STACK #231 January 2024

MUSIC REVIEWS

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We take a studied gaze into the latest vinyl reissues available, in-store and online (while stocks last)!

Neneh Cherry Man (1996)

The Cranberries Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? (1993) It was a great title for a debut album. And soon this Irish band had joined their idols on the radio, selling millions of albums and lingering in the charts for a couple of years. This is one of the great debuts of the ’90s, “impossible to ignore”. Produced by Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur, The Triffids), it topped the UK charts and hit the Top 20 in Australia and the US. The singles Linger and Dreams introduced the world to the mesmerising voice of Dolores O’Riordan. Her vocal seemed to float, but it was also capable of piercing your heart. The Cranberries sound was pop meets alternative rock, with a

Originally released in 1996, Man retains all the streetwise sophistication and rebellious ‘tude that we’ve come to expect from she who doth “always hang in a buffalo stance”, minus the rapping. Man ’s pensive

Produced in Cherry’s back bedroom, Massive Attack's trip-hop classic Blue Lines was also partly funded by her early chart success. DYK?

centrepiece is 7 Seconds , Cherry’s duet with Youssou

Universal also recently released The Cranberries' third album, 1996's To the Faithful Departed , as a remastered reissue.

N’Dour, which also appeared on the Senegalese singer/composer’s 1994 album The Guide (Wommat) :“And when a child is born into this world/ It has no concept/ Of the tone the skin is livin’ in…” – this trilingual global hit’s title/chorus lyrics refer to the first moments of a child's life.

Hot tip: Be sure to also check out Anohni’s breathtaking interpretation of Woman , which appears on Cherry’s excellent 2022 collabs record, The Versions .

With its paranoid, dub-noir beat, her Tricky co-write Together Now shows up on Cherry’s Bristolian buddy’s unofficial second record – self-titled under his Nearly God moniker and released earlier in 1996 – as well. There’s also a gender-flipped answer to James Brown’s 1966 hit, It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World , in Man ’s opening lead single Woman (“This is a woman's world/ This is my world…"), plus a cover of Marvin Gaye’s Trouble Man from his soundtrack to the 1972 Blaxploitation film of the same name. Brimming with string arrangements, Cherry’s third LP is genre fluid – blues, folk, trip hop, alt-rock – and even spotlights flamenco guitar ( Golden Ring ). A snapshot of limitless creativity that places Neneh Cherry – an important, singular voice – on top where she belongs. (USM) Bryget Chrisfield

tinge of cuteness and a dose of darkness. And this album is a story of ambition. “You wanted it all,” O’Riordan sings in Still Can’t , “and they’ll come true,” she predicted in Dreams . The Cranberries kept doing it for seven more studio albums, selling 50 million records. But O’Riordan also foreshadowed the dark side of fame in Linger : “I thought nothing could go wrong, but I was wrong.” The Cranberries disbanded after 2019's In the End, the year after O’Riordan died at the age of 46. It was a tragic loss. For proof of her greatness, look no further than this dazzling debut. Thirty years after it was first released, this record – now lovingly issued on dark green vinyl – is testament to her remarkable talent. (Universal) Jeff Jenkins

Neneh Cherry in the clip for Woman (1996)

3 THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW AB

OUT

ONE-UPPING NIRVANA “There was a big challenge for me, which was to write a song with more ‘yeahs in it than any Nirvana song that had been written," Stipe has revealed of penning Man on the Moon ’s lyrics. "And I managed to do that!” NIGHTSWIMMING DESERVES BETTERTHINGS R.E.M.’s wistful piano ballad Nightswimming elevates the closing scene of Better Things Season 4’s finale, and is arguably one of the most perfect syncs ever. “I just get very headstrong, and very married to an idea of a song without knowing whether I have it yet or not,” Pamela Adlon, the star and co-creator of this TV series, has said. “Originally, I had named the finale Nightswimming , but then I didn’t want to give it away.”

BEHINDTHE COVER STAR Automatic for the People ’s cover

Automatic

R.E.M.'s

(1992)

photograph is a close-up of a star add-on that once decorated the neon sign for Sinbad Motel in Miami, which was located near Criteria Recording Studios where the bulk of the album was recorded. Although the star is no longer there – it was damaged in a hurricane – the motel, and the slanted pole that originally supported the ornament, remains. During an interview, producer Scott Litt revealed: "The album was going to be called Star at one point, hence the object on the cover that Michael [Stipe] had photographed and really dug. It helps to have some kind of focus in the studio, so the

For the People

Since their preceding seventh album – 1991’s Out of Time – sold ten million copies, the pressure for R.E.M.’s follow-up, Automatic for the People , to shift mega units was on. The result? Over 18 million sold - nailed it! According to the band’s co-founding lead guitarist Peter Buck, this record, lyrically, navigates “mortality, the passage of time, suicide and family." From aiming to write a tune containing more ‘yeahs in it than any previous Nirvana song to the story behind the album cover’s star, here are three things you may not have known about R.E.M.’s classic album, which was written against the backdrop of dark times for America – the Gulf War, the devastating impact of the AIDS crisis – when all the band members were in their thirties. Bryget Chrisfield

photo was stuck up."

Several of R.E.M.'s albums are available in reissued vinyl format, including 25th anniversary editions of 1998's Up and 1994's Monster (pictured).

Michael Stipe in the clip for The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite (1992)

14 JANUARY 2024

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