Pearl - Janis Joplin

This is the album we both wanted for tonight. There have been too many morose men and not enough crazy women in our Martini Saturdays.  We made smokey martinis with Hendricks, Coal Ila scotch and a twist of lemon. Then we sat outside and smoked a cigar. Janis Joplin's Pearl takes us a million miles away from home.

It's impossible to passively listen to Janis; she demands you participate. For us, this participation involves frantically swaying around with our eyes closed like hippy lunatics. Not knowing a lot of the lyrics doesn't stop us too from doing our best interpretation of Janis wailing. We sing along in a shrill falsetto to Cry Baby, even though it completely ruins the song. We don't think Janis would have minded, even if the dogs of the neighbourhood do.

Full Title Boogie are a brilliant rhythm and blues band; energetic, boppy and emotive. But it's Janis' vocals that kick the songs on Pearl into the stratosphere. She wails and moans, screams and cries and veers from joy to anger to love to laughter. She was the first true rock chick and I don't think you can name another woman that goes close to her. They're all a bit too calculating in their rock chic.

This album is polished despite not being finished. Buried Alive in the Blues is a rocking, balls out, rhythm and blues track. It assumes a degree of pathos when we read that the reason it is instrumental is because Janis died before she could record the vocals. 

Me and Bobby McGee feels different to the rest of the album. It's pure, tremendous country, inciting women the world over to sing karaoke. It was written by Kris Kristofferson who is not in the basket. Perhaps he should be.

It sounds like Janis is having a grand old time with her first and only cut of Mercedes Benz. The giggle at the end of the song is my favourite part of the album. My mum introduced me to Janis with this song and I have belted it out with her countless times. Janis should be prescribed to strengthen any mother-daughter relationship going through teen angst.

The last two songs, Trust Me and Get It While You Can are impassioned pleas to seek love and comfort. Janis' voice is raw by this point, as if she banged out all the vocals in one sitting.  She completely throws herself at every song, the energy of the performance exhilarating. If we could time travel to any point in history, we'd choose one of her gigs. Perhaps the ones where she isn't too intoxicated.

Pearl is a revelation on every listen. Soft or loud. At a party or on a quiet Saturday afternoon. Feeling good is easy when you listen to this album. It is such a pity that Janis joined so many other artists who self-destruct so tragically young.

The Good Son - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Released in 1990, The Good Son is the sixth album of Australia's favourite rock god, Nick Cave and his Bad Seeds.

The opening track, Foi Na Cruz (translated It Was On The Cross) is based on a Brazilian hymn. It is evocative, sounding like a hundred drunk and lonely sailors singing with their arms around each other, finding comfort only in the promise of salvation offered by Jesus. This album is where the Bad Seeds became a full theatrical production, evolving from a rhythm section into an orchestra. Interestingly, it's one of the smaller incarnations of the band, with only four members in addition to Cave. The orchestral arrangements lend themselves to a much bigger band, as found on the subsequent albums.

L came to Nick Cave quite late, embarrassingly only paying attention to him when he sang with Kylie Minogue (shame.). She finally got it in 2001 with No More Shall We Part. Her theory is that her teenage angst soundtrack needed more of a dance beat or distorted guitar. Tea Party, Tool, Limp Bizkit... (for what use is a blog if you can't confess your shame to the world?).

The father-son duet of The Weeping Song is extraordinary. The question and answer lyrics are compelling, sad and elegant; for example, "Father, why are all the children weeping? They are merely crying son. O, are they merely crying father? Yes, the true weeping is yet to come."

The Ship Song is one of the most perfect, romantic songs of all time. It's a harbinger of the beautiful ballads Cave would perfect in albums like The Boatman's Call. None, however, have ever matched The Ship Song.

The Witness Song is pure anarchic gospel. It evokes an image of an antichrist church, filled with a choir clad in black robes and a congregation of demonic, crazed followers. What amazed me about Cave when I first heard his music was the theatre of this songs. Songs like The Witness Song are three act musicals with a narrative arc, character development and a shocking twist to end.

To describe Cave as a songwriter is an injustice. Cave is a dramatist, who constructs a dark, disturbing and enthralling world. Each of his albums tells its own story. The Good Son is about longing, disappointment and shame. The title character epitomises the paradox Cave illustrates on this album - humans following their desires can destroy themselves, their family and any chance of fulfilment in the process.

This is not the last time we'll pull a Cave album out of the basket. We look forward to lengthy debates about which is his best.