STACK #216 October 2022

MUSIC FEATURE

visit stack.com.au

CHART Vinyl

Each month we hand-pick a collection of reissues, limited editions or just straight classic long-players that deserve a place in any record collection. Words Paul Jones, Amy Flower & Zoë Radas

1. PARKWAY DRIVE Darker Still 2. KENDRICK LAMAR Mr Morale & the Big Steppers 3. MADONNA 4. HARRY STYLES Harry’s House 5. TYLER, THE CREATOR Igor 6. ARCTIC MONKEYS AM 7. SILK SONIC An Evening With Silk Sonic 8. QUEEN Greatest Hits 9. RUFUS DU SOL Surrender 10. MEGADETH The Sick, the Dying…& the Dead! Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones

was now in the rear-view mirror, and the band had to navigate mending toxic personal ruptures (and some demonic comedowns, we’re guessing). Across Tusk ’s 20 songs are diamonds from three angles: Stevie Nicks ( Sara , borne by airy and sashaying harmonies), Christine McVie (the gorgeously hazy and rippling Never Make Me Cry ) and Buckingham, who wrote eight cuts but whose commitment to weirdness shines most brightly on the album’s title track, which pounds with chanted lyrics, gypsy-squealed back-ups, found sounds (including lamb chops and a thumped Kleenex box), and the Trojan Marching Band pulling it all together. Tusk may have ‘flopped’ (if selling four million copies, hitting UK number one, and ending up certified platinum in multiple countries is a failure), but it remains a fascinating and rewarding counter to the band’s more ‘accessible’ album released just two years beforehand. TOP TRACK: Tusk FAST FACT: Tusk producer Ken Caillat once commented that Buckingham was a “maniac” during recording: “He’d freaked out in the shower and cut off all his hair with nail scissors,” he said of one incident.

FLEETWOOD MAC TUSK (1979) Envisioned by Lindsay Buckingham as an anti- Rumours , Tusk reportedly sent the musician absolutely barmy from obsessive stress (see our ‘FAST FACT’). While some listeners consider the double album’s experimental narrative as half-baked and dribbly compared to its predecessor’s comparatively trim ideas, Tusk manages to jab at, and awaken, some truly complex feelings – perhaps because the anguished break-up record ( Rumours )

ALICE IN CHAINS DIRT (1992) REMASTERED LIMITED EDITION OPAQUE YELLOW VINYL Thirty years ago, Alice in Chains' most acclaimed release landed with fury and tore through the music landscape like a firestorm. The band is often cited as a grunge progenitor, and Dirt , the band’s second album, would prove to be a pathfinder. Ravaged with internal problems from drug addiction to the black dog, the songs primarily explore vocalist Layne Staley’s personal torment with uncompromising honesty. Loud and raw, its power and anguish are palpable with songwriting and vocal duties shared between Staley and axeman Jerry Cantrell. This release features remastered audio and comes as a 2x LP set pressed in opaque yellow vinyl. It sounds as potent now as it did 30 long years ago. TOP TRACK: Would? FAST FACT: Dirt was the last

DAVID BOWIE HUNKY DORY (1971) 2015 REMASTERED VERSION

Through his near 50-year career, David Bowie was never one to be pigeonholed stylistically, and even before this, his fourth album, he’d careened from novelty song ( The Laughing Gnome ) to a timeless ode to alienation ( Space Oddity ) and beyond to the still mesmerising The Man Who Sold the World . For Hunky Dory Bowie changed tack again, moving away from the guitar as his principal writing tool to the piano. This gentler vibe is reflected from the first notes of opener Changes , an enduring classic that remains unsullied despite being used

in ads for nappies. Track two – Oh! You Pretty Things – continues Bowie’s knack for irresistible hooks, while singing of future fear. The gentle Eight Line Poem follows, before one of Bowie’s finest ever tunes in Life on Mars? – not bad for a song that started life as a parody of Sinatra’s My Way . The jaunty Kooks was dedicated to newborn son, Duncan, and precedes side one closer, the acoustic beauty Quicksand . Side two kicks off with the lilting Fill Your Heart , before a trio of American icon tributes in the cacophonous Andy Warhol, Song for Bob Dylan and Queen B-tch , the latter inspired by the Velvet Underground and, in particular, Lou Reed (whose seminal Transformer Bowie would soon co-produce). A touch of the surreal in The Bewlay Brothers closes proceedings. Initially unloved upon release, Hunky Dory has since deservedly set up home in many greatest albums of all time lists. TOP TRACK: Life on Mars? FAST FACT: Bowie’s cover pose was inspired by actresses of Hollywood’s Golden Age, such as Lauren Bacall, Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo. The shot was photographed in black and white before being recoloured.

album to feature all four original members. Bassist Mike Starr was fired during the tour to support the release,

ironically, for his escalating drug addiction.

16 OCTOBER 2022

jbhifi.com.au