July 2020 Record Challenge (The Raffle Strikes Back)

JULY 23
UNCHARTED TERRITORY
Play an album where the artist was experimenting/trying something new or different

Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home

Well, someone has to do it, right? Although this album came out a dog's life before I was even born, I know how important it is that Dylan was backed by electric guitar in half the songs on this album. Add to this his electric set at the Newport Folk Festival and you've got an A-1 example of someone trying something new. I feel like this album is still kinda attached to his folk roots, but it's the one where he added a backing rock n roll band, so I chose this one instead of Highway 61.

Don't ask me nothing' 'bout nothin', I might just tell you the truth
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July 23: Uncharted Territory

Madonna - Ray of Light

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Madonna went away from her safe (yet innovative) brand of synthpop to transition to the world of electronica, featuring elements of downtempo, trip-hop, and house. It paid off in dividends: one of her most acclaimed works of her career, and certainly in my top 3 of her discography.
 
Wow, let myself get really behind. Catch up time.

JULY 17
LET THE MUSIC DO THE TALKING
Play something instrumental

Lee Morgan - Cornbread

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JULY 18
POETRY IN MOTION
Play an album with great lyrics

mewithoutYou - Brother, Sister

Not my favorite from them, but this is definitely their best lyrically. It's a rewarding listen that led me to read a bunch of the different references. It features a lot of allusions to Sufi poetry and The Gita.

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JULY 19
I WANT TO BELIEVE
Play something that makes you think of aliens 👽

Japanese Breakfast - Soft Sounds From Another Planet

I'm pretty sure she made this album with a sci-fi project in mind.

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DAY 23 - UNCHARTED TERRITORY

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Bon Iver, 22, A Million.

After two distinctly beautiful, tuneful albums, this arrives. I have a theory that he actually recorded a conventional album and then, during mixing, decided to remove most of the things that would have made it conventional. This album feels cut up and sonically shifted recalling more Kid A era Radiohead, or at least more in the spirit of the cut-up method William S. Burroughs used to employ with his works.

Not to say it is a bad album. But, much like the Low album that @TenderLovingKiller® played today, I am genuinely surprised at how many people seem to enjoy when artists become difficult.
 
JULY 23
UNCHARTED TERRITORY
Play an album where the artist was experimenting/trying something new or different

Great Grandpa - Four of Arrows

If it weren't for Alex Menne's distinctive voice, you probably wouldn't think Four of Arrows came from the same band that debuted with Plastic Cough. Where their first album was all grunge snarl, this is a layered, nuanced album, alternately quiet and soaring, reaching heights that you wouldn't even have known were possible after listening to their first album. It's a total reinvention in sound, and the result was one of my favorite albums of 2019.

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JULY 23
UNCHARTED TERRITORY
David Bowie - Low
This one is pretty obvious, but basically every bowie album in the 70s was a right turn from the previous album.

I say this all the time, but think about this. David started recording Diamond Dogs in January 1974. He started his largest tour in support of that record in the summer of 74, part way through the tour started to record The Gouster which was scrapped. Went back on tour and took another break to start recording Young Americans and then completely gutted his tour and started the Philly Dogs tour, all before the end of 1974. Took a bit of a breather when he finished YA in January 1975. Starred in The Man Who Fell To Earth and then started to make StationToStation. Finished the album and went on tour in early 1976 for the that and then went off to Berlin and France where he finished Low by December 1976. So in 36 months he records 5 records, did 2 world tours, starred in a movie and produced an Iggy Pop record. Cocaine, its a hell of a drug.
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JULY 23
UNCHARTED TERRITORY
Play an album where the artist was experimenting/trying something new or different

Everything But the Girl - Walking Wounded

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EBTG were mainly know as a folksy, indie pop duo until Missing was remixed by Todd Terry into a house banger that took over around the globe. So for their follow up they did an entire album in the electronic/trip hop style and it’s their highest charting album and a personal favorite.
 
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