Sunday, October 16, 2016

Albums of the month

"Was September 1991 the best month ever for albums?" That was the question posed by Sam Richards in an article for the BBC published last month. "Probably not" is I think the correct answer, but it was nevertheless worth dwelling on the stature and legacy (whether celebrated or dubious) of some of the records released that month: Nirvana's Nevermind, of course, as well as the twin bloated behemoths that are Guns 'N' Roses Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II, A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory, Red Hot Chili Peppers' Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Primal Scream's Screamadelica and Orbital's self-titled LP.

It's a shame I didn't come across the piece until after we'd recorded Episode 9 of Sounding Bored, focusing on Nevermind - it would have been good to have made mention of the clip of Butch Vig talking about how much hearing 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' for the first time blew him away.

I should add that the clip Richards used to accompany the snippet about Screamadelica - Bobby Gillespie talking about the album to Jarvis Cocker on the latter's 6Music radio show - actually made me feel marginally more sympathetic towards the album (or to the concepts and context behind it, at least) than when we committed our thoughts on it to Episode 2 back in March.

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