I've always loved glam rock -- Bowie, The New York Dolls, Mott The Hoople, Queen, T. Rex. The flamboyant and gender-bending style. The attitude, sparkly and swagger. The first time I heard Sweet was Fox On The Run. It was my favorite song on the Dazed and Confused Soundtrack. I think it was the swirling, bubbling synthesizer that drew me in. At the time I had no idea that Sweet was a part of the 1970s glam world. Later, I found out that they sang Ballroom Blitz. That's the same band? Then, in college, I bought Action and fell in love with tunes like Lady Starlight and the title track. As I pieced together their discography (in a pre-Internet age), I noticed that the band's sound inexplicably wavered between hard rock, glam and bubble-gum pop. I could never put my finger on what Sweet was all about. I just loved a lot of their songs.
This week, I picked up a copy of their 1977 album, Level Headed. The album is anything but steady (as the title would have you believe). Each song seems to be a world of its own: hard rock a la Cheap Trick, Bolanesque acoustic numbers and then... disco. Capitol Records' A&R folks must have been shaking their heads when it came to this LP.
In the end, the unsteady and unpredictable nature of the album is what I love. But, it is the final song on side A that I absolutely love: Love Is Like Oxygen. This song is a perfect statement about major label rock & roll at the close of the 70s. It was confused, sometimes desperate and experimenting with its own identity as a means of survival, often unsuccessfully. It is the glorious, final pop hit of a band in the midst of an identity crisis. It scored a top ten hit in several countries, including Finland! Love Is Like Oxygen is as perfect a swan song as you're ever gonna hear.
TootArd are a band from the Golan Heights. Since 1967, this area has been a part of Israel. However, the inhabitants are denied citizenship. Their first album is Laissez Passer . “Laissez passers are special situation papers,” explains singer and guitarist Hasan Nakhleh. “It took us a while to realise the effect. We’re permanent residents in Israel, but not citizens. We have no travel documents. When we travel we need the laissez passer. With no nationality, we’re officially ‘undefined.’” TootArd's sound reflects this undefined status. They combine the desert blues rock of Northern Africa with reggae and various Middle Eastern styles, creating a powerful, grooving sound. If you're a fan of Tuareg groups like Tinariwen , Bombino or Tamikrest , you will instantly love TootArd . Try their tune Musiqa for starters. Head here to sample other tracks from their debut.
Here's the perfect song to commemorate the approaching conclusion of 2017. "You were born hungry And you'll die angry And if life has failed you Leave the cross you're nailed to You belong to no one And you owe nothing There's no golden future Just an open wound there Oh lord, this is the worst year of my life" Paul Simpson's despondent baritone can almost pass for Morrissey's throughout much of The Wild Swans' 1988 album, Bringing Home the Ashes . Fans of The Smiths and fellow Liverpudlians, Echo and the Bunnymen , will hear aspects of both groups in the shimmering alt-pop of the Swans. In fact, Pete De Freitas (Echo & the Bunnymen drummer) produced the album's first single, Young Manhood . Like The Mighty Lemon Drops and The Teardrop Explodes (whom Simpson left in 1980), The Wild Swans were a second-tier British indie pop group that never quite broke through in the States. The band was featured on two widely distributed Sire...
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