The first of this week’s six sparklers comes from Laetitia Sadier. Over the course of her more than three-decade career, she has never shied away from the hard topics or stopped advocating for the possibility of self-determination and emancipation in the face of the powers that be, conscious or unconscious. This is an essential part of the foundation she co-built with Stereolab, showcasing her spiritual, scientific and sociopolitical inquiries. She’s continued this process with Monade and under her own name and as a writer, singer and musician whose every album acts as a report on her journey of the self through time, space and the collective. On Rooting for Love, the report is set alight by the heat of a turbulent world, collapsing institutions and Laetitia’s fully engaged process of expression as well as orchestration.
Still riding high on their successes of the early ’70s, Slade rode into London’s New Victoria Theatre for two nights as part of the tour promoting the soundtrack LP from their feature film Flame, which had been recently released to critical acclaim. The second of these nights was recorded on 26 April 1975 to be broadcast later on BBC Radio 1 as the second part of the Insight radio show entitled ‘Six Days on the Road’. It features the highly regarded ‘How Does It Feel’ as well as classic hits including ‘Gudbuy T’Jane’, ‘Far Far Away’ and ‘Mama Weer All Crazee Now’, as well as long-time stage favourite ‘Just a Little Bit’.
Live in Paris 1973, the latest instalment of the curated series of Can concerts, is the first to feature the legendary vocals of Damo Suzuki. This live series has been overseen by founding member Irmin Schmidt and producer/engineer René Tinner, who worked delicately on restoring the archival recordings to the highest possible quality for current technology. This record captures the band’s 1973 performance in Paris and features Irmin Schmidt on keyboards, Jaki Liebezeit on drums, Michael Karoli on guitars, Holger Czukay on bass and Damo Suzuki on vocals for one of his final shows with the band.
1985 is a newly curated limited-edition deluxe box set by The Waterboys’ leader Mike Scott that tells the story of the making of their landmark album This Is the Sea and its timeless single ‘The Whole of the Moon’. The set takes the listener through 95 tracks over six CDs, including 64 previously unreleased home recordings, early demos, alternate versions, outtakes, live recordings and TV/radio sessions covering the recording process of the album, along with a remastered version of This Is the Sea. The accompanying 220-page hardback book contains a first-hand account, written by Waterboys’ singer and songwriter Mike Scott with additional sections by Anthony Thistlethwaite and Max Edie, of the creation of the album with deep recording details, background, cultural context, photographs (many previously unseen), songwriting pages, lyrics and previously unseen writings.
Real Estate’s sixth full-length album, Daniel, was recorded in an ebullient nine-day spree at RCA Studio A in Nashville with Grammy-winning producer Daniel Tashian. Several days into recording, all five members of Real Estate were discussing album titles when someone suggested Daniel, simply because it seemed funny to bestow a human name upon a record. Was it for Daniel Tashian? Maybe. Was it a nod to The Replacements’ Tim? Possibly. Was it the sign of a band that has now been around long enough to take its music seriously without taking itself or its perception too seriously? Absolutely.
Our release of the week is Millennials, which – from start to finish, top to bottom – has been made entirely to The Snuts’ script. The result is a tight, taut, fat-free masterclass in songwriting and production. The Snuts have two chart-topping albums under their belts, songs that attack subjects affecting the youth of today, and an arsenal of adoring fans up and down the country. As these four lads from Whitburn, West Lothian vowed four years ago, The Snuts wanted to be risky. And, with Millennials, they have followed through on that promise. On their third album they’ve followed up, changed up and – fully, wholeheartedly, joyfully – revved up.
Click on an image to order your copy.