Desert Island Drowners

[dotinthesky]

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It would have to be Suede's first album. This was the album that changed my entire taste in music when I was 17 years old. Up until that point I was happy to hop around from one genre to the next - one day listening to The Clash, the next happily spinning around to Madonna's Immaculate Collection. But nothing ever meant anything to me, or who I wanted to be, as much as Suede. They were the ones responsible for plunging me head first into indie music, in particular Britpop.

I was still in the closet at this stage, living in Singapore with my family. "Animal Nitrate", the third single from the album, was a big hit - perhaps because it hinted at gay life in a country where homosexuality was illegal, where young Singaporeans had to create codes in order to show each other they were "that way". When "So Young", the fourth single, was released I went to a CD store on Orchard Road and bought the album.

In life, I'm a fairly laid back, slightly melancholic character. It takes extra energy for me to get excited about things, and perhaps that matches perfectly the mood of the album. A few songs stomp their boots, like "The Drowners" and "Metal Mickey", but the whole affair is in general a very dreamy, romantic haze - my ideal state of being. It was thanks to Suede that I discovered Morrissey (they named their band after his single "Suedehead"). I investigated this character called Morrissey, who had inspired such a great album, and discovered that one of my childhood songs "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side" was by his band The Smiths. Cupid had added extra poison to his arrows that day; I was a step away from an obsession.

Comments

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I agree. I think many people have a distorted view of Britpop, lumping all sorts of bands together who have nothing in common apart from being British. I was never into Oasis - always saw through their bullshit. My crowd were the Suede, Pulp lovers. ;-)

Was the Roundhouse gig the one that later became the video "Love & Poison"? I have that on VHS tape. I used to watch it a lot stoned out of my mind.

[kixie.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I was always amongst the Suede and Pulp fanatics; I loathed Oasis from the beginning (although I grudgingly admit that Supersonic doesn't entirely suck) and Blur...I like their eponymous album, with On Your Own, and I liked their early stuff like There's No Other Way, but otherwise they were just awful.

Pulp and Suede, otoh, were just brilliant. Jarvis and Bret, the dancing, the sexuality/sensuality of the music, the hip-shaking, the hair - ah. Perfect.

lumping all sorts of bands together who have nothing in common apart from being British.

Exactly - BritPop doesn't mean "pop music from Britian," it's a specific genre of music from a specific time. I mean, by the former definition a band like the Cure would be Britpop and that is so, so wrong. I was never a Britpop fan, but I was DEVOTED to Pulp and Suede.

And yes, that was the gig that was filmed. They used to play it on MTV ALL the time and I got to relive the experience again and again and it just ROCKED, I LOVED IT.

YOu know, we should go back to Feeling Gloomy. I'm in an indie mood. I feel the need to dance to The Drowners (FAVOURITE on the album, along with She's Not Dead) and Do You Remember The First Time.

I'm all nostalgic now.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Let's go! I'd be well up for a dancing night soon. :-)

Which other bands from that period do you like? I love the first Elastica album (which I sadly lost), as well as the first Delicatessen.

[kixie.livejournal.com]

I actually prefer the second Elastica album, but I did like the first one a lot as well.

I loved a lot of the Manchester bands like Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Charlatans, Inspiral Carpets, James (I adored them. LOTS), Carter USM, Jesus Jones, Primal Scream and tons of US indie as well. There was SO MUCH to listen to. I can't wait 'til the current trend of crappy synthy pop goes passes.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I really loved that James album that had "Sometimes". It made me buy their previous stuff, but I never got into anything of theirs afterwards. All those other bands were faves too - at least in some of their singles. But I also had a lot of devotion for bands from the 80s (The Cure, The Smiths, Siouxsie) which left me at odds with the other kids in school who only listened to Offspring, Green Day and Hootie and the Blowjob.

[kixie.livejournal.com]

Get James' greatest hits. It was released in 98 and is chock full of excellent songs. My personal favourite is Gold Mother, but I adore most of James' stuff. Brilliant band, I love Tim Booth's voice. Ring The Bells, Laid, Lose Control and Walking the Ghost are all brilliant songs.

I had a big thing for the 80s stuff; I'm really eclectic with music, mind you, and I'm passionate about bands more than genres. My favourites are Smashing Pumpkins, Tori Amos, Cure, New Model Army, Pulp, Smiths, Current 93, Guns N Roses, Dresden Dolls, Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Dead Kennedys, Levellers, Nick Cave (SOB), Baebes (of course), I used to be really big on Nine Inch Nails and I love a lot of classical music as well (although I grew up playing it on various instruments, so one does learn to appreciate and love what they're learning and playing). I like jazz, some metal, some EMB/darkwave, some country - I think the only genre I don't like anything from is Christian Rock. ;) My cd collection was HUGE and music was kind of my life.

I hated Hootie. HATE. Green Day are another I've never liked (although Basket Case makes me giggle), although I like Offspring and always did, they were far more PUNK than their counterparts at the time.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I've noticed you and Rattler mentioning recently Current 93, but I've never heard of them! Which albums/songs should I check out?

Thumbs up for the other bands/singers you mentioned. :-)

[kixie.livejournal.com]

Well, they're playing soon and they don't play often *at all*, so... EEEEE!

My favourite album of theirs is Thunder Perfect Mind, but All The Pretty Little Horses and Soft Black Stars are both wonderful as well. Hell, their latest album, Black Ships Eat The Sky, is really quite beautiful as well. He wrote a song called Idumaea and he has something like five versions of it on the album, where he wrote the words, but each of the different performers doing a version writes their own music for it. There's Marc Almond opening the album and it's so, so lovely.

They're very strange and dramatic - not to everyone's liking, I suppose, but I love them.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Marc Almond opening the album?! SOLD! :-)

[kixie.livejournal.com]

They're playing with Marc Almond in April! I'm seeing them play with Marc Almond and if they dont' do his version of Idumaea I'll CRY. It's so, so beautiful, so mournful (the opening lyrics are "Am I born to die, and lay this body down, and as my trembling spirit flies unto a world unknown" - David Tibet doesn't as much write lyrics as sheer poetry, he brings the word 'lyric' back to its original meaning) and quite interesting considering he recorded it after he nearly died in an accident some time in 2004 or so.

Have a look here (ftp://deadpetals.co.uk/Music/C93-NatOrg).

The pass is 24ruled1 (I didn't set it and I don't know how to reset it or add other passwords for users and AAARGH). You can download a few songs from there if you like and see what you think. Definitely download Nature and Organisation's To You (David Tibet is Current 93, but he works with loads of other artists on other projects and N&O is one of them), as it is probably the most beautiful song I've ever heard. Like, weepingly beautiful, YOU WILL GET A TEAR IN YOUR EYE beautiful.