This is the kind of blog you never plan to write, or ever wish to write. At least, not in this context.
A few years ago, a facebook fad did the rounds, ‘Twelve Records That Changed My Life’, or some such challenge. ‘A Desert Island Discs’ of albums so to speak. I’ve done it a few times now but to the best of my knowledge and memory, I’m the only one who’s listed “Bang!” by World Party as one of their choices.
I don’t even really remember how I discovered this record. It was 1993. It could have been ‘Q’ magazine, it could even have been ‘The Chart Show’ on Saturday mornings, remember that?!? but discover it I did. Great records for me have a real mixture of styles, all perfectly blended into a dynamic 45 minute (or so) musical experience. “Bang!” is such a record for me. I’ve listened to the other World Party albums, but despite their potentially greater critical standing, none resonated quite a much.
It’s therefore with some sadness that I learnt yesterday that Karl Wallinger, the writer, singer and multi-instrumentalist performer of the album, had passed away at just 66.
You might be more familiar with Wallinger from his stint as the keyboard player in The Waterboys. You might be more familiar with World Party’s bigger hits ‘Ship Of Fools’ or ‘Put The Message In The Box’ than anything from "Bang!" You might even know he wrote the Robbie Williams hit ‘She’s The One’. It doesn’t matter. If you didn’t know him before, you do now. A rare songwriting talent that seemed to be able to blend all the best bits of The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Prince and Bob Dylan into one unique package. I urge you to have a listen to these three tracks, the singles from “Bang!”, one of my favourite albums of all time, or to explore his back catalogue in your own way. It's quality stuff.
Is It Like Today?
Give It All Away
All I Gave
Record Time
It's bruised and it's battered. I don't know how many times it's been played. Thank goodness I've got an original version though. Newer versions have some kind of Andy Warhol fighter jet design for a cover, I'm guessing maybe there was an issue with the Scrabble tiles???
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