Earplug

This month features editor Clyde Waite gives us three album recommendations from his CD changer. Over to Clyde to introduce them:

Second has got to be Faith No More’s “Real Thing”. This was my early windsurfing career psyche up record.

At the moment I am listening to Razorlight: Razorlight. A quirky, rocky and a bit more mellow than their first offering from the super happy "In the morning" - a very apt song to the strokes flavour of "America" - very good!

Wow, what a throw back album, and an unusual Queen choice in someway. “A Day At The Races” is the follow up album to “A Night At The Opera” and could almost be seen as a companion album or even the second record in a double album release, with its matching cover art.

“A Night At The Opera” featured the infinitely enduring “Bohemian Rhapsody” and classic queen tracks “Death on two legs”, “Lazing on a Sunday afternoon”, “You’re my best friend”, “I’m in love with my car”, “39” and “Love of my life”.

While “A day at the races” is perhaps overshadowed by the volume of belters from “A night at the opera” it still kicks out cracking songs including the awesome and emotional “Somebody to love”, “Good old fashioned lover boy” and the rocking “Tie your mother down” with Roger Taylor on vocals.

And “A Day At The Races” is no less rock operatic retaining all the regal, raunch and roll and theatre that Queen never ceased to deliver.

Like Clyde, I have listened to this album many a time for psyching up to windsurfing. “Real Thing” was a break through album, not just for Faith No More, but for rock music in general. It redefined the metal scene of the 80's that had been polarized by the glam hair metal likes of Motley Crue, Poison, Ratt and the trash aficionados Anthrax, Slayer and Metallica by injecting many different musical styles and influences into their music and indeed their image. Like The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Faith No More, while definitely keeping a heavier sound, fused alternative, pop, rap and funk into their eccentric brand of rock and with new versatile vocal genius Mike Patton. Single “Epic” was a surprise top ten hit and tracks like “From out of Nowhere”, “Surprise you’re dead”, “Falling to Pieces” and “Real Thing” remain timeless FNM anthems. Real Thing broke down the boundaries for many rock bands of today and Faith No More continued to break their own mould on each subsequent album release until their final break up.

Razorlight is the self titled follow up to “Up All night”, Razorlight’s million selling debut and opens with the happy, chirpy “In the Morning”, the vocals on which remind me subtly of Talking Heads. This track is head and shoulders above the rest as the best on the album. My first listen to this album didn’t really get me going but the second listen held me for longer. Clyde ’s second pick of the album “America” is definitely the next best track on the CD but the rest merge into one. This is up to the minute fashionable, hip background music – and there is nothing wrong with that.

If you like your rock with that brit, indie, guitar band feel then this is the album for you.