Alphabet Soup Week 25: Artists Filed Under M

A whirlwind of a week means last week's column is now this week's column, setting the table for a double helping of Alphabet Soup this week!

Welcome to Week 26 of the year and week 25 of Alphabet Soup! With the multitude of major life events taking place over the past fortnight, we’re a little backed up at the soup factory. Expect another serving of playlist magic later this week before we return to a more regular schedule next week.

Given everything going on in my life, this week’s installment, and likely the next, will be a little shorter than usual. Once my hiking starts next week I expect the posting to become a little more consistent, with a Wed/Thurs publication target date, but it’s possible that the each track’s blurb continues to be a little less verbose (perhaps not a bad thing). We’ll just have to see.

Let’s jump right into the Artists Filed Under M!!

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ALPHABET SOUP WEEK 25: Artists Filed Under M

This week’s selections:

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ARTIST: Mulu

TRACK: "Filmstar" from Smiles Like A Shark (1997)

Mulu was a short-lived (sadly way too short-lived in my opinion) British trip hop band that released only one full length, 1997’s Smile Like A Shark. Filmstar was one of the three singles released from the album.

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ARTIST: Morcheeba

TRACK: "The Sea" from Big Calm (1998)

While I first heard of Morcheeba with Trigger Hippy from their 1996 debut Who Can You Trust?, the first album I physically owned was the follow up, 1998’s Big Calm, on which this track appears (we also saw Blindfold from the same album back in week 4). I’d later go back and fill in my library with their debut and would buy their music religiously for a few more releases before losing touch with them after 2005’s The Antidote.

I had assumed that the band had gone the way of so may trip hop bands that originated in the late 90s, but in 2021 I happened upon Blackest Blue, the band’s tenth album. I thoroughly enjoyed the album and it found itself in fairly heavy rotation in the second half of the year, ultimately making its way onto the back half of my 2021 AOTY List. The band is reportedly working on their eleventh album.

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ARTIST: Mono

TRACK: "Slimcea Girl" from Formica Blues (1997)

Back to back appearances in Alphabet Soup for Mono as Life in Mono appeared in last week’s playlist. Slimcea Girl was the second single released from the band’s only full length, 1997’s Formica Blues.

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As you make your way through this week’s playlist, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Do any of these tracks really stand out for you? What do you like? What don’t you like?

Please click the button below to leave a comment.

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ARTIST: Massive Attack

TRACK: "Teardrop" from Mezzanine (1998)

While Massive Attack’s breakthrough album was their 1991 debut Blue Lines, a trip hop masterpiece, I’ve always been partial to their third album, 1998’s Mezzanine. The album is so inextricably linked with what was happening in my life at the time - falling in love with and marrying my wife Tina - that it will always hold a special place in my heart. The album would top the charts in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland and would be their most successful release commercially. Teardrop, written by ex-Cocteau Twins singer Elizabeth Fraser, and featuring her lead vocals, was the second single from the album and became the band’s highest charting single in their native UK, their only song to break into the top 10.

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ARTIST: Moby

TRACK: "Natural Blues" from Play (1999)

Play, the fifth studio album by American electronic artist Moby, was critically acclaimed upon its release in 1999. I’m almost positive this was the only Moby album I ever owned but I recall it receiving heavy airplay at the time. While I could’ve gone with any of a half dozen tracks, I decided to go with Natural Blues primarily because I love the sampled “Trouble So Hard” from American folk singer Vera Hall. This is one of several songs on the album which included samples from music compiled by the legendary ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax. The vocals add a haunting and ethereal, almost otherworldly, element to the track. We’ll hear from Alan Lomax again soon, stay tuned!

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ARTIST: Menahan Street Band

TRACK: "Home Again" from Make The Road By Walking (2008)

Make The Road By Walking, the debut album by Brooklyn-based Menahan Street Band, is a lovely instrumental jazz-soul-funk album. The 2008 album was released on Dunham Records, an imprint of the legendary and influential Daptone Records. Band Leader Thomas Brenneck played and toured with the Dap-Kings, the Daptone Records house band and backing band for Sharon Jones (RIP). The band also backed Charles Bradley on his four releases with Brenneck producing. As chronicled by Jessica Lipsky for Billboard in 2021, the Dap-Kings played a significant part in the sound of Amy Winehouse’s 2006 album Back in Black, performing on six tracks.

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ARTIST: Me'Shell Ndegeocello

TRACK: "If That's Your Boyfriend (He Wasn't Last Night)" from Plantation Lullabies (1993)

While I’ve enjoyed Me’Shell Ndegeocello‘s music over the years, Plantation Lullabies is the only physical album of hers I ever owned; my wife Tina brought it into our CD library when we first got together. I’m not convinced I ever listened to the whole album, but I’ve always loved this song.

The following year Ndegeocello would partner with John Mellencamp for a wonderful cover of Van Morrison’s Wild Night. I hadn’t listened to much of her recent music until last year when she released The Omnichord Real Book, an excellent and critically acclaimed album which just missed making my 2023 AOTY list.

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ARTIST: Mulatu Astatke

TRACK: "Shagu" from Afro Latin Soul (1966)

Ethiopian musician Mulatu Astatke is widely credited as the father of Ethio-Jazz, an amalgamation of traditional Ethiopian music, with its pentatonic scale-based melodies, and western jazz and rhythms. Afro Latin Soul, one of Astatke’s earliest releases, and the only one I ever owned on CD, is on the more conventional Latin soul-jazz spectrum than the fusion of his later releases (see 1974’s Yekatit: Ethio Jazz).

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ARTIST: The Melodians

TRACK: "Sweet Sensation" from Rivers of Babylon (The Best of the Melodians 1967-73) (1997)

The Melodians were a Jamaican rocksteady (successor to ska, precursor to reggae) band that formed in Kingston in 1963. The band’s biggest hit Rivers of Babylon, released in 1970, is a Rastafari song that appeared in the 1972 movie The Harder They Come. In 1978 the song was re-recorded by Boney M and would go on to become one of the top best-selling singles in UK history (sitting at number 7 as of November 2023).

Rather than going with the bigger hit, I’ve selected Sweet Sensation from the 1997 best of compilation Rivers of Babylon. The song perfectly captures the transitional period between ska and reggae with its slower ska-style but not-quite-reggae tempo along with the lyrical themes of love that characterized the short-lived rocksteady style.

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ARTIST: Maxi Priest

TRACK: "Housecall" from Best of Me (1991)

I’ve ended up including a lot less reggae in this series than I initially thought I would when I started in January. I had a fairly comprehensive reggae collection in my CD library but I’ve often found it difficult to find reggae tracks that fit into the flow of each week’s playlist. But this week’s playlist evolved in such a way that I could wrap up with an early 90’s reggae favorite.

While Housecall is typically credited to Shabba Ranks, it also appeared on Maxi Priest’s fabulous Best of Me compilation released in 1991. Back in the day I was a big fan of both artists and I love the way this track captures Shabba’s dancehall vibe while still giving us plenty of Maxi’s smooth vocals.

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Life in the key of M: Milestones

Since the last installment of Alphabet Soup I’ve experienced a number of major life milestones (hence the delayed publication). A week ago we closed on the sale of our condo just days after disposing of the vast majority of our belongings and sending the rest into storage. On June 20th I celebrated 30 years clean and sober, a significant milestone on a journey that’s yielded a most amazing and rewarding life. Friday was the last last day of work in my career as I’ve now entered retirement. And yesterday we flew from Bermuda to New York, where we’ll hang out for a few days before heading to London on Thursday morning. A week from today we’ll head to Minehead in Somerset to embark on our longest long distance walk to date, England’s 630-mile South West Coast Path.

Needless to say, I’ve been busy and fairly distracted over the last couple weeks and my Substack has had to take a backseat. Having said that, I expect life to enter a much more sedate pace; while we’ll be walking for 10-12 miles a day, we’ll also have much more free time than we’ve had for much of the last couple months. Given how busy I’ve been, I’ve hardly had time to process these major life changes intellectually let alone emotionally. It will be interesting to see how my mood shifts over the coming weeks as I begin to wrap my mind around this new stage of my life. While I’m excited, I’m also prepared for a bumpy road emotionally and am committed to treating myself with kindness as I navigate this transitional period.

Until next week next time (later this week, hopefully), wishing you peace and joy.

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Here’s the link to the running playlist which is updated on a weekly basis as each new installment is published:

ALPHABET SOUP RUNNING PLAYLIST

Tracks missing from the Spotify playlist:

• Allegory by Murray Attaway (Week 02)

• Face Me and Smile by The Lover Speaks (Week 12)

• From Your Mouth by God Lives Underwater (Week 13)

• This Can’t Go On! by The Lover Speaks (Week 23)

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Thank you for reading Joy in the Journey, I appreciate you being here! If there’s someone in your life you think may enjoy this post, feel free to share it.