Album anniversaries - October 2024: Run The Jewels, Tom Waits, The Cranberries

Every month of 2024, Euronews Culture takes a trip down memory lane and handpicks a trio of albums celebrating a major milestone.  

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

These are the three records you should choose to (re)discover as they respectively turn 10, 20, and 30 this October.  

Turning 10 in 2024: Run The Jewels – RTJ2

(Release date: 24 October 2014)

American hip-hop outfit Run The Jewels, composed of Killer Mike and El-P, have been on one hell of a winning streak since their 2013 debut. Over the course of four studio albums, they’ve delivered possibly one of the best four-album runs in not only rap history but music history as a whole. Because of this, singling out any of their albums is a challenging ask. But if push comes to shove, their second LP, 'RTJ2', which celebrates its 10-year anniversary this month, is a solid shout for their most deliriously entertaining and engaging effort.

Their second album is when the band’s lyrics fully embraced social commentary and a more emotional core. The beats are stronger than on their debut too, as EL-P's production is top notch, with each of the 12 tracks growing in intensity. From the terrific ‘Oh My Darling Don’t Cry’ to the guitar heavy ‘Blockbuster Night Pt.1’, the unpredictable ‘Lie, Cheat, Steal’ and the catchy ‘Early’ (featuring Boots) to ‘All Due Respect’ with Blink 182’s Travis Barker, it’s explosive moment after explosive moment.

One particular favourite is ‘Close Your Eyes (And Count To Fuck)’, featuring Rage Against The Machine’s Zach de la Rocha. Angry, verbose, cutting and so damn catchy, the song takes no prisoners.

“Liars and politicians, profiteers of the prisons / The forehead engravers, enslavers of men and women / Including members of clergy that rule on you through religion / So strip your kids to the nude and then tell ‘em God will forgive ‘em.”

Run The Jewels went on to up the lyric ante regarding politics and society on their following records – specifically when it comes to standing up to systemic oppression, be it economic or racial. But 'RTJ2' was when listeners got a proper taste of their righteous anger. Without toppling into mindless aggression or easy hectoring, this album is when they truly started speaking truth to power by tossing lyrical grenades that other rappers could only dream of, leaving their competition struggling with the pin.

Powerful, polished and pertinent, ‘RTJ2’ may just be one of the best hip-hop albums of the last ten years. It reminds listeners that at its roots, the genre is strongest when it voices social ills, challenges the establishment, and holds a mirror up to society’s defects – and asks you to get royally pissed off about it.

Throughout their collaborative partnership, Run The Jewels have only gotten stronger. Rumours are they’ve finished their fifth album, and we can’t wait to hear what they’ve got in store for us next.

Also turning 10 in October: Jesse Ware’s stunning and sensual sophomore album ‘Tough Love’; Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’, the timeless pop record that saw Swift shake off her country roots and send the pop superstar into the stratosphere.

Turning 20 in 2024: Tom Waits – Real Gone

(Release date: 5 October 2004)

Over the course of 17 studio albums, two film soundtracks and three live albums, Tom Waits’ musical style has ranged from Kerouac-inspired numbers, whiskey-soaked jazz pieces, romantic blues ballads, theatrical polkas, and carnivalesque rumpas. Often humorous, always rich, and featuring the musical Dadaist’s unique croons, growls and guttural laughs – a lot of which sound like he’s been gargling razor blades and washing the pain down with Bourbon – each of his releases are surprising in their own ways.

However anachronistic the one-of-a-kind pioneer has been over the years, nothing prepared listeners for him to drop a hip-hop inspired beatboxing album in 2004.

Following the theatrical 'Alice' / 'Blood Money' double-tap two years prior, 'Real Gone' was something new. Out with the pianos, and in with the turntables. Featuring frequently abrasive grooves, beatboxing from Waits - who embraces a whole new set of vocal tics and roars - as well as heavy percussions and DJ scratching from Waits’ son Casey, the album incorporates rap influences without alienating core fans. Tracks like ‘Sins Of My Father’, ‘Don’t Go Into That Barn’ and ‘Dead And Lovely’ all feature the evocative songwriting and ballad-from-hell appeal that made Waits’ name, while ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ remains one of the most directly political tracks of his career. After all, 'Real Gone' was released a year after the US invaded Iraq, and this protest song told from the perspective of an American soldier is devastating.

On top of the aforementioned tracks, standout moments include opener ‘Top Of The Hill’, which sets the tone for the whole album; the late-career masterpiece ‘Hoist That Rag’ with its Cuban guitar licks and raucous crash and clangs; and the propulsive ‘Shake It’, which once again shows how guitarist Marc Ribot is invaluable collaborator for Waits.

Mostly disliked by critics when it was released 20 years ago, 'Real Gone' is without a doubt one of Waits’ most ambitious and underappreciated efforts. Sure, it’s a 72-minute racket and there are a few clangers that could have been left on the editing room floor: the spokenword ‘Circus’ and ‘Make It Rain’ are fun but verge on parody at times, while ‘Clang Boom Steam’ commits to the beatboxing bit a tad too much. However, warts and all, 'Real Gone' is as inventive as it is unapologetically intense.

Whatever you do though, try to listen to the original version of this album as opposed to the reissue of 'Real Gone'. Several years back, Waits remastered some of his albums, to great effect. However, the new mix of this 2004 gem is a massive disappointment, as the album was gutted of some of its original appeal through cleaner and clearer instrumentations which betray the original, gritty vibe.

Also turning 20 in October: James Blunt’s debut album ‘Back To Bedlam’ (if you’re into that sort of thing); Mos Def’s sophomore LP ‘The New Danger’ which is brilliant follow up to ‘Black On Both Sides’; the final album by Elliott Smith, ‘From A Basement On The Hill’, which was released posthumously and features songs that show the much-missed songwriter at his heart-aching best; Leonard Cohen’s 11th studio album ‘Dear Heather’, which deserves reappraisal as one of the late artist’s most upbeat releases.

Turning 30 in 2024: The Cranberries – No Need To Argue

(Release date: 3 October 1994)

Founded in Limerick in 1989 and led by the late, great Dolores O’Riordan, The Cranberries quickly became one of Ireland’s most famous music acts following the commercial success of their debut ‘Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?’. However, it was with their second LP ‘No Need To Argue’, which just turned 30, that the band shot to international fame.

This is that Cranberries album – the one with the hits that defined not only 1994 but the rest of the band’s career: ‘I Can’t Be With You’; ‘Ode To My Family’ (their greatest song); and of course, ‘Zombie’. The latter is arguably their most recognised song and the video made the Cranberries the first Irish band to reach one billion views on YouTube.

Everyone knows these tracks and can sing along to them. However, as any Cranberries fan knows, there’s more to ‘No Need To Argue’ than the singles. Sure, they’re powerfully good tracks, but they do tend to overshadow a terrific 13-track album which deals with love, loss, genocide and the Troubles.

Then again, the same thing could be said about ‘Linger’ and ‘Dreams’ taking the spotlight away from tracks like ‘Sunday’, ‘Waltzing Back’ and ‘I Will Always’ on their debut album.

Songs on 'No Need To Argue' like ‘Twenty-One’ and ‘Empty’ are fantastic, while ‘Ridiculous Thoughts’ - written by O’Riordan about her problems dealing with the British press – is a standout. Then there’s the acoustic folk song ‘Dreaming My Dreams’, which shouldn’t be overlooked.

So, as it celebrates its 30th this October, choose to rediscover the LP. Granted, ‘Zombie’ may have gotten a new lease of life following the death of O’Riordian from drowning due to alcohol intoxication in 2018, with the song becoming an Irish stadium anthem. However, the album on which it features deserves far more than “Oh, that one with ‘Zombie’ on it.” And while you’re at it, 1999’s ‘Bury The Hatchet’ turned 25 this year. It may be less angry and vibrant than their first two albums, preferring poppier hooks, but it’s no less of a doozy. It’s also another reminder of how much the band is missed, as The Cranberries disbanded after O’Riordan’s death and the release of their acclaimed final album, 2019's 'In The End'.

Also turning 30 in October: Jamiroquai’s second album ‘The Return of the Space Cowboy’, which perfectly fused pop, funk and acid jazz.

See you next month!