Hey guys, I've had this great idea. I might not be back for a bit... (albums recorded in seculsion / after escaping the world)

Why? Come on Geir, the first Paul McCartney solo album!

agrieved at the press Gram ( overrated) Parsons was getting, Gene went out into the desert, took payote and created one of the greatest records ever made.

on another note, I think axl roses new album was created entirely away from the real world...so there you go......

Bits of this piece were surfacing up to and including Trick of The Tail in 1976.

(That's my street cred totally knackered...)

... everybody was at it in the late 60s/early 70s

But Dadaismus is also OTM on 'McCartney' - Didn't he stay on the Scottish farm for months even after its release? I think the only PR he did for it was that interview insert with the LP.

... coincidentally his greatest album

They went to the desert to find a new sound, becoming psychedelic monks in the process.

Apologies to non Boosh viewers.

also, what's the deal with everyone digging Talk Talk? relaxing music, sure, but i find it a bit too...uh...adult contemporary?

Blasphemy on ILM!!!!!!!!

(And that's it, basically)

This reminds me of a thread I've been meaning to start on "one-man-band" solo projects where a major part of listening to the music and appreciating it is being aware of the back-story, which almost invariably includes "four-track" and "later fancied up in the studio." Eg, McCartney but also Foo Fighters. I periodically see "Ram" getting this treatment (see AllMusic's "truly the roots of home-made pop"), which confuses me, since if you look at the record sleeve it establishes that Paul & Linda are supplemented by three other musicians (all of whom I think ended up in the first incarnation of Wings), six engineers, and a Norwegian mixing engineer. Ahem, anyway - how much, ILM, in your listening to, say, Led Zeppelin III does it matter to know the circumstances under which it was made? And if you didn't know, do you think you'd be able to tell?

Three of many reasons why the seclusion became a thing, I think:

(1) Attractive for studios. A farmhouse in the middle of nowhere is low-rent, lots of space, and untroubled by stuff around it -- it's easier to set up all sorts of big live rooms, build a studio to your exact specifications (not the building's), not worry about noise leakage (in or out), etc.

(2) Keeps rock stars out of trouble. Like work as rehab -- if your band would spend all their city time on coke-and-hookers stuff, you pull them out to that farmhouse, where they have very little to do but think hard about that album for a few weeks straight.

(3) And then kind of as a result of 1+2, you get those resort-style studios -- a band's been on tour, city-to-city, for a couple years, and suddenly it's like "how about taking a few months to record your record in a pristine studio on a Caribbean island!" This totally didn't work for Shaun Ryder, but whatever.

Plus when city rockers go to the country they seem to suddenly get big dramatic ideas about it, like they think because they're sitting in an old house in a field something "spiritual" is happening. Which is kinda true, I guess -- when it's a change of pace it really does set a mood.

Did he really record it "in seclusion"? I thought it was done at company studios, presumably with an engineer - the story of him just dropping off the tapes is famous but I didn't think it was as though he'd just vanished and then resurfaced with a tape

Yes and no. He did rent a house in Big Sur(?) for The Fragile, but didn't really get anyting out of it. The story you might be thinking of is the recording of The Downward Spiral at the Cielo drive mansion where the Manson family murders took place.

Here're the notes I've been able to find about it, from a T.J. McGrath 1992 article in Dirty Linen:

But Nick pulled himself together and gave it a final go. He contacted John Wood to reserve some hours in a recording radio [sic] and arrived at the studio with guitar in hand. Pink Moon was recorded in two days.

Nick was so depressed during the recording that he rarely spoke two words to Wood. At one point Wood asked Drake what was wrong. Nick just mumbled something and walked away. The tunes took a heavy toll on him; you can hear it in the music. The songs are stripped to bare emotion. No lighthearted and melancholy verses -- these songs are cloaked in despair. Wood says Nick was adamant about what he wanted -- just voice and guitar. At first, Wood thought Drake was planning to use these takes as demos for future sessions.

(the "tunes taking a heavy toll on him" business is editorializing that's quite open to debate obv. but the rest seems straight reportage)

Definitely Hollis.

What about Scott Walker's upcoming album?

Moved to a farm at the time, I think. I recall one one interview where he said it was great for his creativity, but not his social skills--and that he had to move because he started to feel "like the Unibomber or something"... He he

seconding, thirding Faust & the Band

That Liars record was supposedly recorded in the woods in New Jersey.
I'd love to know exactly where.

Also, I associate this topic with Sparklehorse, and I'm not sure why.

yeah but that cottage is a much-used studio - Flaming Lips, Mercery Rev et al all record there regularly

I was going to try and restrain myself here, but I just can't. Are you kidding with this? Have you never heard the final two albums? Quite honestly I just don't get how anyone who appreciates music can possibly say this with a straight face. Do you really not realize the significance of what was produced on Spirit and Laughing Stock--the complexity of the arrangements, the organic unity of each piece within the whole? Are you really unaware of how many artists have been influenced and namechecked Mark and the boys? Adult contemporary? God almighty, give me a break...

in one trillion years from now, now of this will signify (you mark my words)

Joni Mitchell, For the Roses.