#this song is literally set in 1961 and the ep is called 1961. and like basically the whole song is wildly appropriate somehow | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

omdaily10 · 5 years

Text

NEVER BEEN BETTER

Album: Fourth

Writers/Producers: Jason Evigan, Sean Douglas, Sam Hollander, Claude Kelly, Steve Robson, Martin Johnson, Peter Wallevik, Daniel Davidsen, Cutfather, Ryan Tedder, TMS, Steve Mac, Wayne Hector, Paul Weller, Jamie Scott, Matt Prime, FutureCut, John Newman

Release Date: 24/11/2014 (Original) / 20/11/2015 (Reissue)

Chart Positions: #1 (UK), #1 (Scotland), #7 (Ireland), #20 (Switzerland), #27 (Australia), #28 (Finland), #38 (Germany), #38 (Denmark), #40 (Austria), #42 (US), #50 (Sweden)

Sales: 861k (UK, 2x Platinum)

As we touched on with our 'Wrapped Up' review, anything longer than six months away in pop and people can start to ask questions about an artist’s future, such is the fickle nature of the beast. Olly was certainly in more of an interesting position than most, having now had two back to back million selling, chart slaying albums. He had quite literally confounded all expectations. ‘Never Been Better’ was a significant album for that reason, but it’s also a landmark album in other respects.

Back when work on the ‘Right Place Right Time’ album had only just got under way in the summer of 2012, a massive shift in personnel happened at Epic Records. Nick Raphael and Jo Charrington, who had overseen Olly from his launch, were poached by Universal Records to head up the relaunched Capitol label, in turn going onto launch the successful careers of 5 Seconds of Summer and Sam Smith.

Eighteen months on, and whilst Olly stayed under the Sony umbrella, he subsequently moved from Epic to the reactivated RCA label, headed up by former Island Records MD Nick Gatfield, meaning he had a new A&R man overseeing him and a new album for the first time since his debut. Now entering his fifth year in pop – which many cynics will tell you is the point popularity can either sustain itself or wane from a peak for an artist – Olly had a hell of a lot to prove. It certainly explains why he took as long as he did on it.

This album had to cement his position and popularity in the UK music scene and most importantly, have the songs to back it up. And it’s fair to say that for the vast majority of the album, that was the case. Certainly, you’d be hard pressed to find a more fitting song to kick off the album than the cheekily titled ‘Did You Miss Me?’

Initially touted as the first single before Olly got cold feet about a potential press backlash regarding misunderstanding of the title, and co-written with Los Angeles based hitmaker Jason Evigan (Maroon 5, Madonna, Kelly Clarkson, Britney Spears) this mischief making, horn drenched, Prince-esque strut was bold, brash and attention grabbing: ‘I can tell that you’ve missed me / Cause your eyes give it away / I know you can’t resist me / So show me, show me, show me that you missed me’. It’s a shame he didn’t go with his instincts, because really pop is built on those grand moments of statements of intent.

For that same reason, the title track, co-written with the TMS team, and a record that upped the epic grandeur of ‘Army of Two’ from the last album, was also a highlight. Recorded with a 60-piece orchestra and coming off as part Bond theme part McFly at their hardest, it was a soaring rocket of a track that Olly stretched his vocal chops on, hitting higher notes than he ever had before, and which he performed to devastatingly brilliant effect on the accompanying tour for the album (more on which in a second).

TMS also offered light and shade to Olly’s personality as an artist on the tracks ‘Why Do I Love You’ and ‘Nothing Without You’. The latter was a plaintive, simplistic piano ballad, stating to his then girlfriend of the time that life without her would be nothing. The former track, however, was possibly one of the most dark and experimental tracks he’d done to that point, an almost psychedelic, Northern soul leaning pop number on the agony of being in love with a non-committal partner. It was in many ways, like the renegade evil twin of ‘Oh My Goodness’.

British singer songwriter John Newman, who’d famously topped the charts with drum and bass outfit Rudimental on their 2012 single ‘Feel The Love’, as well as hitting the charts with songs like ‘Come and Get It’ and ‘Love Me Again’, co-wrote ‘Stick With Me’, a pulsing dance track with an eerie choir effect produced by Steve Mac and Wayne Hector. Immediately following it was the very lustful ‘Can’t Say No’, a stripped to the bone part acoustic funk pop number.

But closing off the album was possibly one of the biggest coups Olly could have hoped for in his career at that moment. Some two years previously, he had performed a cover of ‘Broken Stones’, a track from ‘Stanley Road’, the iconic 1995 album from British rock legend Paul Weller, first for The Sun Biz Sessions, and then at his headline slot for the annual iTunes Festival in Camden, North London. Olly had grown up around Paul’s music in his dad’s record collection and had stated what a fan he was of both his solo work and his work in The Jam (he also covered their 1982 chart topper ‘A Town Called Malice’ on the previous tour).

Fast forward to spring 2014, and he was fortunate to meet Paul at the annual Teenage Cancer Trust fundraiser gig at the Royal Albert Hall in London, who mentioned that he had written the bones of a song with Olly in mind. With some additional co-writing from Olly, that song became ‘Let Me In’, a genuinely moving acoustic number which showed off the more soulful, reflective tones in his voice and which you could almost picture being sung around a campfire at dusk.

If ever he’d needed confirmation that he was more of a serious proposition than ever, then his work with such a respected legend was it. In fact, many reviewers subsequently highlighted it as such, with The Guardian proclaiming it to be “the best thing he’s done in his career” in their analysis of the album. Amy Davidson, reviewing the album for Digital Spy, was also full of praise, stating that with ‘Never Been Better’, “Olly isn't in the wallflower business, rather he fully intends on running with his title without a whiff of uncertainty.”

‘Never Been Better’ then, ultimately proved to be a prophetic title – it became his third consecutive UK number one album, once again taking just under a month to achieve its first platinum disc, as well as sailing into the top 10 or top 40 in seven other countries, eventually going onto be certified double platinum by the end of its chart run. It also showed that, far from being forgotten with a year away, Olly’s popularity was quite undiminished and had, well, never been better.

BONUS TRACKS, UNWRAPPED

As with his previous album, the original release of ‘Never Been Better’ came in a standard 13 track version, and a deluxe edition, once again in a digipak booklet format, and substituting the yellows and reds of the standard artwork for a mixture of creams and beiges, as well as four additional tracks.

Highlights among these extra four songs included ‘Ready for Love’, a folksy, rousing foot stomper that you could almost picture being sung by a 70s era Elton John (although no relation to his 1979 song and subsequent 2003 chart topper of the same name). The twilight strewn dreaminess of the ballad ‘History’ ensured that it quickly became a fan favourite, and was performed by Olly on that year’s telethon for ITV’s ‘Text Santa’ charity.

Internationally, fans in Germany and Japan were treated to two further bonus tracks. Only available on copies of the deluxe edition sold in the German entertainment store Mediamarkt, ‘Alone Tonight’ saw Olly team up once again with the Future Cut team on possibly the steamiest sounding song he’d recorded to that point: ‘Kiss me like a stranger / It’s time to misbehave, don’t leave me lonely / I can’t leave you alone tonight’. It’s still currently unavailable for streaming or digital download in any territory at time of writing.

'Alone Tonight’ was also on the deluxe edition in Japan, along with a very special track recorded with another music legend. ‘Sukiyaki’ (literally translated as ‘I Look Up As I Walk’) had been a phenomenally successful record for the Japanese crooner Kyu Sakamoto back in 1961, having sold something in excess of 13m copies worldwide. Olly was invited to re-record a version of the song with English lyrics, titled ‘Look at the Sky’, written by none other than Yoko Ono, who sung his praises highly of his performance of the song.

As of time of writing in May 2019, Olly is still yet to release a Christmas album despite much continual demand for him to do so. The ‘Unwrapped’ EP, a five-track acoustic EP given away free for download on Google Play during December 2014, and recorded at Google’s British headquarters in London, is thus the closest we’ve probably got to an official seasonal release of his. ‘Wrapped Up’ and ‘History’ were performed in his set, along with an additional cover of Wizzard’s ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’, in the same arrangement as his previous recording of the festive favourite for BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge in December 2012.

NEVER BEEN BETTER: SPECIAL EDITION

As in 2013, Olly spent much of 2015 touring (and pursuing other activities as we’ll come onto discuss in later entries for this era). Once again with no time to get a full new album ready, he decided to repeat the formula that had worked so well for the last album by repacking it as a special edition for reissue a year after it first came out. A new black and yellow colour scheme adorned the artwork, the original 13 tracks from the album remained. And joining them were seven brand new songs, including a further two singles which we’ll be discussing at a later stage.

Claude Kelly and Steve Robson bought the frenetic funk to ‘Sacrifice’, a lively up-tempo floor filler that hardly had time to pause for breath. Meanwhile, Sam Hollander, an American based songwriter and producer who had written for decidedly more punk pop orientated artists like Blink 182 and Good Charlotte, delivered the haunting, lighters aloft ballad ‘If I Stay’, an empowering song about wanting to not give up on a relationship until the last.

‘Love Shouldn’t Be This Hard’ marked Olly’s first collaboration with Toby Gad, the hitmaker for the likes of Beyoncé, Pixie Lott and JLS. A genuinely compelling, almost country leaning midtempo about that awkward first stages of dating when there’s a desperate but repressed need to fill the silences, it seems all but forgotten now but is a gem worth unearthing.

Rounding off the repacked album were two more recordings for BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge from December 2014: his then new single ‘Up’, performed acoustically with Ella Eyre, who subsequently performed it with him when she supported him on his UK and Ireland arena tour for the album in April 2015, and his version of Wham’s timeless festive favourite ‘Last Christmas’, gentle sleigh bells jingling in the background and all.

Ella also crops up on the second home video release of Olly’s, as the repack included the accompanying DVD of the fourth and final London O2 show of the ‘Never Been Better’ tour, recorded on 7th May 2015, as she performs ‘Up’ with him on there too. The DVD sadly had to omit the popular ‘Funk Medley’ section of the tour that year, owing to the failure of clearance for use of several of the songs in the medley for release. However, the performance of ‘Troublemaker’ with Robbie Williams as a surprise guest is retained and is well worth a watch even now.

The repacked ‘Never Been Better’ had the dual misfortune of coming out during one of the toughest weeks in Olly’s career (more on which in future entries), but also during one of the best for Adele, who released her third album ‘25’ that same week and which sold over 800,000 copies in its first week alone. However, it still returned the album to the top 10 for Christmas that year, ensuring that Olly notched up one of the year’s best-selling albums in the UK for a fifth year on the trot.

#Olly Murs #Olly Murs Daily #10th Anniversary #OMDaily10 #Never Been Better #Fourth Album #2014 #2015 #Retrospective #Review #Deluxe Edition #Special Edition #Unwrapped EP

5 notes · View notes

stevecanmakeanythingnerdy · 5 years

Text

Battle #15

8 Bark: Structurally Sound (Side A)

Vs.

Jets To Brazil : Four Cornered Night (Side D)

8 Bark: Structurally Sound (Side A)

Outside of maybe the people who witnessed their tours and Chicago natives, not many may recognize their name...but to those in the know previously mentioned, they will never forget their name. 8 Bark was a punk band from Chicago, formed by Douglas Ward following the demise of ID Under. The group existed from 1990 until 1994. Relatively short as far as bands go, but longer than some. 8 Bark's sound was notable for its dual male/female vocals. They released several records on the Chicago label Underdog Records, which Douglas helped run. Following their split, Douglas formed V.Reverse and continues to remain active in the Chicago punk scene. There is a distinct sound to 8 Bark. They would fall firmly between the cracks of a band like Fugazi, and helped pave the way for future bands like Marry Me and Braid. Mix in a little emo hardcore helper and you have yourself some pre Cap ‘n Jazz-ercise (#seewhatididthere). It’s fitting they chose to title this LP Structurally Sound, because it literally is. They use structure to create beautiful and raw emotional sound like you have never heard before. The LP is actually The Big Wheel ep with a few more tracks to flesh it out. They are returning contenders from RRW season one. It’s Chicago blue collar emo. I love these guys (and gal) so much. I was introduced to them at the right time during my punk rock development and really keyed in on their DIY ethos and passion. It’s still very much a part of me today. Everything from the lyrics to the packaging scream underground and proud. The econo look plus zine style really gives it credibility in my opinion. “Your Hole” is original and energetic in every sense of the word. Timing is impeccable, the structure is accurate and the warm bass with tight drums and alternating male/female vocals just seal the deal. The title track “Structurally Sound” adds more back and forth with healthy highs and lovely lows. Shawn Scallen knew who they were, and if that name doesn’t mean anything to you, then I suggest you start googling. “Old Wardrobe” is strangely reminiscent of R. E. M. ‘s “End of the World”. It’s the vocal cadence I guess, but it has a similar vibe. Also bonus points for use of diverse instruments like bells. “Eye and Keyhole” is actually a weaker tune by comparison, but still merits some kudos with the harmonies. I guess that’s it in a nutshell. A sound Like nothing you’ve ever heard, but still recognized as a song with verses and chorus and harmonies, but with chaos as the guiding force. “Back To You” might be one of the finest examples of the band’s signature sound, full of hot start/stop Action. Perhaps helping to invent math rock. Rad guitar solos prove they know what’s up with the popular vote, but they still beat into submission your subconscious rock roots. It’s just a damn good song! “Cut” is the final tune and it still sounds as fresh as the day it was...well, cut (#seewhatididthere) in 1992! Do not underestimate how important this band was to early 90’s underground punk in Chi-town. Some of your favorite sweater wearing emo kids owe a debt to this platter.

Jets To Brazil : Four Cornered Night (Side D)

The basis of what would become Jets to Brazil was founded by Blake Schwarzenbach, the former frontman of longtime RRW house favorites Jawbreaker, and Mr. Jeremy Chatelain. When Schwarzenbach relocated to New York City after Jawbreaker had disbanded. The two began working on four-track recordings aided by drum machines until former Texas Is the Reason drummer Chris Daly joined the band, and they signed to Jade Tree Records. The origin of the band's name came from a suggestion by Daly, after seeing it on a poster in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's. Technically then, the band is from Brooklyn. The band was really quite short lived, existing only from 1997 to 2003. They released three studio albums, of which Four Cornered Night is the second, and honestly the most poorly received by fans. By autumn of 2003, less than a year after the release of Perfecting Loneliness, the band had broken up for unspecified reasons. Coming pretty much right off the demise of Jawbreaker-a band that called it quits literally at the apex of their career JTB were introduced to an almost immediate and desperate fan base. Their credentials seemed to indicate that they would be underground darlings, but not for long. I think everyone had expectations of them exploding to a major label status - however Blake made it quite clear early on in interviews that the major label experience left a bad taste. So this is their sophomore offerings. They had already released the initial collection of tunes which very much were on par with what fans of the previous bands were expecting to hear. This group then allowed for a bit more experimentation and diversity. It’s certainly more indie rock. Side D (yes, “D” -it’s one of those expanded to be a double LP and remastered blah, blah, blah. I hate these actually. Pointless in my opinion. I own it because of my love for Jawbreaker, therefore guilt by association). I want to be mad at this band, but they are good at what they do. And in a nutshell that is “Mid-Day Anonymous”. Good, indie rock with Blake’s amazing poetry as lyrics. It contains Pavement level vibes and bleeds directly into “******* (7 Stars)”. Hey! They took my stars idea!! Just kidding. It’s an acoustic ending as the song winds down. “Orange Rhyming Dictionary” is next. Possibly named after their debut album, but contains more of those exquisite lyrics and pretentious poetry set to a Texas is the Reason soundtrack. Makes sense though, right? Tempos slow and basic templates apply but you won’t care, I promise. Crank! Records May have well released this. “All Things Good and Nice” finishes the album. It’s organ heavy, partially because they added a second guitarist on this one to allow Blake to play keys. Still good, but it’s confusing. Almost a turn away. This song seems like a Dashboard Confessional (#seewhatididthere). As if Blake awakened and the ARTIST shines on JTB. Almost seems like an apology and absolve for Jawbreaker. It’s a complicated relationship between the two. For fans of Jimmy Eats World. Mineral if you’re mining for compliments (#seewhatididthere).

Today, Chicago’s own 8 Bark proved they are Structurally Sound. They burned 104 calories over 14 minutes and 6 songs. That is 17.33 calories burned per song and 7.43 calories burned per minute. 8 Bark earned 13 out of 18 possible stars. Jets To Brazil showed us the nocturnal side of things and it apparently has four corners. They burned 132 calories over 17 minutes and 3 (1/2) songs. That is 37.71 calories burned per song and 7.78 calories burned per minute. In addition to their own 7 Stars, they earned 6out of 9 possible stars. A close one today, but Jets To Brazil are blasting off as the champions!

Jets To Brazil: “Orange Rhyming Dictionary”. Forgive the poor audio as there are better vids out there of just audio, but I wanted to show the mighty Blake in his element. Live.

https://youtu.be/1Gk8iyGNUiM

#Randomrecordworkoutseasonsix

#Randomrecordworkout

#randomrecordworkout #vinyl #90s music #90s #punkrock #punk rock #jets to brazil #jawbreaker #2000s music #early 2000s #jade tree #records #randomrecordworkoutseason6 #underdog #chicago #texas is the reason #emo #emo rock

1 note · View note