Connie Converse is the most magical artist. I'll have to write more about her on here on here at some point. Enough for the time being to say that she made a series of home recordings that you should hunt down with indefinite haste. Also that The August List do her legacy and memory justice here.
Another day, another series. I plan twenty of these and haven't made my list yet. Just a set of evenings and experiences that stick out in my mind for one reason or other. Starting with this, my very first gig, and ample evidence that this is not some late bid for credibility. I was seventeen when I went, a late developer emerging from a spotty undistinguished teenage phase, looking for ways of constructing a self.
Hammersmith was a bus ride away from my family home in South West London. Still my favourite part of that city. Even now, I dream about being on that and other local bus routes. I went to this on my own. Not ready for a girlfriend to share a particular teenage rites of passage with at this moment. Thompson Twins and Tears For Fears were both set to embark on what turned out to be sustained assaults on the British and global pop charts which would bear decidedly mixed fruit though we were none of us to know that at the time. The pop world, particularly in Britain was about to change, reflecting the times. Undoubtedly for the worse. I'll brook no arguments with that
Tears For Fears first. I had quite a bit of time for them at round about that point. Their debut album The Hurting was out and I'd bought it. All exaggerated teenage mannerisms and psychodramas but I was a bit like that at that moment and still have the diaries to prove it. Late developer as I said.
I'm listening to it now. I'd maintain it's a reasonable record but that may be my teenage self confusing me. Still, some fine melodies, magpie thievery and the title track, Mad World and Pale Shelter, some opening salvo. The singles are generally the ones that stand the test of time best. I stood a few rows back from the stage in my John Lennon specs and curly mop of hair, probably swaying slightly. Lost in irredeemably teenage thought.
The record overcomes me now eventually in terms of it's non-stop angsty projections, particularly when the pace drops. Some tracks actively repel me. I no longer have a Holden Caulfield fixation. They had tunes but little depth. Still, they were right for me at the time. I enjoyed them and they were probably one of the best support bands I've ever seen, all these years later.
Now, after a tea break to come down from Orzabal and Smith's emotional contortions I'm back to reflect on Thompson Twins. They had just made one of the most remarkable transitions in all of pop history. From a seven piece, Talking Heads fixated political seven piece to a mop haired trio of almost cartoon-ish quality, probably better suited to their name, derived from the moustachioed detectives in Tintin
I was unaware of the complete nature of the band's metamorphosis when I bought the ticket for this. I think I would probably have preferred to witness their earlier incarnation. Listening to the record this gig presaged, their breakthrough album Quick Step & Side Kick now is frankly a much more harrowing experience than getting through The Hurting, which is at least supposed to be distressing. The pop version of the Thompson Twins were one of the most conspicuous attendees of the garish pop party of the early Eighties. Duran Duran and Nik Kershaw were also there along with numerous other fortunately mostly forgotten arriviste ghouls. It was an unedifying spectacle. As for Quick Step & Side Kick, itwas at the time and is still a deeply vacuous and frankly upsetting listening experience. I'm not a snob. At least not completely. There is always space for pop records that don't appeal to Velvet Underground fans like me. Some of them are just fabulous. But this is an affront. Listen to it yourself if you don't believe me. On second thoughts don't. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
I think I enjoyed them well enough. The sound was certainly impressive for a trio. Then they put down their instruments and started dancing around the stage. The music continued. It was an early lesson for me, both about the nature of the music business and about life itself. Thompson Twins and I pretty much parted company when I left the venue. Tears For Fears and I a couple of
years down the line when I heard the singles from their world conquering second album Songs From the Big Chair and they left me utterly cold. Still, for better or worse, these two were my first. Oh good, I can take Quick Step & Side Kick off now. The things I do for this blog...
Mick Karn was bassist in Japan. He was also one of the finest bassists in the world. He died tragically young a few years back. This was released as a single in 1982 from the album Titles. It would have sounded great in the Top Forty. Instead it reached # 92.
Stephen Malkmus being Stephen Malkmus. Oh and rather Kraftwerk, He adds a K to Victor Borgia. From his latest 'cleverer than thou' album Groove Denied.
In Rosie's with two of the Cundall brothers, one of whom was on his way to the Stranglers concert down the road, with lots of songs that suited that on the jukebox. Including this. No need really for the fifteen or so Department S songs on the jukebox but good that this is there...
I'm rather taken by Undone at 31, the new solo album by New Zealander Martin Frawley. It seems to document a stressful breakup in his own personal life which has long been fertile territory for great albums going back to the days of Dylan, Neil Young and Big Star.
Frawley mines much of this seam yet somehow manages to come across as familiar and original at the same time. I suspect the record will reward repeated plays. He makes this listener think of him as something of a Kevin Morby in his melancholic moods but also draws on his own back catalogue as a member of the now defunct Twerps who themselves took notes from the golden legacy of the Flying Nun records and bands of the Eighties and Nineties.
A fine album results, documenting bruised and lethargic mid life trauma which all but the most fortunate among us have experienced at some time or other. I direct you to the Pop Matters site where a good friend of mine and supporter of this blog has written a fine and more detailed account.
And here's their first taster of that new album, which is called Wheeltappers & Shunters ( which you have to be British and of a certain age to get). The record is out in May.
Good to see Clinic, one of the finest British bands of the past twenty years back shortly with their first album in seven years shortly. Only a few of their songs on the jukebox at Rosie's including this from 2002's album of the same name which will do.
We'll follow that up with a song for the man himself. But not from Swedes I was a King but by Finns Penniless. Teenage Fanclub, clearly big in Scandinavia.
Swedish band I Was a King's latest album Slow Century is produced by Norman Blake. They have a song from a previous record called Norman Bleik which they have been known to dedicate to the man himself when he's in the audience at their concerts. It's no great revelation to discover that they sound rather like Teenage Fanclub.
All of this is fine by me. I've always had plenty of time for that band. As a friend of mine commented, they continue to mature like a fine wine. I Was a King makes its way along the forest path forged lovingly by that band over many years and many records. Given the proviso that you accept the limitations that they set for themselves I imagine you'll enjoy the journey with I Was a King. I did.
From the cradle to the grave. Kevin Morby is an artist of incredible taste and talent and this is one of the best things I've heard all year. No Halo and its accompanying promo evoke a fallen world, frankly the one we all seem to be inhabiting right now. He's streets ahead of most currently. I would imagine this precedes an album although I have no information about it just yet. This will more than do for now.
'I’m so sad, I don’t know what to say. Hal Blaine was such a great musician and friend that I can’t put it into words. Hal taught me a lot, and he had so much to do with our success - he was the greatest drummer ever. We also laughed an awful lot. Love, Brian' Brian Wilson.
Young, vowel-less Hull band, ( I'm sure you can join the dots), putting out a series of singles and EPs where the influences are evident but the results are effective. I'd give you Beach Fossils, Slowdive and The Cure for starters. Worth investigating anyhow.
More Pottery and the only other song they have out there, from late last year. Also highly likeable, this onemore reminiscent of Omni. But virtually every third or fourth band sounds a bit like Omni these days.
Came back to find this coming out of my radio and was thrilled. More Punk Rock, but in the here and now from a band from Montreal. You can't help feeling that The Saints would approve. Currently touring or have been touring with Parquet Courts which makes sense...
This sounded nice wafting out of my radio late on a Sunday afternoon. From Snapped Ankles who generally sound a little more urgent and their latest album Stunning Luxury.
Jacques Loussier, a fine and very specific musician has passed recently. Probably best known for his jazz re-workings of Bach, he created a lot of beautiful music over a long career. For myself and for a friend I discussed him with briefly on hearing about his passing I shared an appreciation of him with my father who is fortunately still with us. I'll discuss Loussier with him when I call this afternoon. For more on his work, ( Loussier's of course, not my dad) go here. I posted a Satie piece here rather than Bach. Because it sounds just wonderful at this time in the morning.
Now here's a great record. Later recorded by Donald Fagen, ( who clearly agrees). for his Nightfly album. A Lieber and Stoller composition, which explains a lot.
Murray A. Lightburn. Now there's a name to conjure with. And here's a record to listen to. His new album, Hear Me Out, released a few weeks back. Lightburn was formerly, (may still be, not sure), lead singer of The Dears, a band who have gained a few plaudits over the years. I don't really know their stuff but judging by this, perhaps I should investigate.
Because Hear Me Out is really rather a lovely record. The term Chamber Pop comes to mind to give you a general idea of what's going down here, with touches of Soul, Country and Folk somewhere in the mix. Gentle and finely crafted, vaguely orchestral pop songs, the kind of thing that those of us who pine for Alternative Pop Worlds would people our charts with. Lightburn sounds like the kind of person who would never push himself to the front of any queue, ( even at times as if he's resigned to standing in it forever ), so I guess it's for the likes of me, doing things like this, to make the word for artists like him and try to make his case. Spread the word.
I heard about this record from the A Pessimist is Never Disappointed, the blog listed on the right hand side of this page. It's one of my favourites and has directed me to any number of great records over the years. Richard Hell made a comment once about the importance of radio in the Sixties and Seventies as a secret network connecting like-minded souls. I guess personalised music blogs serve a similar purpose in the here and now.
Anyhow, I digress. Back to Lightburn and this really rather lovely record. Because lovely is the word I keep coming back to it while listening to this in the early morning and writing about it too. Hey, I can multitask! As A Pessimist is Never Disappointed suggests, his voice and the tone and mood of his songs are reminiscent of Paul Weller when he finds the right track on his way down a reflective path. The songs also draw on the mid to late Sixties when so many people were doing this kind of thing so well. Make your own list, but I would definitely recommend that you have a listen to Hear Me Out in order to help you do so. I very much doubt that you'll regret doing so.
S.E. Hinton wrote a series of bestselling novels, most notably The Outsiders and Rumblefish while going through those years and her twenties herself. Both songs I tracked down about her were rather heavy. I chose the one that sounded like Nirvana rather than the one that sounded like Metallica for obvious reasons.
'Here's a penny for your thoughts. Incidentally, you may keep the change...'
I was told last night by Young Sean the former barman, now a regular punter, that not all the songs I put on the jukebox at Rosie's are good. Peasant! I would maintain that he was drinking while I wasn't and had temporarily taken leave of his senses. Here are Orange Juice and the follow up to Rip It Up, which stopped just short of their the Top Forty when released as a single in 1982. For me personally, it's one of my favourite things that they ever did. Very nice Motown and Bacharach and David thing going on here.
The Long Ryders are back in 2019 with a new album Psychedelic Country Soul and this feels like a good thing. They sound very much how they used to. That clean, open and essentially optimistic sound that inevitably sets off thoughts of The Byrds, The Buffalo Springfield, Flying Burrito Brothers, Creedence and the like, but it's amazing how energised and fresh it all sounds.
This is the sound of the open road. Distinctively American and dream-bound. It seems to represent a flame that hasn't been extinguished just yet. Lyrically it represents a determined positivism in old school beliefs and values. It's a road-tested formula, sure there's a naivety to it, but that's all the more touching in cynical times. They're well aware of what's going on but there's a determination to maintain their stand and that's heartening.
Getting yourself a good title is finding yourself halfway to making a great record. Bobby Powell did this in 1963 and then effortlessly went the rest of the way. Read more here.
And so we're done. I've certainly thoroughly enjoyed writing about these albums while reading the essays arguing the case for them. As a result I'll start my own list and set of posts of twenty of my own records that might deserve similar attention for one reason or another. But that won't be for a while. In the meantime, here's my ranking of the Melody Maker list. I enjoyed them all with the exception of The Fatima Mansions, Todd Rundgren, Led Zep, Microdisney and The Residents. T he Top Ten at least should definitely be heard.
1. Curtis Mayfield
2. Gene Clark
3. Fleetwood Mac
4. The Go- Betweens
5. The Soft Boys
6. Captain Beefheart
7. The Raincoats
8. Dexys Midnight Runners
9. Magazine
10. Orange Juice
11. The Specials
12. Neil Young
13. ABC
14. ABBA
15. Chic
16. Bow Wow Wow
17. Led Zeppelin
18. The Residents
19. Microdisney
20. Todd Rundgren
21. Fatima Mansions
The go to Curtis Mayfield album is generally considered to be 1970's Curtis. The one with If there is a Hell Below and Move On Up on it. His Superfly soundtrack is also spoken about in hushed tones.I can personally vouch for the excellence of 1973's Back to the World as I have it myself.
But David Bennun, writing his third piece here makes the case for There's no Place Like America Today, and listening through to it for the first time yesterday, I could easily see why. It's certainly far from his most upbeat and positive record. It says it how it is, or at least how he sees it. Poor Black America in 1975. Same as it ever was and seemingly ever will be.
Given it's subject matter, it's the most unerringly serious of all the essays here, as it should be. Bennun does not avert his eye. In many respects he's the most serious of all the writers here too and he gives an excellent considered account to everything he turns his mind too. You get the sense that he feels this record has not ever really quite been given its due and suffered particularly in terms of critical consensus with What's Going On just as Mayfield has been neglected by comparison with Marvin Gaye. Fair enough.
I certainly wondered while listening to it why There's no Place Like America doesn't have the high critical standing that it merits because it's clearly a masterpiece. I direct you both to the record and to Bennun's definitive account of it. This is bitter sweet soul music and Mayfield is one of the true masters of the form.
Led Zeppelin once stalked the earth and left records to prove it. Frankly the world has never seen their like before or since. Their sheer scale and power are unrivalled by any other band ... ever. This can make them somewhat tiring to listen to because they're so often intent on proving it. So on a good day at the office this can sound like the best thing you've ever heard. On a bad day it's somewhat akin to being bludgeoned repeatedly with a blunt object albeit by three of the finest Rock and Roll musicians ever to play and a divisive but inimitable frontman.
Presence is generally considered a bad day at the office by critics, fans and members of the band themselves. 'The runt of the litter', as Matt Smith describes it here.There are definitely times on here when it sounds as if they're just running through their gears from muscle memory but often the gears lock and they find themselves stuck in a relentless groove and you wonder if there might be something wrong with your record player because surely no one wanted their songs to come out sounding like this. Powerful as ever they nevertheless sound dry and to my ears slightly sterile.
This album was the product of a period of intense difficulty in the band's career as Matt Smith's records in his informative, ego free account of the making of the record here. Robert Plant had just narrowly escaped death in a family driving accident while on holiday in Greece and the record to a large degree attests to his recovery process and evident acute irritation with the circumstances he is obliged to put up with, with those around him and the fact that recording Presence forces him to be apart to from his wife just when he needed to be with her most.
The frustration and boredom he was obliged to endure seem to seep into the grooves here. It's certainly not the Led Zep LP you would play to convince the uninitiated of their worth. It's a solid album but one devoid of the life and colour that defines the band's best work. And there's plenty of that. The record is bookended by two of the band's most powerful tracks, Achilles Last Stand and Tea For One but they're both almost ten minutes long. Frankly, it's all rather hard work and I won't be going back any time soon.
