Destroy Rock & Roll

Destroy Rock & Roll
Studio album by
Mylo
Released24 May 2004
RecordedNovember 2003–April 2004 (Tracks 1–14)
August 2004–July 2005 (Tracks 15–17 Limited Edition)
StudioVarious locations in Scotland
Genre
Length55:01
LabelBreastfed
ProducerMyles MacInnes
Singles from Destroy Rock & Roll
  1. "Muscle Cars"
    Released: 26 April 2004
  2. "Valley of the Dolls"/"Continental Love"
    Released: 23 August 2004
  3. "Drop the Pressure"
    Released: 18 October 2004
  4. "Destroy Rock & Roll"
    Released: 24 January 2005
  5. "In My Arms"
    Released: 16 May 2005
  6. "Doctor Pressure"
    Released: 5 September 2005
  7. "Musclecar (Reform Reprise)"
    Released: 9 January 2006

Destroy Rock & Roll is the first and only album by Scottish record producer and DJ Mylo (real name Myles MacInnes), released in 2004.

The album samples many 1970s and 1980s soft rock songs that Mylo heard on the radio as a child. The single "In My Arms" combines hits by Kim Carnes and Boy Meets Girl. The title track samples a fundamentalist Christian sermon, while "Drop the Pressure" is based around a vocal recording made by Mylo himself and edited with a vocoder.

The album was re-released in 2005, and peaked at number 26 on the UK Albums Chart.[3] The re-released contained a new remix of "Drop the Pressure", called "Doctor Pressure" (vs. Miami Sound Machine), which was also a number 3 single.

Background and production

Many of the album's tracks come from 1970s and 1980s radio-friendly soft rock. Mylo grew up on the remote Isle of Skye, where in his childhood the only available radio station was Ireland-based Atlantic 252, which played such music.[4] After being exposed to the first time to house music on the radio, and having expanded his musical influences while studying in Los Angeles, he committed himself to music at the age of 22.[4]

In 2002, while working as a journalist for the BBC in Glasgow, Mylo heard the Christian fundamentalist sermon that was sampled in his first track, "Destroy Rock & Roll". He also made a song sampling Toto's "Salt Lake", for which the rights were never cleared. He rejected Wall of Sound and Echo to form his own label, Breastfed.[4]

The one vocal line on "Drop the Pressure" was recorded by Mylo himself and then put through a vocoder. The line starts off low in pitch before getting higher and higher, until becoming what Mylo called "quite an unsubtle pisstake of vocoder music in a way".[4] "In My Arms" samples "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes and "Waiting for a Star to Fall" by Boy Meets Girl. Mylo initially thought that its concept was the same as the 2004 number-one single "Take Me to the Clouds Above" that mashes up popular songs by U2 and Whitney Houston – a song he considered "absolute cack". He considered leaving it off the album until people reacted positively to it.[4]

Many copyright owners of the original tracks demanded at least 50% of the rights to the new tracks. For this reason, on several tracks on Destroy Rock & Roll, the cheaper option of re-recording the original music was employed. This was the case for the use of "Bette Davis Eyes" on "In My Arms", due to the requirement to offer 50% to the holders of "Waiting for a Star to Fall". Conversely, a sampled grunt from the Prince song "Kiss" on "Guilty of Love" was ineligible for copyright due to its brevity.[4]

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic80/100[5]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[6]
Entertainment WeeklyA−[7]
The Guardian[8]
The Independent[9]
The Irish Times[10]
Pitchfork8.4/10[1]
Q[11]
Rolling Stone[12]
Uncut[13]
URB[14]

Review aggregator Metacritic gives Destroy Rock & Roll a score of 80/100 from 14 reviews by music critics.[5] Tim DiGravina of AllMusic gave the album four stars out of five, finding cohesiveness among Mylo's different influences and concluding that it "only seems to cement his status among the elite of electronic cut-and-pasters of his time".[6] A rare negative review came from Dave Simpson in The Guardian, who did not find that the album's quality matched its provocative title: "There are moments of promise when Mylo ups the pace, but rock'n'roll faces a greater threat from a feather duster".[8]

Elton John endorsed the album on an appearance on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, saying that "every home should own a copy".[15] The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[2] It was named the 21st best album of the decade by Resident Advisor.[16]

Track listing

All tracks written by Mylo (aka Myles Macinnes); additional songwriters are mentioned in parentheses.[17]

  1. "Valley of the Dolls" (Stu Phillips, Bob Stone) – 3:26
  2. "Sunworshipper" (Maxime Le Forestier, Hubert Rostaing) – 3:26
  3. "Muscle Cars" – 3:39
  4. "Drop the Pressure" – 4:15
  5. "In My Arms" (George Merrill, Shannon Rubicam, Jackie DeShannon) – 3:46
  6. "Guilty of Love" (George Duke) – 3:06
  7. "Paris Four Hundred" – 3:32
  8. "Destroy Rock & Roll" – 4:07
  9. "Rikki" (Rickie Lee Jones) – 3:18
  10. "Otto's Journey" – 3:58
  11. "Musclecar (Reform Reprise)" (Anu Pillai) – 3:53
  12. "Zenophile" (Cy Coleman, Dorothy Fields) – 4:08
  13. "Need You Tonite" (Judie Tzuke, Mike Paxman) – 4:51
  14. "Emotion 98.6" – 5:36

Limited edition bonus tracks[18]

  2. "Soft Rock" – 4:01
  3. "Doctor Pressure" (Dirty Radio Edit) (Enrique E. Garcia) – 3:24
    (samples "Dr. Beat" by Miami Sound Machine featuring Gloria Estefan)
  4. "Destroy Rock & Roll" (Tom Neville Clean Edit) – 4:43

Samples

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes for both the UK and US editions.[21][22]

  • Myles MacInnes – vocals (4, 16),[4] production (all tracks), recording engineer (3–7, 9–16), musical arrangement, mixing (16), additional instruments (1, 5), music programming
  • Tamara Barnett-Herrin (of Freeform Five) – lead vocals (11)
  • John Clark – additional production, recording engineer, mixing (8), additional instruments, music programming (1, 2, 5, 6, 12)
  • Nick Decosemo (of Freeform Five) – background vocals (11)
  • Cabba Forester-Jones (of Freeform Five) – background vocals (11)
  • Freeform Five – guest appearance (11)
  • Marj Hogarth – additional vocals (1, 5)
  • Kevin Kennedy – additional production (1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 12), additional guitar, music editing (17), additional instruments, music programming (1, 2, 5, 6, 12), recording engineer (1-2, 8, 12; additional on 3–7, 9–11, 13, 14), mixing (all tracks)
  • Linus Loves – additional production, recording engineer, mixing (8), additional instruments, music programming (1, 2, 5, 6, 12)
  • Aldo Martin – producer (5)
  • Tom Neville – additional production (17), remixing (17)
  • Phantom – art direction, design
  • Anu Pillai (of Freeform Five) – additional producer (11), background vocals (11)
  • Dan Russell – additional vocals (8)
  • William Threlfall – additional production (1, 2, 5), guitar (1, additional on 15), additional instruments, music programming (5), recording engineer (1, 2; additional on 5, 6, 11, 13, 14), mixing (1, 2, 5, 6, 11, 13, 14)
  • Tom Urie – additional vocals (1, 5)

Charts

Chart performance for Destroy Rock & Roll
Chart (2004–2006) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[23] 73
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[24] 56
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[25] 89
French Albums (SNEP)[26] 101
Scottish Albums (OCC)[27] 50
UK Albums (OCC)[3] 26
US Top Dance/Electronic Albums (Billboard)[28] 10

Certifications and sales

Region Certification Certified units/sales
Ireland (IRMA)[29] Platinum 15,000^
Russia (NFPF)[30] Gold 10,000*
United Kingdom (BPI)[31] Gold 100,000^
Summaries
Europe — 250,000[32]
Worldwide — 300,000[33]

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

  1. ^ a b Abebe, Nitsuh (14 February 2006). "Mylo: Destroy Rock & Roll". Pitchfork. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  2. ^ a b Robert Dimery; Michael Lydon (23 March 2010). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition. Universe. ISBN 978-0-7893-2074-2.
  3. ^ a b "Mylo | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Doyle, Tom (March 2005). "Producing Destroy Rock & Roll". Sound on Sound. Retrieved 16 October 2021.
  5. ^ a b "Reviews for Destroy Rock & Roll by Mylo". Metacritic. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  6. ^ a b DiGravina, Tim. "Destroy Rock & Roll – Mylo". AllMusic. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  7. ^ Endelman, Michael (6 February 2006). "Destroy Rock and Roll". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 18 January 2017. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  8. ^ a b Simpson, Dave (28 May 2004). "Mylo, Destroy Rock and Roll". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  9. ^ Phelan, Laurence (30 May 2004). "Mylo: Destroy Rock & Roll (Breastfed)". The Independent.
  10. ^ Carroll, Jim (2 July 2004). "Mylo: Destroy Rock & Roll (Breastfed)". The Irish Times. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
  11. ^ "Mylo: Destroy Rock & Roll". Q (215): 105. June 2004.
  12. ^ Walters, Barry (23 January 2006). "Destroy Rock and Roll : Mylo". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 15 February 2009. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  13. ^ "Mylo – Destroy Rock & Roll". Uncut (87). August 2004. Archived from the original on 8 September 2006. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  14. ^ "Mylo: Destroy Rock & Roll". URB (133): 95. January–February 2006.
  15. ^ Iqbal, Nosheen (11 February 2005). "Myles McInnes: For Mylo's next trick..." The Independent. Retrieved 16 October 2021.
  16. ^ "Top 100 albums of the '00s". Resident Advisor. 25 January 2010. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
  17. ^ Mylo. Destroy Rock & Roll. Breastfed. 2004.
  18. ^ Mylo. Destroy Rock & Roll (Limited Edition). Breastfed. 2005.
  19. ^ Wolfe, Kevin. "Mylo: Destroy Rock & Roll (RCA)". Time Out. 23 February 2006. https://www.timeout.com/newyork/music/mylo Archived 1 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine
  20. ^ "Elton John talks to Mylo". the Guardian. 4 February 2005. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
  21. ^ Mylo. Destroy Rock & Roll (UK). Breastfed. 2004.
  22. ^ Mylo. Destroy Rock & Roll (US). RCA. 2006.
  23. ^ Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (PDF ed.). Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p. 198.
  24. ^ "Ultratop.be – Mylo – Destroy Rock & Roll" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  25. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Mylo – Destroy Rock & Roll" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  26. ^ "Lescharts.com – Mylo – Destroy Rock & Roll". Hung Medien. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  27. ^ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  28. ^ "Mylo Chart History (Top Dance/Electronic Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  29. ^ "The Irish Charts - 2005 Certification Awards - Platinum". Irish Recorded Music Association. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
  30. ^ "Russian album certifications – Mylo – Destroy Rock and Roll" (in Russian). National Federation of Phonogram Producers (NFPF). Retrieved 4 June 2018.
  31. ^ "British album certifications – Mylo – Destroy Rock 'N' Roll". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
  32. ^ "Impala Sales Award Winner June 2005 - January 2008" (PDF). Impala. 3 December 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 August 2018. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
  33. ^ Mason, Kerri (7 January 2006). "Mylo". Billboard. Retrieved 4 June 2018.