STACK #217 November 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 Amy Flower, Zoë Radas & Chris Mobbs

1. TAYLOR SWIFT Midnights 2. THE 1975 Being Funny in a Foreign Language 3. ARCTIC MONKEYS The Car 4. KYLIE MINOGUE

band did it how they wanted to. From the opening gurgles of Planet Telex to the melody-oozing rock out of the title track, side one kicks off big. High and Dry and the crushing (if you’re not in a good headspace) Fake Plastic Trees follow, laying a rock ballad blueprint that Thom Yorke would later regret when bands such as Coldplay gave it their particular spin. Bones takes us up again, before closer ( Nice Dream ). The roller coaster ride continues on side two, taking off with chord-fest Just , before careening into the album’s wild precursor single My Iron Lung – the backing track of which came from a live recording, as they couldn’t nail it in the studio. Bullet Proof …I Wish I Was is a calmer break, before the sweetest song about a massacre ever in Sulk , and the plaintive farewell of Street Spirit (Fade Out) . Many claim that OK Computer is Radiohead’s greatest long-player, but others still consider The Bends to be their masterpiece. TOP TRACK: Street Spirit (Fade Out) FAST FACT: Radiohead had several unsuccessful goes at recording Fake Plastic Trees , before nailing it with a Thom Yorke solo acoustic take that the band subsequently filled out. Ed O'Brien compared one unreleased version to Guns N' Roses’ November Rain , saying, “It was so pompous and bombastic, just the worst.”

Impossible Princess

5. RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS

Return of the Dream Canteen

6. HARRY STYLES Harry's House 7. ARCTIC MONKEYS AM 8. DENZEL CURRY Melt My Eyez See Your Future 9. TAYLOR SWIFT Lover 10. ALICE IN CHAINS Dirt

RADIOHEAD THE BENDS (1995) By 1994, Radiohead had ridden the wave of a massive worldwide hit in self-loathing anthem Creep – and they were miserable. Their record company wanted more of the same, while the band’s newer material was becoming ever more inventive. They worked the songs, but they didn’t click, until a break for some world tour dates – including Australia – which reenergised them. Back in the studio with The Stone Roses’ producer John Leckie, and a bloke named Nigel Godrich helping out (he’d later become their main co-conspirator), the

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE (1998 VERSION) (VINYL REISSUE)

ADELE 25 (2015) Few albums of the '10s were anticipated with quite as much frothing and trembling as 25 , Adele's follow-up to the record which broke her worldwide (2011's 21 ). “Hello, it's me,” came the vocalist's celestial greeting – as if in acknowledgement of fans' unblushing hunger – on impeccably-chosen lead single Hello , which also serves as opening track of this monolithic record. What follows showed listeners that Adele had matched her life's watershed moments of motherhood and quarter-life crisis

Arriving fully formed from the silica shards of Kyuss on the desiccated winds of Palm Desert came Queens of the Stone Age’s brilliant eponymous debut. At once sparkly and filthy, a sound sourced in no small

with a distinct musical evolution, though her knack for heart-mincing melodies hadn't been left behind. Side one includes the breezy and stunning pop-slam Send My Love to Your New Lover and the yearning belt-vehicle When We Were Young . On side two we get the resolute gospel jam River Lea , sensual acoustic guitar-led lament Million Years Ago , and ode to her son Angelo (whose adorable babbles feature in the intro and outro) in gigantic album closer Sweetest Devotion , which arguably stars the artist's most emotional delivery ever laid to track. 25 presented Adele as a woman in total control of her musicianship – and not without her vulnerabilities, though she was owning them too. A grab-bag of prestigious awards followed the LP like ducklings, including Grammy Awards for 'Best Pop Album', 'Best Pop Vocal Album' and 'Album of the Year'. TOP TRACK: When We Were Young FAST FACT: Xavier Dolan, director of the Hello clip, said he intentionally had Adele use a nondescript flip-phone in the video so as not to distract from the story: “It makes me uncomfortable filming iPhones because I feel like I'm shooting a commercial,” he later said. “That's not what you want. You want to get out of your own life; you want to enter someone else's. You want to travel somewhere.”

part by the signature move of tuning the guitars down two whole steps, the album kicks off with the fuzzy, driving Regular John , grips you by the peyotes, and refuses to let go. With songs like The Bronze and Mexicola , Josh Homme showed the world his singular purview, his twisted riffs, and grooves. Homme’s influence can still be heard in bands like King Buffalo and All Them Witches, and he was only just beginning. TOP TRACK: You Can’t Quit Me Baby FAST FACT: Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard signed the band and released the album through his own label, Loosegroove Records.

76 NOVEMBER 2022

jbhifi.com.au