Project Description

IN RETROSPECT

HOTEL CALIFORNIA

ANIMALS

THE JOSHUA TREE

ANNIVERSARIES EDITION

REVIEWER: NICK DUNN

It’s said that everything is clearer with the benefit of hindsight. With that in mind as 2017 comes to a close and everybody is busy rounding up their favourite picks for the year, Amnplify would like to take a moment to reflect on three classic albums that have paved the way for others to follow. Each has had a significant anniversary come to pass this year, and each is a standing testament to the timelessness of remarkable music. Without further ado, it’s time to put on our retrospective lenses and delve into the past.

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Hotel California – Eagles – 40 Years

No, your eyes do not deceive you, it has indeed been forty long years since the Eagles issued their classic LP ‘Hotel California.’ As of 2017, the album remains a towering commentary on the opulence and pitfalls of Hollywood. Written from the perspective of a non-Californian’s introduction to the entertainment industry, ‘Hotel California’ adopted a uniformly cynical stance towards indulgences which are oft romanticized—namely the inevitable trio of sex, drugs and rock n’roll. Drummer and vocalist Don Henley has described the LP as “another step in the evolution of the band.” Indeed in hindsight it was that and more, it also served as a palpable indicator (and instigator) of a growing wariness of excess in showbiz, an ideological movement that would come fully to bear in the nineties with the emergence of grunge.

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Animals – Pink Floyd – 40 Years

In 1973, Pink Floyd laid siege to the airwaves with what is as of today the 3rd best-selling LP of all time, ‘Dark Side Of The Moon.’ In 1975 they issued follow up album ‘Wish You Were Here,’ a release hampered only by EMI’s post-printing realization that they were faced with more customers than there were vinyl’s. Thus when ‘Animals’ was released in 1977, it was on the back of abundant commercial success and widespread critical acclaim. ‘Animals’ never did reach the lofty monetary heights of its predecessors. It did, however, leave a definite mark. Regarded now as one of the great political statements of its era, the aptly named ‘Dogs,’ ‘Pigs (Three Different Ones)’ and ‘Sheep’ take inspiration from the George Orwell novella ‘Animal Farm.’ Between commercial big-wigs, politicians and the apathetic everyman, very few are safe from the criticisms levelled by Roger Water’s commentaries, seen here at their most biting.

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The Joshua Tree – U2 – 30 Years

In 1976 U2 was not U2. U2 was in fact ‘Feedback,’ and consisted of four Irish teenagers squeezed into a kitchen, possessing a musical ethos revolving around their inability to actually play an instrument. Fast forward eleven years and those four Irish teens are now men, and U2 have inexplicably achieved biggest band in the world status. ‘The Joshua Tree,’ was not their first success, nor was it their last. It does, however, remain the most resounding. The 1987 LP stands as a thematic melting pot, melding Americana with spirituality, romance with resentment, dread with exultation and just a hint of the political. ‘The Joshua Tree,’ finds U2 laced with self-doubt and yet musically boundless. Thirty years down the track and U2 has, for a second time, toured the album, and again they have filled out stadiums along the way.

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AMNPLIFY – AA