Worth it for the parts we point at, not all the way through.
19 briefs · 139 min
Army Arrangement belongs to Fela Kuti's mid-1980s work with Egypt 80. Its title song examines Nigeria's transition from military to civilian government, while “Government Chicken Boy,” included on editions of the album, attacks obedient service to authority. Political institutions change their presentation; Fela asks who continues to benefit.
Blood, Sweat & Tears' self-titled second album arrived in December 1968 after Al Kooper and two other members had left. David Clayton-Thomas became the lead singer of a nine-piece band. Producer James William Guercio helped the new lineup make a more pop-oriented record with substantial outside repertoire.
Fifth Dimension was released in 1966 after Gene Clark's departure forced the Byrds to redistribute songwriting responsibilities. Jim McGuinn and David Crosby contributed more, while covers and an instrumental helped fill the programme. The album contains bold advances without entirely resolving that transition.
Lady in Satin was recorded with Ray Ellis's orchestra and released in 1958. Holiday wanted a delicate orchestral setting and actively sought Ellis for the project. That choice matters: the arrangement is part of her artistic intention, not merely something imposed on a vulnerable singer.
Licensed to Ill introduced the Beastie Boys on album in 1986, with Rick Rubin producing for Def Jam. Their debut brings rock's confrontational scale into a rap setting and makes the group itself the central attraction. It belongs to a different stage of their work than the denser sampling of Paul's Boutique.
Oar was recorded in Nashville in December 1968 and released in 1969. Alexander “Skip” Spence played all the instruments. He later said he understood the recordings as demos intended for fuller production, a significant complication when discussing the finished album's spare character.
OXO's self-titled 1983 debut was also the band's only album. Led by Ish Ledesma, previously of Foxy, the group reached the American Top 40 with “Whirly Girl.” The record offers a small, specific view of the early-eighties crossover between dance music, pop and rock.
Ol' Dirty Bastard's 1995 solo debut arrived after Wu-Tang Clan's first album and Method Man's Tical. RZA handles much of the production, with contributions from ODB, True Master and 4th Disciple. The wider Clan remains present through guest appearances, even as the lead performer claims his own unruly space.
Released in 1972 and recorded in Lagos the previous year, Shakara contains two substantial pieces: “Lady” and “Shakara (Oloje).” Fela Kuti fronts Africa 70, with Tony Allen on drums. The short track list gives each argument a large share of the album's space.
Rattus Norvegicus is the Stranglers' 1977 debut, despite the deliberately confusing Stranglers IV designation. Martin Rushent produced it in a week from the band's existing live repertoire. That background helps explain why an early album can already contain several kinds of arrangement.
Recorded in one day in December 1964 at Rudy Van Gelder's New Jersey studio, A Love Supreme is John Coltrane's four-movement statement of gratitude, made with the quartet of McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones. Built around a four-note bass figure that becomes a chanted phrase and later a saxophone recitation of Coltrane's own written poem, it plays as a single sustained piece rather than a collection of tunes.
Brian Eno's 1978 EMI release grew out of a bad afternoon at Cologne's airport and a conviction that background music could be more than wallpaper. Made from looped tape rather than a band, it named ambient music as a genre in the act of making it.
Weather Report's sixth album, recorded at Devonshire Studios in North Hollywood over the turn of 1975 into 1976, leans into African-derived percussion and Joe Zawinul's synthesizer textures rather than the soloistic fusion of earlier records. Wayne Shorter's Lyricon blurs horn and machine, Alex Acuña's congas anchor two drummers, and Jaco Pastorius makes his first, understated appearance on bass across two tracks.
Made on tour in London rather than at home in Lagos, Fela's London Scene pairs Fela Kuti and Nigeria 70 with a second drummer, Ginger Baker, for five extended tracks built on horn riffs and dense percussion. Lighter on political narrative than Kuti's mid-seventies work, it is best heard as the sound of a band finding the architecture it would spend the rest of the decade refining.
Head over Heels is the second Cocteau Twins album, released on 4AD in October 1983 after bassist Will Heggie left the band. Written quickly by Robin Guthrie and Elizabeth Fraser as a two-piece, it replaced the religious imagery of their debut with love songs built from reverberated guitar and increasingly wordless vocals, and it now stands as an early landmark of dream pop.
Aphex Twin's second album moves almost entirely into slow, largely beatless ambient composition, built from old analogue synthesizers and, by Richard D. James's own account, half-remembered fragments of dream. Nearly all twenty-four tracks went out untitled, leaving fans to name pieces that reward patient, undistracted listening across a two-and-a-half-hour running time.
Recorded largely alone by an increasingly isolated Sly Stone, There's a Riot Goin' On trades the Family Stone's earlier warmth for a murky, overdubbed sound that turns disillusionment into its own kind of groove.
John Abercrombie's 1975 debut as a leader pairs him with organist and synthesist Jan Hammer and drummer Jack DeJohnette for a quiet, conversational take on fusion, cut over two days for ECM. It is patient rather than showy, and its reputation has grown slowly on the strength of the interplay between three musicians clearly listening to each other.
Recorded soon after splitting from the wider Amon Düül commune, Yeti pairs song-shaped tracks like Archangels Thunderbird with side-long improvised pieces, letting discipline and openness sit next to each other unresolved across a double LP whose cover mourns a crew member's death.