STACK #219 January 2023

MUSIC FEATURE

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I f you haven’t already, start with the basics: Show your kids how to carefully remove a record from its sleeve, and place it on the player without grubbying its surfaces. If they‘re old enough, get your young'uns comfortable with handling the stylus of your record player; challenge them to lift and place the needle based on a clue about a song they love: “Play the track which has the lyrics: ‘Thunder only happens when it's raining‘!“ Here are some other activity ideas for kids and teens, with records you'll all love ranging from the classics to the biggest recent belters. There's a few precious weeks before the gremlins go back to school – so now's your opportunity to squish in some of that wholesome fam-connection time, via the magic of vinyl! Words Zoë Radas WITHTHE KIDS

The back cover of Amy Winehouse's Back to Black on vinyl.

HARRY STYLES Harry’s House The cover of Harry’s House is a surreal, upside down lounge room. What do Harry Styles’ mind look like? Draw one that you think would make a good alternate album cover. In the Harry’s House liner notes, Styles has included a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, which begins: “Every spirit builds itself a house, and beyond its house, a world…” Read the quote out loud. What do you think Emerson’s meaning is? Why do you think Harry wanted his fans to read this message alongside his music? TYLER,THE CREATOR IGOR IGOR won 'Best Rap Album' at the 2020 Grammys, but afterwards, Tyler said that his you think the genre of ‘pop’ has changed over time? Do you think genre categories are still useful, and in what ways? At the very end of the track What’s Good , we can hear the voice of comedian Jerrod Carmichael: “I don't know what's harder: letting go, or just being okay with it.” Why do you think you think the other rooms in the crazy ‘house’ inside album should be considered as a pop work. How do

The inner gatefold of Carole King's Tapestry on vinyl.

CAROLE KING Tapestry

AMYWINEHOUSE Back to Black Back to Black was produced by British American DJ-turned-record-exec Mark Ronson. It’s not a producer’s job to play instruments on an album, but you can hear Ronson performing on this one! On which two songs does he contribute ‘percussion’ sounds (made without instruments!)? In her liner notes, Amy Winehouse thanks the bands The Shangri-Las and The Specials for inspiring her.

The inside

gatefold of Tapestry shows a big picture of the needlepoint tapestry Carole King was stitching while she wrote this album. Can

Tyler chose this line to lead into the following track Gone, Gone /

you find this tapestry somewhere else in the vinyl artwork? (Hint: there are six tapestries altogether!) King recorded Tapestry with a saxophonist called Curtis Amy, and he plays three different kinds of saxophones on the album. What are they called? Listen to each song they are on. Can you tell which saxophone is the highest and which is the lowest?

Thank You – how does it frame the song's ideas?

Which bands or artists do you think Amy

Winehouse herself has influenced?

Tyler, the Creator as his IGOR alter-ego.

22 JANUARY 2023

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