Album Review: Shocking Blue - At Home

Alain took us on a psychedelic trip back to 1969 with this month’s album selection, At Home by Shocking Blue. The Dutch rock band is best known for blending psychedelic rock, pop hooks, and a slightly roughened garage‑rock edge, anchored by Mariska Veres’s unmistakable, smoky vocals. While they’re globally remembered for the massive hit “Venus,” it’s on their second album At Home that the band’s true identity comes into focus—rawer, groovier, and more adventurous than their singles might suggest. The group would go on to influence artists as varied as Nirvana, John Mayer, and Bananarama, while drawing heavily from American and British rock, folk, and psychedelic music—a lineage we unpack in the episode 

At Home captures Shocking Blue stretching beyond radio‑friendly pop into bluesy psychedelia and proto‑hard rock, making it an essential snapshot of late‑’60s European rock and a key reason their influence quietly rippled far beyond the Netherlands. But did that influence shape our opinions as we lived with the album over the month? And did we feel this is a band worth making a fuss over? Tune in to find out.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Welcome to the Sonic Collective, a music podcast that explores a different album or musical concept each month, diving deep into its history, context, and impact on the music industry. Join our hosts, Alan, Scott, Scott, and Darren Scott. That's wait a minute, Scott, as they share their thoughts, insights, and personal connections to the music, inviting you, the listener, to discover new perspectives and appreciation for some of the greatest albums and music of all time.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Hey everybody, you are listening to the Sonic Collective. I'm Alan, and this month it was my turn to pick the album we're reviewing. As you probably guessed from the title of this episode, I chose At Home, the second studio album by Dutch band Shocking Blue, originally released in 1969. Now, even if you're not familiar with Shocking Blue or this album specifically, there's a pretty good chance that you've heard at least one of the songs in another form. Most obviously, there is Venus, which famously was covered by Banana Rama in the late 1980s and became a global pop hit. I think it was used on a uh women's razor commercial, if I recall correctly. Um, or if you were into Nirvana like I was, you may recall that Love Buzz was covered on their debut album, Bleach. I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I actually only learned very recently that uh that song was a cover. And so I was curious about what inspired them to choose that song in particular. And so that is when I went and actually listened to Shocking Blue for the first time and uh and Love Buzz specifically, and I was totally not expecting what I heard. Um, because I grew up with Nirvana, and like they're a grunge band, right? Like, so their take on this song is a raw, aggressive, and chaotic punk adjacent rock song, right? Squelchy, noisy breakdown. Um, and I just thought it was kind of just a weird Nirvana song. So when I listen to the original, you know, it's slower, it's more methodical, and it is wildly psychedelic. There's a sitar, a hypnotic bass line, and a trippy breakdown that doesn't really explode so much as spirals outward. Um yeah. I don't know, the contrast stopped me in my tracks between Nirvana's version and this random Dutch band. So after that, I was like, huh, what else do these guys produce here? So I did a quick, quick scan of the rest of At Home on Spotify. It wasn't a proper listen. I just kind of like fast-forwarded through tracks. I heard like a few seconds of each, and then I decided like this this is weird and interesting and complex. I think this would make a really cool Sonic collective pick. And I think I should probably also buy this on vinyl. So uh yeah, that's what I did.

unknown 2:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Um, and by the way, like Calgary and the surrounding area has no shortage of excellent record shops, and I checked all of them, like multiple times for months, with zero luck. I could not find this album anywhere. So uh eventually I just got tired of hunting and I ordered it on Amazon. Yeah. So it's been pretty in pink ever since. Um and basically it remained unopened until this month when we uh we when it came time for me to pick the review. So aside from Love Buzz and Venus, which I had heard before, uh, this album was a fresh listen for me this month, as I'm sure it was for at least a couple of you guys, I'm guessing. Um but before I get into my thoughts on the album as a whole, I want to toss it over to Darren. Darren, I know you're gonna come in hot with your opinion, but I know you also found some interesting historical context around the band and their uh their most well-known song. So I'll throw it over to you.

SPEAKER_02 3:57

Yeah, thanks, Alan. Uh, first of all, great pick. Uh this one really resonated with me uh for sure. Um I had heard of Shocking Blue when I was a teenager, 19, I got a job at a nightclub in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island called Chevy's Rock and Roll Forever. I loved it. I always wanted to be a DJ, and there's only a few clubs I couldn't get in there, so I got in this place, but it was like 50s, 60s, 70s bar. It was hilarious, where you would have like literally, as staff, you get up and dance every 15 minutes to like a tabletop or these big routines. It was like cheesy, slocky, but like super fun job. Long story short, as a DJ there, I got exposed to tons of old uh classic uh uh music. So I learned a ton about that. I remember learning a ton about soul at the time. I'm like, oh, this is where all these kind of like, you know, now hip-hop rap songs are coming from. It all came from Soul. Like at that time, I had no idea. But one I do remember was this one, Shocking Blue. I so I remember thinking, like, oh, I never knew that was the name of the band. Uh I remember I think there was a B side there, there's a couple songs, but that's really all I knew about them. So I knew who they were, I knew they did Venus, but that was the end of it. And man, was I surprised. Like, um, listening to this album, I just thought it was like really ahead of its time. So I guess to back it up a bit, I mean, this is recorded in 1969 uh in September, and uh I guess released then, and I know too, and we did the MC5 uh kick out the jams album, go listen to that episode, interesting one. Uh, but that was known as one of the earliest albums ever of what they'll say is punk, uh uh, that really gave that edgy sound that on and on, like Iggy pop and others would turn into the punk we know today. But uh, that was in February. So it's interesting that uh at the same time over in the Netherlands, there's this netterbeat culture. Uh the Hague was the uh big city in the Netherlands that had this big uh rock resurgence. So inspired by the British uh uh invasion in the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, uh, these bands started to kind of take their own version, make it a little more indie uh theirs, uh, very similar to what was happening in Germany post-World War II when you kind of the Kraut Rock uh revolution started, became you know some of the uh basically forefathers of all these indie and artistic and kind of edgy bands. Uh and the same thing was happening in the Netherlands, maybe not at the scale of Kraut Rock, but uh learning about Netterbeat was very cool. So the big band is Golden Earring. Um Radar Love, I think most will know that song, but Golden Earring became big. They were, I guess, the biggest uh uh band ever from the Netherlands, probably still to this date. But number two is is this uh this group. So I mean, uh they were considered sometimes a one-hit wonder because maybe you didn't hear much, and uh, you know, I had a lot of hits just in their few albums there over five years. So I think maybe it got lost a bit, but they sold so many albums. Almost reminds me we did the one-hit wonders in AHA, and you realize actually in Europe and Norway they had many classic albums, many hits. It's just oh yeah, Canada and America didn't catch on as much. It does not mean it wasn't uh, you know, an amazing band. And I think that speaks to this as well. Uh Mariska Veris, uh, this was her first album. There was an album before, uh, but man, I fell in love with her in a tick. I remember we did Dolly Parn. I fell in love with Dolly Parton, but I'm like, I'm like, she is a beautiful, stunning woman. She wore this, it was actually a wig I apparently uh on her head, but like this long dark hair. Uh, if you're sitting there listening to this podcast now, please pull up uh Marissa Gaveras, and uh, I think you'll agree that uh she is quite stunning. But the voice, too, so different for the time. Uh, especially in these rock bands, you know, females now are still traditionally doing the you know Barbara Streisand type of crooning, they're not really in these edgy rock bands, and here she comes out of nowhere, and not only that, but doesn't have a very feminine, you know, I guess traditionally feminine, uh high-pitched uh voice, and not necessarily singing these beautiful harmonies, but coming in with that like low register edge. And uh, I just found her like her vocals alluring. Uh, there is, you know, it does sound a bit of the era. Uh, one thing that's happening is a lot of the Indian influences that obviously that was George Harrison brought uh from Ravi Shankar and India. The Beatles and a Region Woods started that in the time. Uh, funny enough, we brought it up in our last episode too, but uh the gorillas came up, and their new album, The Mountain, actually is just chock full of this uh Indian influences again, uh, the sitar and other uh instruments. And I found that kind of cool. It's like, well, it sounds dated, but funny enough, that sound is actually coming back like right now. Uh so a very interesting take, but uh super edgy. But uh uh all the songs are written by the guitarist Robbie Van Leeuwen, uh Lewien. Uh I'm sorry, uh Dutch people, we will massacre these names. Yeah, uh the bass was uh Classy van der Wel and uh core van der Beek on drums, and uh and there was actually a piano done or keyboards done in Venus, and that was C's Shrams or something. Uh, I guess never got credit for that, but uh I will go into that story quick and I'm gonna pass on that because I mean I think I'm loving the album and come back tell more. But uh the one cool thing I did find out, and uh there's a podcast called The Original, and they go back about uh the original songs and who covered them, and they have a whole episode on Venus, and uh highly recommended. But in this, uh, I was really kind of uh blown away when uh the whole episode was about Venus, but they said the guys just like, oh yeah, no, this was a traditional folk song written literally like 200 years ago, that then was turned into a polka like 175 years ago, though it then was back into an American folk song that actually got turned back into another American folk song, and then that got copied and put as Venus. And all these songs were considered original, but I guess in the way uh these classic songs work, if you take kind of these classic traditional songs, change it enough that it's just different with lyrics or whatever like that, uh actually it is considered an original song, and they did not even have to credit any of these past writers or composers of any of those previous songs. But I'm gonna let you listen to the clip here now, and then we'll come back quickly. Listen to this. We don't make any money anyway, so all good. But anyway, I'm gonna stop there, guys. We can talk about that more, but uh let's throw it over to Scott Gregory. What did you think of that, my friend?

SPEAKER_03 12:46

Yeah, thanks. Uh, you know, we talked about what we grew up with, what we knew before. I was aware of Shocking Blue. I've mentioned before my mom was uh music director at a radio station uh when I was younger. Uh she would have been a teenager when this came out. And so just like we tend to gravitate towards what we listened to in our teens and 20s, so did she. And so until grade eight, when I got my own stereo and headphones, I was completely at her mercy. Uh, and so uh obviously I'd heard Venus before, a couple of these other tracks uh seem familiar, and just like you, Alan, uh Love Buzz threw me for a loop at first because I'm like, what is this? I know, like, why do I know the lyrics? Like, I'm and then I was like, wait a minute, and I pulled out bleach, and I was like, Oh my god, like that is what this is. So I'm with you on that front. I don't know how quickly you realize. Well, I guess you told the story of that, but for me, it was yeah, that wasn't what led me here. Obviously, you were, but that that took me a moment. I was like really kind of looped out by that for a second, but it was interesting. You you mentioned the uh the Bration Vasion there, Darren, and this was like a crazy year for albums, right? Like Abbey Road came out, Tommy, uh King Crimson. We've reviewed them before. The chord album came out this year. Both of the first Zeppelin albums came out in the same year. Like, there's tons of great music. People were pushing boundaries, Bowie had stuff coming out, and like you mentioned in the Netherlands, there were bands like uh Brain Box was one that I saw uh that was uh contemporary to them and Golden Earring. This is before Golden Earring got big, though, right? Like Radar Love came much later, I think. But they were experimenting, it was you know, like they were going heavy, they were going psychedelic, and then that made it over the pond. And apparently Robbie Van, uh, you know, they had mentioned that he wanted to basically turn the band when they switched the lead singer over to more like a like a Jefferson Starship type sound to or sorry, Jefferson airplane, might say, uh, with Gray Slick and stuff like that. And you know, I listened to the first album and it was like okay, but I really like like adding in Mariska was an amazing shift for them, and I think that really charted their success on this front. I even though you know you would have had the music composition and lyrics the same, uh, or maybe not, because you'd be writing for a different lead singer, right? So I think that was an excellent move on their part. She has that very soulful voice, you know, psychedelic riffs underneath it. They just really had a unique identity to them, I think. And that's what brought them over the the pond overall. You know, I liked the elect the things we take for granted now, like the electric piano and like that sitar. There was a whole lot of Indian influence that was happening across a lot of those bands, especially the ones coming over from Britain and that, you know, it was just that late 60s kind of sound, but then they're one of the first ones doing it, right? So it's always interesting when you have to place these things in context, and that's why I go back and look at those contemporaries because you're like, okay, I'm used to this because I've heard it all at once, and and but you know, were they in the front? Were they following along or what? And um, and it's really interesting when you realize which bands are the ones that really started originating that sound. And this obviously shocking blue is one of them. Uh, I'd already mentioned Love Buzz for track highlights for me. I thought it was really good, it stands out, it's got that eastern influence, you know, it's kind of woozy and drifting and that. And it's really, I think, uh, you know, an example of what the Dutch sound was going for at that time with the rock and that. Um, and then it's probably gonna give you a Nirvana flashback when you do it. I liked I liked Acaraga kind of for the same thing, that that classical influence on it. It's instrumental, which I always like as a breakup uh on an album. If you get one or two instrumental tracks and give the the band their flowers, I think it's really interesting when you see them take an instrument out, especially the vocals, and see if you can still hear a band in that music. And I think you very much can hear. You wouldn't be able to separate this from the rest of the album. I think uh Long and Lonesome Road is really this is another one of their really strong early singles, and I recognized it. Uh it's got that really steady beat to it. Um, you know, it's very emotional. I like it. The the lyrics are simple, but you know, they're wandering, they're searching. But she's as you mentioned, she's got just got that non-traditional female voice just in that lower register, and she's hard on it for lack of a better word, right? Like it's just there's weight to her voice when she does it. So I really enjoyed that one. I think uh between that and Venus, um, I'd be hard pressed to say which one I I liked more. Although I did like hot sand as well, too. I think you know it's got it's a more guitar-driven track, uh, it's got like a crunchy tone to it, it's starting that 70s hard rock sound that's coming out. It it's just good, it's tight. It's really good. I I like the aggressiveness on it. Uh, you know, when you pair it with Venus, uh, which actually happened on several international releases. Um, you know, I think it pairs really well. Uh other than that, I think, you know, on on the B side, I always try and call out one of the the lesser known ones based on the Spotify counts for views and whatnot. Uh divorce 50 years from the uh the actual album. I don't know how much you can count on that, but I really liked uh Wild Wind. It's uh it was slower, it's more atmospheric, it's got some bongos in there, you know. When you surprise me with uh an instrument, it's nice. The percussion on it was really good. And it's kind of got, you know, like uh again, like a desert psychedelic feel to it. The sitar in there again, uh it's just really fits this album and yet carves out its own space to it. It's obviously not something you're gonna hear on the radio, uh, especially now, again, half a century later. So I suggest you know giving it a go. Listen to the whole album, actually. Other than that, you know, the American influence stuff like Harley Davidson in California Here I Come just sounded like American songs. So, which I mean, that's not a bad thing. But, you know, I I thought more of the flavor uh of you know the Netherlands and the European influence was more strongly felt on other cats, but you know, they're they're good. So yeah, overall I really enjoyed it. There is some that I recognized. It was a flashback to the trauma of my youth having no.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

Yeah, interesting. I it's fun to go last. The other thing is I had somehow never heard of this band. Like never ever once had I heard it about it. Also, something that I usually don't do is read about the bands or the albums until I've listened to them for quite a long time because I just kind of worry that I'll bias myself. So a lot of the stuff you have all mentioned, I've I've just learned in the last couple days because over the weekend I sort of read up on it a bit. But yeah, wow. Um 60 sound, I I thought of the mama and the papas and Jefferson Airplane popped into my head as soon as I started listening to this, right? Um I'm not sure if it's the guitar, the drums, the tambourine, the sitar, maybe all of it together. Um, but wow, is a time uh is a time period captured here, right? Particularly on Acaraga. I kept imagining Austin Powers uh the whole time. Every time I'd hear this album, but Acaraga uh particularly, yeah, I just couldn't stop thinking about Austin Powers. So it shows what an influence that movie had. Like I don't know how it didn't have it on the sound. That sound had on that movie and how it took and connected the two. Uh, I read on the weekend that John Mayer apparently actually covered Acaraga for a BBC uh two uh television series theme, which is kind of interesting. Strangely, you know, it I don't really like Venus that much, which should be the track. But regardless, how many bands ever write one song that is globally known, right, for 50 years or so? So I think that feat, whether you call them a one-hit wonder or not, that's incredible, right? To write a tune that the entire planet knows that sticks around, and we all now associate with women's razors for those of us from Canada is truly an incredible feat. Um look, I always feel bad when an album doesn't land with me, and Alan, I I feel a bit bad going into the next part here because you know it's not a bash on your pick, and I'm always glad we listen to what we listen to. But I'm not sure if this album and band influenced others, or others influenced this band and shaped it. But I just felt like, gosh, were they trying hard? Her voice really grated on me after about three or four tracks. I just I found it too much. Uh Long and Lonesome was usually the the low point in the audio journey of this album for me. And I really found it. Became kind of just a one-trick pony, one sound, uh, and it really kind of irritated me and grounded on me again. Some interesting sounds and musicianship, but just repetitive, right? Um you have all brought up Love Buzz, and the first number of times I listened to it, it kept reminding me of a cake beat, something that the band Cake would have. And I had no idea until I just read on the weekend that, oh wow, Nirvana, as you've all pointed out, recorded this and it appeared on Bleach. No idea. But Love Buzz just kept striking me as a very cake kind of beat. It's funny you liked Hot Sand, Scott, because that was the one that I thought was written by like great eighters, like making love on the hot sand with you or however it goes. I'm just like, oh come on, this is real amateur lyrics here. That one was not great. So, look, I mean, this is completely on point with the experimental hippie sound of that time. Uh the sitar, the Beatles, you know, you mentioned George Harrison kind of introducing the sitar. Again, I'd be I want to dive deeper and learn, were they influencing or were they influenced by and were really trying hard to create an album that would land? I wondered about the two kind of American tracks, Scott Gregory, wondering, okay, when they were creating this, like, hey, we need a couple tracks that are really going to go big in America, so let's put a couple in there. Um, but I gotta say, I'm voiced out and particularly sitared out. I think sitar is kind of interesting on a couple tracks on an entire album. Boy, I'm not sure. Anyway, fun, fun listen, and I'll hand it over to you, Alan.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

Great, thank you, Scott. Interesting takes, all of you. Um, alright. So yeah, I this album came out in 1969, and a lot of music from that era has endured well into this century, you know, which speaks to the influence and staying power. And I think At Home absolutely meets the mark of its its contemporaries in that respect. Um, it earns its reputation as a fascinating snapshot of European-flavored psychedelic rock. It's, you know, smart, a little bit folksy. There's obviously some uh I I guess it's a little bit derivative of what the Americans were doing and the British were doing, uh, but they had their own flavor to it. And I don't know, there was just something, there was like a hint of something dark and strange underneath this album that really appealed to me. This weird, slightly intangible psychedelic quality. Uh that that quality drew me to the album in the first place. Um as I was listening throughout the month, I noticed there was a really interesting sonic character to this album. And uh, like you, Scott, I don't usually research too much until, you know, after I've given it a few listens because I don't want it to taint my perspective or whatever. And I also want to see what I can uncover just through listening. And um a couple days ago I learned that this album was self-produced by the band, and that totally made sense to me. It kind of contextualized what I was hearing. And at the risk of sounding like I'm doing the band a disservice, which is not my intention, um, the recordings felt a little unpolished. So yeah, the band the band recorded this and engineered it themselves. And I I'm assuming charitably that they did this deliberately. Um it was less about crafting a flawless pop single. It was more about capturing a band playing together in a room. That's kind of what it sounds like. You know, nothing sounds quote-unquote fixed in post. You know what I mean? Like you can hear all the small imperfections, there's subtle tempo drifts, um, instruments are reacting to one another, harmonies aren't quite in sync, the endings kind of just fade or unravel, you know. Um, the vocals particularly have this like really great natural room reverb sound, not the kind that you would apply in a studio through technology. Um what else? Yeah, the the drums likewise that carried a natural room ambience, and the low end is warm but slightly muddy. There wasn't a ton of extreme EQ shaping or studio gloss applied. Uh, it all just sounds like a lived-in sort of audio documentary, if you will. Um, like a choice rooted in performance over perfection. That is the um that is the character that I picked up on on this album. And yeah, you know, I don't know if that was just the vibe they were going for, if that was a bit of a lack of experience behind the mixing board. And maybe this was common practice in that European psychedelic rock circle. I don't know, but it was just something that stood out to me, um, for better or worse. The album itself features incredible vocals by Mariska, as Darren and Scott Gregory both mentioned. Um, I I find her voice alluring and there's there's a presence to it that I couldn't quite articulate. But Scott, I think you said it really well. There's weight behind it, there's like a character and a richness that you don't hear a lot. Um I've always been a fan of Grace Slick, and I love that now I've got this new sort of psychedelic female-fronted singer band thing to listen to as well. Um, Van Leeuwen, obviously very talented playing guitar and sitar and whatever else he did. And I, you know, I have to respect his studio and production work. Um, you know, regardless of what I just said about the the sonic characteristics, like I audio production's hard. So the fact that they did it themselves is fantastic. And it doesn't sound bad. Um, yeah, that's not what I was implying. I love a good old sitar, Scott. You're right. It uh it definitely ties to a certain era, um, and that's that George Harrison influence, I guess. Um, but you know, and I I have to give props to the bass and the drums because they keep the time well and they have a steady yet rhythmically fluid, you know, vibe to it. Like the the songs feel bouncy in a way. Uh some standout tracks for me. Obviously, Love Buzz, that was the song that kind of kicked off this journey. I do like the sitar, and I think Mariska's voice and cadence and rhythm kind of all um it just I don't know, like it just hit the mark for me. Um the breakdown gets really, really trippy and weird, and I I don't know. I her accent is really endearing too. Like, can't you hear my love bus? You know, the Dutch accent. It's cute. I don't know. Um Venus, I did not expect to like Venus as much as I did, because like I guess in my mind, just growing up with the the razor commercials or whatever, I always just kind of like brush that off as a girl song or whatever, whatever that means. Um, but yeah, this is also a good trippy song. Like, I love the guitar tone, that the drums are tight and punchy. Mariska's voice, once again, kind of like rounds the song out really nicely. Um and yeah, it is a feminine song, but like the way the way she does it, like there's there's a weight to it, you know? Um Jordy Sire. Love that. And we all talked about Acaraga. It's the I think it's the only instrumental track on this album, but like, kind of cool, kind of catchy, kind of repetitive too, but that's okay. You know, the sitars are droning on and the rhythm section holds the time, and it's just you know, I I kept kind of bouncing along to it. It's it's as trippy as anything you'll ever hear from their contemporaries. Uh I don't know if anyone mentioned this song, but Poor Boy, I really enjoyed. Um, it's a brooding, sort of bluesy minor key song. Feels really familiar and really sincere, even though you may have never heard it before. Like there's just something about it that has that like familiarity. Um, a bit of a call and repeat thing in the chorus that kept getting stuck in my head. So yeah, overall, just like a really interesting uh album to kind of sit with. And, you know, with with all of the recording imperfections, plus the natural warmth that I get from a record player, like I really enjoyed kind of stewing on this album uh over the over the last month. So yeah. Alright, let's round it on home and uh and get some final thoughts and some scores here. I'll throw it over to Darren.

SPEAKER_02 30:59

Thanks, Alan. Uh yeah, it's funny you brought up her accent because when she recorded this album, she did not know English at all. So she just memorized the words and how they sounded. Actually, so on the track Venus, the original recording, uh, they wrote down uh it's supposed to be Goddess on the mountaintop, but they wrote it down uh goddness uh incorrectly. And there was another part in the song where she's supposed to say eyes and she says ass. Uh, but uh it has been fixed. But if you find uh one of the original records and it has those uh you know basically uh bastardized lyrics, uh it's worth way more. Uh but because she didn't know, and they didn't even catch it, they just released it. The original album was released that way. Venus was released like three times before it caught on, and it caught on huge in Europe at one point, uh, and it wasn't until then they kind of re-recorded it and then got it in the States, uh, and that's kind of the second big thing. And then, as you know, ban bananorama in the 80s. So uh it was super interesting. Uh I you you know, I I I to me this is a big album. I think this is a big, you know, archaeological find. Um, I was super pumped when I got into this, and it does sound a bit dated at times. I get it's from the time, I get the sitar and all that stuff can kind of uh get a little, you know, dated and annoying and maybe not modern, but uh uh there's so much there. And they took uh they went more bass-driven, uh, they added more fuzz. They basically endied it up, right? Like, so think of this at the time. Um, you know, pet sounds and the Beatles come out, but really the Americana that was coming out was these polished type Beatles, or not uh uh Beach Boy songs, things like that. Apologies I said Beatles, but um, you know, I think they just gave everything an edge. Same thing with Krout Rock. I think there's here, and you know, I was doing some really digging, and it was just like these, you know, it's that seven degrees to Kevin Bacon, and they really uh took that band and that movement at that time, and really it's a real quick line to the Pixies crediting them uh and how they played, and the Pixies copied a lot of their style uh and the bass-driven and uh the you know uh kind of the grooves that it would go and then kind of slow down and speed up. Uh, and then of course that goes to Nirvana, and obviously Colin recorded that uh on Bleach, and then also a big influence uh on Jack White, and there's like three or four times there's guitar intros. Next time you listen to it, think it's a Jack White song, and you're like, oh my god, this sounds like something Jack White would absolutely do. There is a direct line to this complete indie grunge punk movement from this band. And yeah, I think that they obviously there were some great influences before they they came from that uh, you know, the Rolling Stones, and they were getting all these uh the Beatles and all those bands as well with the American, but they kind of blended it all up, gave it its own funky groove, added a strong female presence. There's a lot of firsts in there. It's easy to look back and be like, okay, it sounds a bit data, but a lot of at the time this was first in all these movements. I think this is a gem. Uh, for me, uh, I'm gonna give it all fours, honestly. I think um I get how it could sound data, but go back and just think of that in your head about how it influenced these other bands and just kind of blended things together, but kept it simple. Uh Cobain was big in that too. He was the first to say he wasn't the biggest punk. He kind of thought he was a bit of a sell out because he knew Nirvani's Nirvana's songs would be catchy. He designed them that way. That's exactly what they did. He copied that style. So uh to me, all fours. Uh, send me a postcard, listen to that song too, is on the next album, uh Dynamite. But uh, thanks, Alan. For me, awesome pick. Love this. I am gonna find that vinyl. I'm disappointed to hear I can't find it locally because I was just about to look for it. All right, back to you, uh Scott Gregory.

SPEAKER_03 34:44

Yeah, so remember, Alan said he couldn't find it locally, not that you couldn't find it locally. So, well, challenge challenge has been extended. Um, I mean, you stole a lot of my thunder uh on that, right? Like I am going back to what you said and then what Alan said about strong female vocals. Like I like, like I like my L7, I like my Verucca Salt, I like strong vocals. You know, Belinda Carlisle is more poppy, but you look back in the day and you talk about Grace Lick, you talk about a Janice Chopin, you know, and this is just Mariska is another addition on that list of just pioneering really strong rock punk style women coming forward and carving a space. And you know, it it's interesting because Robbie went out with the intention to make that happen, right? And so I think there is a bit, I don't even want to call it uh uh artificial, I'll call it intentional. There is intention behind this, right? But you can say the same thing about ABBA. Everything they did was absolutely intentional and just crafted right down to the last minutiae. Uh, and I don't think that's a bad thing. Like if you're creating a studio album and you're trying to uh create an experience and and push the envelope in that, um, you kind of have to be intentional with everything that you do. And so, you know, I I didn't mention the butterfly and I on the first pass, but you look at the rhythm section there and the horns that were in there and how they were used differently there and had more of a soulful edge compared to some of the uh other side of things. And again, you know, they they change up the sound uh track by track to really try and build something different. And I deeply appreciate that. Uh, I think they did have a lot of influence going forward, they do sound a lot like what was happening, but I think it's uh like in that era in that late 60s, early 70s. But there is that I don't even want to call it compromise. You have to have an eye on the commercial if you're trying to break in, right? You can't forget you're in a business, but you also want to maintain your artistic integrity, and I think this album is full of artistic integrity, uh, originality, uh, uh creativity, and uh that echoes through the the decades all the way to us now. So I'm with Darren, I give this four across the boards. Uh, there's a number of these songs that are gonna make it into my 60s, 70s playlists, uh, and uh it's gonna carry forward in my library. What about you, Scott?

SPEAKER_01 37:23

Yeah, I'm sorry again, Alan. Uh, it's funny how we can differ so much on picks, right? Darren fours all across. Scott, you're pretty high as well. Look, it's it's I'm I'm super glad we listened to this. Like, not no regret at all, right? It's neat to again discover the band who came up with Venus. Again, a song that's known globally 55 plus years later. Like, that's an incredible feat on its own, right? So very happy to have gone down this road. It definitely speaks to an exact time period and what was going on with many other bands. We've mentioned the Beatles, we've mentioned Jefferson, Airplane, and whatnot. Influence, I'm I gotta give it a one just because it's I don't think it's gonna take me down a road of looking for more sitar or I know the music of that period reasonably well. Um, recommend, I'll give it a three. Just again, if you're trying to understand the story of music and the history of music, why would you ignore this one? It's worth a listen. Uh, we pulled out a couple standout tracks, Love Buzz. I've got to now listen to their Nirvana version. I'm not so sure I've ever heard their Nirvana version. And Acaraga, pretty cool. Overall, though, I'm just gonna give it a two. Again, I found it kind of repetitive. I think it's got an EP worth of songs in there. Not so sure an entire album, and it just graded on me over time. But again, uh glad to have had the experience. Over to you, Alan.

SPEAKER_00 38:50

Yeah, thanks, Scott. I appreciate your take. Um, yeah, guys, I took a chance on this one. Uh, I don't usually spend money on vinyl unless I already know that I'm gonna like the album, or at least most of it, because there are no skip buttons on record players, and records are not cheap, especially new ones. Um, Love Buzz was really the only song I'd actually listened to in full. And, you know, my quick scan through the tracks on Spotify all those months ago, it was alone enough to give me confidence to drop the cash on this. And for the record, literally, uh, it arrived on a pink vinyl, which is fun, but I feel like that was a missed opportunity because a shockingly blue slab of wax would have been perfect, but that's just a minor gripe. Uh, was it worth it? Absolutely. My scores may not numerically quantify how much I did like this album. Overall, I'm giving it a three out of five. Um I think it was really good. It was perfectly imperfect. The songwriting is catchy, plenty of hooks kept me coming back, and sonically, I just found it refreshing and unique. Um, there's always gonna be a time and a place for an album like this in my rotation, and a number of these songs will find their way onto various playlists for me, so that's always usually the sign of a good sonic collective experience. My score would have been higher on influence, but actually, Scott Coates, you said something that made me pause and reconsider. For influence, I'm dropping my score down a little bit from a four to a three. The the point you made was like who influenced who? This band obviously like they influenced Nirvana and Banana Rama and John Mayer and you know, potentially any number of other contemporary musicians, but um they were also influenced by what the Brits and the Americans were doing in the you know psychedelic rock space. They were probably fans of the Beatles, you know, so uh and uh Van Leewen brought in Mariska partially to emulate what Jefferson Airplane was already doing. So um did they did they create their own sound? I think so. You know, they shocking blue carved their own path, the Dutch way, and uh the fact they influenced so many other artists speaks to their staying power. Um recommend, I'm gonna give it a three because is it for everyone? Probably not. Right? The reasons I love it are probably the same reasons that other people wouldn't. I've personally always been drawn to that late 60s rock, psychedelia, Woodstock vibe. Um, but a number of times throughout the month, I kept wondering like, what would our fallen comrade Owen think of an album like this from the perspective of Generation Z, Zed, if you nasty. Uh, and he's also got an audio engineering background. And like I mentioned, um the the production side of this album was imperfect relative to like what we're accustomed to. So yeah, I would have been interested to to hear another another audio guy's take. But you know, as uh as a psychedelic album, your mileage may vary, and ultimately, um if you happen to listen to it while imbibing in a mind-altering substance, you may enjoy it more or you may enjoy it less. But yeah. So yeah, that's uh that was shocking blue for for March of 2026. Kind of a mixed review. I think most of us liked it, but uh Scott Coates, you're the odd man out today, and that's okay.

SPEAKER_03 42:38

Wow, wow.

SPEAKER_00 42:41

Get off my lawn. Uh all right. Get off my lawn. All right, uh, Scott Gregory, I think you're up next.

SPEAKER_03 42:49

It is indeed me. Uh, so uh you guys have challenged me the last couple uh months, and uh and I kind of liked it. I like getting put out of my comfort zone, and it was always the electronica and the that was pushing me the most. So uh when I went out looking for an album this month, those were the two things. I was looking for something with a little more of an electronic sound, and uh and something not too hard because I only ever really listened to industrial coming up, so it wasn't too hard to think of pushing out of my comfort zone. Nine inch nails is nice. Uh Alan's pointing at a shirt.

SPEAKER_00 43:27

So I'm wearing a nine-inch nails shirt.

SPEAKER_03 43:29

Yeah. So so I started digging around, and there was an album that actually had like the story and the mythology around it really pulled me in before I even listened to a single track off of it. And we're going to be listening to This Is Happening 2010 by LCD Sound System. Uh it it's a really different kind of album, right? And uh, I think it's another one that's very meticulously crafted. So it would have that in common with shocking blue here. A very Kind of off the uh the standard blueprint. James Murphy, the uh lead singerslash main architect of the band, really called it the band's final record. Like this was it. The band was gonna be done. He felt like he'd aged out of the genre. Uh when they recorded it, they went for got a house in Los Angeles and there was an all-white dress code, like it was like a funeral kind of thing going on. Uh it was really meant to be like they had a final concert that they made a four-hour documentary out of. Uh, they eventually, spoiler, uh, make another album five years later. But at the time, at the time, everything going into this was this is the last, we're at the top of our craft, where you know, we're gonna do one last hurrah and exit stage left. So uh I'm very interested in hearing what you all have to think uh about it and then seeing how it hits me as well as I give it, you know, much more exhaustive listening over the um the next month.

SPEAKER_01 45:02

Cool. Heard of this band, never listened to their entire album, so very intrigued. Yeah, me neither.

SPEAKER_03 45:07

Yeah, yeah. I I hadn't even heard of them before this, so so I was never big into the the dancing other than going out and dancing to the music, but it never followed me home, right? So this is gonna be a very interesting time for me as well.

SPEAKER_00 45:21

Do they have a single that I might have heard? Yeah, like they're well known in that.

SPEAKER_02 45:26

I don't know this album exactly, but they've got some big hits. I I know I know I have uh several of their stuff on playlists. I've listened to a couple of their albums, but uh I don't own any, and yeah, I'm I'm pumped to get into this one.

SPEAKER_03 45:38

Do you know Dance Yourself Clean? That was the big one off of this album.

SPEAKER_00 45:43

Maybe if I heard it.

SPEAKER_03 45:44

Well, you're going to. I guess.

SPEAKER_00 45:49

Yeah, I'm looking forward to this one. That's gonna be a cool pick.

SPEAKER_03 45:52

Sweet.

SPEAKER_00 45:54

Alright, well, uh, on behalf of the Sonic Collective, you heard it here. Scott Gregory's next pick is Dance. Nope. Uh, sorry, this is happening, the 2010 album from LCD Sound Systems. Uh, thank you so much for your continued support here at the Sonic Collective. We truly appreciate it if you made it to the end. You are a true gangster and worthy of a high five. Uh, on behalf of the Sonic Collective, I have been Alan with Darren Scott, Scott Gregory, and Scott Coates signing off until next month.

SPEAKER_02 46:33

Hey, thanks for joining us on the Sonic Collective, where we've explored the music, the history, and the impact of some of the greatest albums of all time. We hope you've enjoyed our discussions and gained new insights and appreciation for the music you and we love. Join us next month for another exciting album, and until then, keep listening to great music.