Nowhere
Ride
Sire r1 525987
1990
I missed Ride during their initial incarnation, they had already broken up by the time I bought this album. I was thrilled when they reunited and I finally got to see them live a few years ago when they played most of this album in a largely empty Wiltern Theater here in Los Angeles. Despite the small crowd the band gave an inspired performance that I found thrilling. This is one of my favorite albums of the 1990s and I've been listening to it regularly for two decades. It opens with "Seagull" which delivers a kinetic wall of sound and enigmatic lyrics of alienation and redemption. It is an explosive song that displays the band's instrumental force to great effect. I find it extremely exciting and it is one of my favorite songs in their catalog. The energy continues with "Kaleidoscope" although it has more of a pop feel to it particularly in the guitar riffs and the vocal harmonies. The lyrics anticipate their impact on a lover after the singer is dead but are more trippy than morbid. "In a Different Place" is a slower song with a stately, almost martial pace in the verses before sonically erupting in the choruses. The lyrics describe being separated from physical reality and the song has an appropriately dreamlike feel to it. Side one concludes with "Polar Bear" which is another slow song with droning guitar chords and a compelling rhythmic drive. Its lyrics describe repression and freedom in highly poetic terms. Side two begins with "Dreams Burn Down" which features cascading sheets of sound before the verses begin. The verses are punctuated with blasts of sound that reflect the anguish expressed by the lyrics which describe an unfulfilled love. A tribal drum beat introduces "Decay" which is a hard-driving song about the transient nature of love and life. "Paralysed" is a song about insecurity and inadequacy delicately crooned by Andy Bell. Laurence Colbert's muscular drumming drives the song which features a hypnotic dirge-like instrumental finale. The album concludes with the magnificent "Vapour Trail" which further explores the transience of love. It features shimmering layers of jangly guitars and more dynamic drumming from Colbert gradually building to a majestic climax and a delicate string coda. It is a brilliant finish to a flawless album. I adore the sonic richness of Ride's sound which I find endlessly compelling and exciting. The music is simultaneously beautiful and powerful and when I saw them live playing it at a high volume it absolutely mesmerized me. Their lyrics are sublime, full of evocative and dreamy imagery as well as romantic sensitivity. Their persistent themes of alienation, escape, transience and insecurity are relevant to me and add to the impact of the album. I consider it a masterpiece. I'm so happy they have gotten back together and I really like their most recent album "Weather Diaries" as well. Recommended to My Bloody Valentine fans who wish they could understand the band's lyrics.
The Last Word
Jack Kerouac
Rhino RI 70939-D
1990
This is the fourth album in Rhino's "Jack Kerouac Collection" box set. It consists of outtakes and unreleased recordings. Side one features two 1958 outtakes from "Blues and Haikus." The first track is "Old Western Movies" which was unpublished. It is very slight, it is easy to see why it didn't make it on the original album. The most interesting aspect to it is the patter between Kerouac, the musicians Al Cohn and Zoot Sims and producer Bob Thiele. There are a couple of false takes before the master. In take one Cohn and Sims jam a little which prompts some scat vocalizing from Kerouac. Take two breaks down when the musicians overshadow Kerouac who is apparently too far from the mike. Thiele tries to instruct Cohn about how he should play, but Kerouac tells the musician to play whatever he wants. Thiele mentions in the booklet that accompanies the box set, that he didn't think the musicians actually paid any attention to what Kerouac was reading, they just played whatever they felt like and listening to these outtakes I'm inclined to agree. Kerouac sometimes responds to the music, but the musicians never respond to his work. On the master take Cohn simply tells Kerouac where to come in and starts playing the piano. Kerouac sings the beginning of the poem, it is more musical than any of the takes actually used on the original record. I like it, he's not a great singer, but it is effective and it swings. Overall it is a nice performance albeit a bit sloppy, too bad the poem is so weak. I like when Kerouac sings the beginning of the other track, which is "Conclusion of the Railroad Earth," but then it is all downhill from there. From a literary standpoint this is a strong piece, but Kerouac doesn't read it very well. He sounds like he's drunk to me. It is kind of fun but kind of annoying too, like a drunk at a party. The track could have easily fit on the original "Blues And Haikus" album which is only about 30 minutes long. I presume that the performance was considered unacceptable, but there is also a little static on the track that might have led to the decision to omit it as well. Side two opens with Kerouac at the Hunter College Playhouse in 1958 giving a presentation at the "Is There a Beat Generation" forum. Kerouac is in great form, the audience seems to inspire him. He tells jokes, impersonates Ben Hecht and reads a rollicking poem about Harpo Marx. I think he is more charismatic here than on any of the original records. Not only is Kerouac very entertaining, but the speech itself is extremely interesting. When he's really on he doesn't need music, he swings on his own. The final track is from Steve Allen's television show in 1959. Kerouac reads from "On The Road" and "Visions of Cody" with Allen accompanying him on piano in a very similar manner to the album they did together, "Poetry for the Beat Generation." The reading here is arguably the smoothest and most disciplined on any of the albums perhaps the giant television audience intimidated Kerouac. I enjoy it but he seems a bit stifled. This is a really worthwhile album despite the marginal nature of the recordings. I think it is just as interesting and revealing as any of the three original albums. I've read a few biographies and oral histories about Kerouac and this record seems to capture the man the way his associates viewed him. Recommended to anyone who ever wondered what it would be like to hang out with Jack Kerouac.
