LCD Soundsystem and Portishead take us into the fourth and final week of my personal votes for The 20 Greatest Eponymous Albums Of All Time, which originated with SWC at No Badger Required and were counted down in October.
In respect of placings, LCD Soundsystem came in at #10 on my voting sheet, whilst Portishead were the runners up at #2. But why?
Well... Sound Of Silver is my go-to LCD Soundsystem album., so I’d kind of forgotten how brilliant and fully formed their self-titled debut is.
When SWC ran the (also excellent) series The Noughty Forty last year aka the 40 greatest albums of the 2000s, Sound Of Silver got my full points and came in at #6 overall, whilst LCD Soundsystem managed an admirable #6 and split opinion about whether the bonus CD should be included or excluded.
I deliberately based my vote on the 9-track ‘original’ vinyl album, ignoring the bonus disc that came with the 2CD version I bought, and therefore the singles Losing My Edge, Beat Connection and Yeah.
In doing so, I acknowledged that if I’d added the latter, the eponymous debut would have been several places higher in Top 20. But hey, any reader of this blog will know that I love annoying myself with self-imposed rules. Sometimes it's the only way I can make a decision...!
But I digress. Back to LCD Soundsystem the album, it was watching On Repeat and Tribulations performed live at Glastonbury last year (on TV, I hasten to add) that brought it all back to me.
And Daft Punk Is Playing At My House is not only one of the best album openers ever, but when James Murphy yells "solo!" at 2:49 and then launches into 30 seconds of cowbell, you know you're listening to something special.
Portishead by Portishead is a master class in the follow up album, when your debut defines not only a point in time but a whole musical genre. Given the weight of expectation, with their second album, Portishead understandably tried to distance themselves from both.
Okay, it took three years to get there - which is nothing compared to the eleven years between Portishead and Third – but every second and drop of sweat was worth it.
The move from ‘borrowed’ samples to painstakingly created live recordings tilts the album in a different direction, but loses none of the momentum, pitching towards something terrifying yet bleakly optimistic.
Thankfully, Geoff Barrow, Adrian Utley and Beth Gibbons did come back for one more album - and the occasional reunion - and have continued to plough their own particular musical furrows to stunning effect. But if Portishead had only released one album - this - then they would still have left an indelible mark on the landscape.
Speaking of which, and in line with NBR rules, I also requested an extra Grovel point to be awarded to Portishead, for putting a North Somerset coastal town on the map.
The cover photo pinch from the TV is Alfred Molina as Joe Orton in the 1987 film Prick Up Your Ears. I haven't seen it for years and it's been recorded for several months, patiently awaiting it's moment to shine. Christmas family viewing at Casa K? Too much?
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