STACK #180 Oct 2019

MUSIC FEATURE CLASSIC TURNING 25 ALBUMS

visit stack.com.au

In August 1994, the 25-year anniversary of Woodstock '69 was celebrated in NewYork. Another 25 years on in 2019, some of the most influential albums in music history are marking the big quarter-century milestone, and we've selected a few of the cherries in that pie to honour. Words Zoë Radas

The Prodigy Music For The Jilted Generation The UK’s Criminal Justice and Public Order Act of 1994 wasn’t popular with anyone who didn’t enjoy being discriminated against on account of their lifestyle, particularly those in the rave scene. Grimy breakbeat techno act The Prodigy were so incensed with the incursion on their musical culture that they lashed out with revered second album Music For The Jilted Generation . Its multiform, electro-industrial beats delighted listeners, who propelled it to a #1 debut in the band’s homeland and Top 10 positions around the rest of the world. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Let Love In On a gathering storm comes a tall handsome man, leading his Bad Seeds to their eighth critically lauded studio album. Haunted by creeping organ, Blixa Bargeld’s avant-ambient guitar and the violin of Warren Ellis – then not a Bad Seed himself, but a guest – which slithers its way around Nick Cave’s vocals, Let Love In saw Cave mature as a singer without losing his thrilling volatility.

Green Day Dookie Turns out we did have the time to listen to Billie Joe Armstrong whine – whole barrelfuls of it in fact, with at least 20 million pairs of ears participating (read: international record sales as at 2014). While Dookie was the Californian trio’s third album overall, it was their first with their major label Reprise, and after selling less than 10,000 copies in its first week, it went on to became a total breakout success. Nine Inch Nails The Downward Spiral The second album from Nine Inch Nails distinguished the industrial rock act as an unparalleled force in the '90s landscape, spawning myriad copycats and legions of zealous fans. Recorded at a studio in the LA house where actress Sharon Tate was murdered by the Manson Family, The Downward Spiral is consistently included on Best Of lists by the industry’s top tastemakers. Weezer Weezer (The Blue Album) Before they went White and Green and

every hue in between, Weezer began their kaleidoscopic musical journey with their self-titled-with-nickname-in-parentheses debut: The Blue Album . Featuring Buddy Holly , Say It Ain’t So, Undone – The Sweater Song and The World Has Turned And Left Me Here , The Blue Album is a stone cold classic in every sense. Ween Chocolate and Cheese Dean and Gene spread their multi-limbed embrace of genres wide on the tour de force of an adventure that is Ween’s fourth album, Chocolate and Cheese – from the saloon revenge yarn of Buenas Tardes Amigo , to the appalling horror lullaby of Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down) , to the satin-hisssing scorn of Baby Bitch , to the sauntering, platform-soled joy of Freedom Of ’76 . Vangelis Blade Runner OST Often touted as the greatest film score in science-fiction history (a sparkling accolade if ever there was one), Greek electronic composer Vangelis’ soundtrack for Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) is transportive, transformative, and enduring in its magic.

50

OCTOBER 2019

jbhifi.com.au