Tim’s Leaps

Sorry I’m late to the party – just got back in the country! I must admit that I found the ‘Leap’ concept pretty tricky – all the important leaps are the really obvious ones, but after reading all the posted lists I’m feeling inspired and excited to check out some of these seminal albums.

Leap Albums:

1. Screamadelica (Primal Scream) – With the chance intervention of newbie remix DJ Andy Wetherall, Primal Scream transformed themselves from  arch black-leather rockers to eclectic psychedelic house gurus. Anyone who took drugs in the UK in the 90s has a very special relationship with this album.
2. Fantasma (Cornelius) – This was the breakthrough album for Jap Pop in the UK. The production, humor, minimalism, choppy editing and sampling was unlike anything I’d ever heard. Keigo Oyomada made art-rock fun again – very very cool music. 
3. Ace Of Spades (Motorhead) – lumped in with the ‘New Wave Of British Heavy Metal’ Motorhead’s 4th album is unparalleled in rock music. While there are plenty of albums that influenced the later thrash scene, Motorhead were the first to play so unrelentingly fast! 
4. Kings Of The Wild Frontier (Adam & The Ants) – Early Adam Ant material is dark and edgy art-punk, inaccessible to most – but manager Malcolm McLaren’s bizarre additions of Burundi drumming, Vivienne Westwood pirate costumes and Native American yodelling transformed Adam into the biggest star of British pop in the 1980s. Yet for all its pop filliness, this is a brilliant and weird album with some of the most incredible vocals I’ve ever heard.
5. Debut (Björk) – the Sugarcubes were interesting, then this album came out and everyone realised that in fact it was just Björk that was interesting; actually she was fascinating, confusing and mesmerizing! 
6. Omslag: Martin Kamm (Bob Hund) – Bob Hund are the best-known and most beloved band in Sweden (after ABBA of course!) Their second album ‘Omlsag: Martin Kamm’ put them on the map with its quirky pop hooks amid the signature madness. The album actually has no title, ‘Omlsag: Martin Kamm’ translates as ‘Graphic Design: Martin Kamm’ and the inside-out white card CD sleeve features a black and white portrait of the eponymous designer. 
7. Sweetheart Of The Rodeo (The Byrds) – an obvious choice, but I couldn’t omit it – I’m always stunned to think that Roger McGuinn was set on making an instrumental Moog album at this point in The Byrds career, but was open-minded enough to let Gram Parsons join the band and create the first country-rock album. Its a shame the record company insisted on McGuinn replacing many of Parsons’ vocals (his demo versions are my favourite), but its still an incredible album. A massive leap for one band, and an even bigger leap for country music.
8. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (Pavement) –  in the wake of Nirvana, there were suddenly a lot of very contrived and over-produced bands in the charts. Steven Malkmus’ sardonic and effortless lyrics on the singles ‘Cut Your Hair’, ‘Gold Soundz’ and ‘Rangelife’ ushered in something new that became known as ‘Slacker’, though the likes of Beck and Eels never came close to Pavement’s irreverent and strung-out sound. 
9. Reveille (Deerhoof) –  When I first heard it, Deerhoof’s 4th album was the most modern and alien thing I’d ever heard. A decade later it still is.
10. Too Rye Aye (Dexy’s Midnight Runners) – considered a one-hit-wonder in the US, Dexy’s are actually a pretty well respected band in the UK. Their switch to violins and banjos was a huge shift from the band’s former incarnation as a working-man’s Northern Soul band (check out ‘Geno‘.) 

 

Leap Tracks

1. I Feel Love (Donna Summer) – after feeling rather disappointed with Daft Punk’s new album, I put on some Giorgio Moroder and felt much better. ‘I Feel Love’ was the track that took electronic music onto the dancefloor – it’s every bit as futuristic and exciting today as in 1977!
2. The Electrician (The Walker Brothers) – Scott Walker’s strange career has peaked and trough-ed between pop, easy listening and disquieting avant-garde. Perhaps the most unexpected point in his career was a contractual reunion with the other Walker Brothers for the 1978 album Nite Flights, the highlight of which is Scott Walker’s ‘The Electrician’. 
3. Fool’s Gold 9:53 (Stone Roses) – the Manchester indie scene in the late 80s rather clumsily merged funk, hip-hop and psychedelic guitar-pop – the Stone Roses’ Fools Gold took it one step further – 10 minutes of grooves and hooks done in inimitable style. The Roses never did any advertising or interviews during their early career which made this 12″ single extremely mysterious and compelling. 
4. Painbirds (Sparklehorse) – ‘Good Morning Spider’ should have been on my album list, but its represented here by its devastating second track. Mark Linkous’ writing and production style were revolutionary. 15 years later I’m still hearing the Sparklehorse sound on new indie releases. A massive leap for music production, and a brilliant song to boot.
5. Doctor Who (Delia Derbyshire) – the original theme from the BBC TV series is one of the most important pieces of early electronic music, and the masterwork of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. I won’t go into the incredible way in which this piece was composed and recorded, but I highly recommend that you watch this brilliant documentary about Delia and her counterparts at the BBC in the early 60s! 
6. Stone Cold Crazy (BBC Session version) (Queen) – often credited as the first ‘thrash’ song, Stone Cold Crazy established Queen as a very serious and heavy band.
7. Anarchy In The UK (Sex Pistols) – its hard to say that the song was a leap for the band, as they recorded so little, but this was a huge leap from the US punk scene that spawned it. “I only like the Pistols – everything else is boring”.
8. Blue Monday (New Order) – Until Blue Monday, New Order were still recognizable as Joy Division – the transition was slow and uneasy – but this song marked Bernard Sumner’s triumphant grasp of pop music, production and songcraft. 
9. Freakscene (Dinosaur Jr.) – it was very hard not to put Nirvana on this list – their innovations are countless and brilliant, but including them would mean including The Pixies, Husker Du, Mudhoney, Butthole Surfers et al. For me, Freakscene is the song that eclipses the proto-grunge scene – snarly and devil-may-care, dirty, funny, profane and just plain cool.
10. Somethin’ Else (Eddie Cochran) – Eddie was in danger of becoming a bit more of a pop star than a rocker but this song, and particularly its production cements his legend as one of the great rockers. The riff at the start of Somethin’ Else is among the heaviest in rock.