime show how Miles took jazz in new and exciting directions whilst also creating new interpretations of classic standards. A great introduction to a much misunderstood period of a great musician.

So here you go, three good compilation albums which can expand your musical understanding. The Miles Davis disc (the first of his I got) had such a profound influence on me as a young guitarist that I still try to model my playing on his horn blowing. I'd say get em all.

Steve Vai - Alien Love Secrets

 Steve Vai is one of that motley band of guitarists who emerged in the eighties and rewrote guitar playing rules with speed, insane licks and gimmickry. However unlike the rest of them, Mr. Vai is not boring. Steve graduated from the school of Zappa after about two or so years in his band before working with Alcatrazz, David Lee Roth and Whitesnake, and then busting out on his own properly with the groundbreaking Passion And Warfare. Vai showed us that you can have insane chops with delicate ideas and passionate emotive playing. Whilst my own guitar style could be no further from Vai's, I always look back to his work for inspiration and ideas, and when I want to learn some new techniques. Even my guitar (Ibanez Jem) and distortion pedal (Jemini) are his signiture series. Needless to say, his music has had a profound impact on my life, and is a man I respect greatly.

So, this album, Alien Love Secrets, was also released on VHS at the same time, contains some great tracks, let's run it down. Vai's wailing guitar and horse sound effects take us into the first track, Bad Horsie. A chugging train like riff with some deep distortion and a slick guitar melody showing insanely precise harmonics. It's a proper heavy steamengine track, plowing down all in it's path. Vai's use of the wah pedal here is to give total control of the tone and uses it to sculpt out his sound perfectly, as opposed to Hendrix's more experimental and freeform use of the pedal, indeed Vai's signiture wah pedal is known as the 'Bad Horsie' due to this song. Before the main solo we get some nice overdubbing, but the solo is standard Vai fare, not any of his emotive playing, but then this track is a hard rocker, so does it need it? Also nice flanger comming in. Juice is the title of the next track, a short little stunt guitar piece, fast and audatious, keeping some high octane action going, it's an all american rocker. Again this is more of a showoff piece, getting some feelgood energy going, some usual shred soloing and some unusual rhthym playing here. Die To Live is a softer more emotive track, with a distinctly nostalgic feeling to it. It sounds like a celebration and rememberance of life. It's still got a technical element to it, but this doesn't get in it's way, it's also quite fun to play, though bit of a guitar tongue-twister. The solo is delightfully beautiful, the rhythm is forward moving and all fun.

The next track is The Boy From Seattle, a softer more strummy upbeat guitar with a sense of the previous two tracks mixed into one feeling. It's upbeat and kinda fun with some decent melodic elements. A talkwah occasionally makes an appearance, with a line of daddadadaaddada, before the track starts to get quiet, and the guitaring goes into Hendrix mode, which is alright as this song is a tribute to Hendrix. We also get some nifty Vai trickery with delays and such creating a layered sound. Ya-Yo Gakk is a really fun tune, heavy metal guitar mixed with babytalk. His son would say something, and then Vai replicates it on guitar. We get some usual heavy metal soloing and riffing, but let's face it, this track is Vai just having fun, so he's allowed to. After this little diversion, we get to the real meat of the album, Kill The Guy With the Ball-The God Eaters. Some rolling drums and talkbox trickery takes us propelling forward into a really heavy riffage-filled track. It's speedy and thrashy and contains some great funk guitar (though played in metal style). It's full of menacing energy, and the drumming is almost computerised in it's precision. We get the usual Vai licks and some heavy sections we can only assume are left over from his previous album (the metal-tastic Sex And Religion) The track goes into screeching alien orgasm mode and then we enter the angelic second section, The God Eaters, a beautiful gentle guitar melody accentuated with some heavenly synth chords. It builds up and has some great releaving spirity feelings in it, kinda gentling the listener down and raising us up at the same time in preperation for the next track, the highlight of the album (and one of the highlights of his career), Tender Surrender. A sharp chord introduces us to a quiet kinda lounge jazz fusion, we have a soft silky melody and a rhythm based on a Hendrix song. The percussion just helps us plod forward, we get to the soloing section, first off a more bluesey solo, gentle and sweet, and goes for a section before hitting the proper solo, Vai's most impossible and orgiastic solo, which exudes such pleasure and passion. It's technically complex as well as emotionally complex, the speedy notes here given a smooth liquid texture as they just roll into your ears, it gets more passionate and more, until we get to the repeated shred section, the pleasure zone. The passion dies down, and we return to the tender embrace of the main melody, and the song ends  playfully and wah-filled. We have surrendered.

This is by no means Vai's best album, however it includes Die To Live, and Tender Surrender, so it's definately worth picking up.  As a major fan of his, the more purist approach to this album makes a neat break from his usual experimentation and on Tender Surrender, really lets the passion of his playing shine through. It's a good CD.