Tuesday, December 10, 2024
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 163 King Crimson - Discipline
The King Crimson that I didn't mind. The one that sounded a bit like Talking Heads. They did you know..This is qute invigorating.
What if...?
An interesting parlour game. Well we're coming up to Christmas.. What kind of records were we deprived if by the premature passing of the following. In no particular order although this is numbered.
- Otis Redding
- Buddy Holly.
- Jimi Hendrix
- Sandy Denny
- John Lennon
- Brian Jones
- Sam Cooke
- Kurt Cobain
- Tim & Jeff Buckley
- Elliott Smith
Sid Vicious? I'm not sure.
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,725 Styx - The Grand Illusion
1977 was the Year of Punk. On both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. It was also the year in which Styx released The Grand Illusion. One of the most preposterous records I've heard for a long time. Probably since the last time I tried to listen to a Styx record.I take this blog thing seriously. If a Styx album comes uo I'll give it a go until I can stand no more.
I lasted almost fifteen minutes this mornind until a ludicrous and monstrous synth solo pinned me to the canvas and I had to throw my headphones off in disbeluef and horrir and flee to the sofa, They're beyond me this bunch. They seemed to try to outdo themselves in terms of sheer folly, pomp and the utterly self indulgent nature of their ludicrous witterings and labyrinthine musical and lyrical insanity. Fortunately I have a very good friend who listens to them so I don't have to very often.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 16 Waxahatchee - Tiger's Blood
It must be Spring. Waxahatchee's Tiger's Blood has arrived to officially decree that we can start enjoying life again. Pack up your cadillac. Get on the highway and put your foot on the accelerator and head off in search of visceral life experience.
As the last paragraph suggests, Tiger's Blood is very much an all American record. But hey we've all seen the movies now an have some understanding of the rituals of and proceedures these things follow what it looks like and how it's meant to feel.
Waxahatchee, or Katie Crutchfield, as I imagine she signs herself in on motel ledgers, understands all this. She's probably been working her way up to her definitive album statement for a while and I'm saying this might as well be it..I'm no longer in the mood to argue at length whether this is a step forward to maturity from previous efforts like Saint Cloud and I Walked With You a Ways. This certainly feels like a moment of arrival.
She's been an artist worth celebrate for a while. Her voice is still rather more Indie Gal, than the full Emmylou ephiphany but I always liked Indie Gal. In Lone Star Lake she's posted a signature statement. But then this is an album where nothing really disappoints. It's a record to crank up, put your feet up on a stool and drift away. Or else get into your car if you have one of those.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,940 Julian Cope
A couple of days ago a friend of mine, who I'd got to know in my final year at university almost thirty five years ago, send me a great early Christmas Gift though I don't imagine it was intended as such. It was a link to the latest Julian Cope.album Friar Tuck. A recording that it seems is unlikely to be released on conventional.formats I imagine. Cope increasingly plays by his own dictates these days.
The arrival of these recodings is a cause of considerable celebration and moment I'd say. And not just for the likes of me for whom Cope played a considerable role of the development of my emotional and educational gestalt in my increasingly distant youth.
Cope had his most obvious moment in the sun in Pop terms in the early Eighties as leader of Psychedelic Pop warriors The Teardrop Explodes. I remember vividly getting up and preparing for school as an unkempt and spotty teenager with Reward, the Teardrops breakthrough slab of seven image blaring from my transistor.It felt like a discovery. It's still thrilling and remarkable that song,
The Teardrop Explodes burnt themselves out remarkably quickly. They were come and gone within five years. Bit Cope has survived endured and frankly thrived as one of the most fascinating and iconic figures on the British cultural landscape ever since. Not just as a musician, releasing fascinating records intermittently and touring them. But also as an acclaimed and respected pulished author on Neolithic culture and as a sage cultural and polirical commentator with few parallels I'd say.
The emotional, cultural and psychological undertow of Cope's work has aways been distinctive and fascinating. Friar Tuck is a fascinating and immediately excellent gift and one I look forward to unpacking processing fully in 2025. It's touched by genius as much of his work has been.. When people talk about National Treasures, personally I don't look much further than this guy,
* The record is on YouTube if you care to check it out for yoirself.
Monday, December 9, 2024
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 164 Tom Verlaine -Dreamtime
I've just listened to a Patti Smith album.Now a Tim Verlaine record pops up. They're twinned in time those two.
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,726 Patti Smith - Easter
I had mixed feelings about Easter for a while. It seemed a bit brutish and even vulgarian. In time it's won me round and has an earthyimmediacy. A physical poetic surge. It's quite invigorating if you must know.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 17 2nd Grade - Scheduled Explosions
A fantastic album out of Philadelphia. 2nd Grade's Scheduled Explosions Robert Pollard, dbs, Alex Chilton and Mitch Easter came to mind. 'a heart seeking missive addressed to the past present & future of rock & roll.'
I was hearing wonderful reference points at every turn. Beatles, Soft Boys, early Wilco, Olivia Tremor Control, This felt lie an early Christmas present. And it's nor even November.
This was a thrilling multi faceted record to enjoy. At a ceryain point in every year an Underground American Rock & Roll classic comes out of nowhere to grab my ears and capture my heart,
In previous years there have been Ratboys, Warehouse, Lawn, Dark Tea and Wild Firth. I suspect 2nd Grade are destined for garlands in 2024
None of these songs hang around, twenty three songs in short of forty minutes. Something of a Modern Power Pop classic.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,939 Charles Lloyd
'Flower Power Jazz veteran extended his late career renaissance with this album of nellifluous sax and flute marvels.' Not my words but thise of Uncut Magazine. Another astonishing record that to me gives further evidence to the idea that Best Of Lists for a year are utterly superfluous in 2024. Just post lists of great records instead. Mine of course still has 17 to go. This sadly can't be on it because I'm listening to it for the first time now. Another Could be Number One !!! .
Sunday, December 8, 2024
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 165 Manuel Gottsching S2 - E4
Named after a chess move. Minimal. And inevitably hypnotic.
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,727 Low - Things We Lost In The Fire
Low were consistently one of the most interesting of bands.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 18 The Smile - Wall Of Eyes
One thing that seems worthwhile to me is to have some idea about 'which way the wind blows' to quote a man who often seemed to have a pretty good idea which direction that was. At least vaguely.
Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood always strike me as characters who always try to do that. They maintain the most sensitive cultural anttenae and always have done in remarkable musical careers which are now stretching past the 30 year mark.
Their music always seems immediately germane and contemporary to me and that's a remarkable achievement. Whether in Radiohead, in their own solo projects or now with The Smile, they always seem to make the weight, train up for the fight and come dancing out from their corners at the sound of the bell ready for the fray.Not bad going at their ages. No resting on laurels here.
Wall of Eyes effortlessly maintains their astonishing and almost unrivalled career Knock Out record. It's such a good record from starter's pistol to finishing tape. I wouldn't put it past them to be medal contenders come the awards ceremonies in December. They remain contenders that's for sure..
The rhythms Wall of Eyes seems based on seem to be to be primarily Jazz generated ones to me but I'm not a musician so I won't venture further. Thom Yorke's vocals drift in and out of the mix like the ultimate harbinger of gloom and doom as ever. He's an Old Testament Prophet and no mistake and a particularly persistent example. The Rock & Roll Fiver forever bemoaning the oncoming destruction of the warren. He's never much fun exactly but remains an incredibly resonant and impressive artist.
Greenwood is every bit as remarkable and kudos to Tom Skinner the third player of The Smile who clearly supplies enough creative and personal input to convince Yorke and Greenwood that they don't feel the need to return to the Radiohead fold quite yet. I don't care. I imagine that will happen one day.It doesn't really matter to the rest of us. This is as good as a Radiohead record for me.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,938 White Denim
2044 closes in on 2025 but still keeps on giving. This morning in the shape of White Denim's 12. Work it out buddy.
More playful, genre jumping. Essentially Bohemian in nature. Psychedelia, Garage, Pop Soul. It's a joyful shifting noise.
Sly Stone and Stevie Wonder. 5th Dimension. Dub. Blues. This is space hopping of the best sort. And it never makes the basic mistake of wanting to be in any year exept the current one. There are many who would be well advised to take note. Sit up Bobby !
I know I'm not doing this fine album justice with this brief report. Go to this month's Uncut Magazine where it's Album of the Month and its full wonder is detailed.
Saturday, December 7, 2024
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,728 Fatboy Slim - You've Come a Long Way Baby
A great record. But a slightly odd period in Pop Music History when DJs were actual Pop Stars
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500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 166 Opal - Early Recordings
Opal were David Roback's stop gap station between Rain Parade and Mazzy Star. Predicated on the Mo Tucker's sung Velvet Underground songs with Dream Syndicate's Kendra Smith on the mic. Charming,
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 19 Hurray For The Riff Raff - The Past Is Still Alive
It's comforting to wake up on a Friday morning to find two immediately wonderful freshly released albums waiting for me. Like birthday gifts on the doormat. Laetitia Sadler's Rooting For Love which I've already reviewed. And this, the latest from Hurray For The Riff Raff.
Alynda Segarra HFTRR's alter ego, has maintained an excellent hitting record in recent seasons which immediately led to my antennae rising in anticipation of the arrival of The Past Is Still Alive. Expectations were immediately met. Another excellent record.
She's in laidback mood here. The album cover shot of her sat in her living room window. Or else at a corner table at a favourite diner, hat elegantly cocked over her eyes. The record more than matches and then surpasses this immediate impression. All said this is a fluid, masterful set of guitar driven songs with engaged but tempered lyrics.
Segarra's well aware of the pitiful state of the world. End days. But also aware of exactly how much, or perhaps how little she can do about it. .She's resigned. But that's an elightened, not a questionable stance to arrive at I'd say. There's never a moment's doubt that she still cares about the things that matter as much as she ever did.
This is more than enough. Hurray For The Riff Raff were due to play at a favourite venue near me last time round but pulled the gig at the last minute. I hope they reschedule though the world doesn't always work out that way. I'd love to see them live and witness the fire in their eyes. Fantastic stuff. And I've only played the reccord once. More than enough to know. Think I'll give it another play. Invest in its narrative.
* Oh and that's some album title too.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,937 cistern
cistern, Sqamush, British Columbia's finest. And their latest record Head Full of Questions. Angular alternative Pop songs of an Omni and Pavement disposition .Fine stuff. Thanks to Darren Jones ince more.
Friday, December 6, 2024
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,729 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - From Her To Eternity
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds here they come again. Wherever I go there. Like monstrous portents of bad faith. A black cat zig zagging across the Peqod's desk with Moby Dick in sight. An albatross flirting with the rigging during a storm on the ocean. Oh well. Better give it a listen.
As always I don' last for long. Nick sounds like he's gargling grit. The first song is Avalanche by Leonard Cohen. If it means so much to him why couldn't he have left it alone. I didn't get much further I'm afraid. The band sound in fine fettle. Couldn't this have been released as an instrumental album and Nick just published the lyrics.
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 167 Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Get Happy
Elvis Costello was very highly rated in the late Seventies and throughout the Eighties. His ranking within the scheme of things seems to have dropped slightly. But listen to the record. I can't really see a reason for this.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 20 Bill Ryder Jones - Iechyd Da
There are worse ways to spend the hours that the sun rises on early January than listening to what I sensed as I was listening was the first great album of 2024. Christmas is well and truly over now. Time to get going again.
It's been evident for a while now that Ryder- Jones is a considerable talent, At least I think so. I've chronicled his progress in some detail and on a regular basis since he first caught my attention with 2015's West Kirby Primary which I fell in love with and saw him support with a storming gig at Cluny 2.
Since then I've liked the records he's done and I've liked him more. He's a man who works at his own pace. A craftsman and an unashamed slight depressive with a great record collection and aspration to match it.. In line with the classic singer songwriter craftsmen and depressives Brian Wilson, Arthur Lee.
I don't think that's overstating the case mentioning him in such esteemed company. Because he's good and willing to put in the work, which not everyone with similar dreams is worth doing. Mentioning no names ... Gallagher brothers. Bill Ryder-Jones on the other hand. He's a man of ambition who sets the bar high for himself and a first play of new record Iechyd Da was enough to make me realise immediately that this may be as good as he's done. He certainly seems to think so judging by the barely supressed excitement with which he'd counted down the days on social media to the records release.
Well it's here now, and one play was all I needed to know to recognise it has all the hallmarks of an absolute classic and the man has every right to ve very, very proud of his achievement indeed. This is a fantastic record and I look forward to owning it over the coming days and weeks as we make our way with steady tread towards Spring. Initial verdict. Depressive masterpiece but one that somehow locates the silver lining as the best epressive masterpieces should and generally do.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,936 The Waeve
Go on. Give us a Waeve. Christmas s coming. And apparently the goose is getting fat. The Waeve came back in 2024 with more Dystopian Fun for all the Family. City Lights. Graham Coxon Rose Elinor Dougall.Indie Fiction's premiere couple.
Scary Monsters Guitars. Andy McKay saxaphone. Trsula Le Guin plotlines. Glam fun for all the family.Another terrific album. Please put a penny in the old man's hat.
Thursday, December 5, 2024
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 21 Cassandra Jenkins - My Light, My Destroyer
Cassandra Jenkins is one of the coolest fishies to come swimming up the Art Pop pike in recent years and no mistake. If 2021's (An Overview of ) An Overview on Phenomenal Nature was a fascinating entre, My Light, My Destroyer is the butterfly emerging from its chrysalis.
There's a sense of realisation listening to this. No longers as boho as she seemed on Phenomenal Nature. So Rickie Lee. So Laurie. My Light is a remarkably assured record from the off. Seemingly intent on the heart of the charts just as much on critical garlands.
A fantastically realised Pop album of silky, textured, confident songs. Jenskins voice has become softly, textured and realised. There's a sense of realisation here. Like a beautuful bride in a stunning dress, making her way down the aisle on the best day of her life.
.
Jenkins retains her 'otherness' here. There are plenty of 'outre' moments. In some ways this feels like a deeply thought through record. But not in a calculated sense. Just another giant leap forward for \Jenkins. It will be fascinating to watch where she goes from here. Infinity and beyond.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,935 Giant Baby
Margate's finest. Ar least since Tracy Emin. Forgive me. I just wanted to write that. Formed of members of Gang, Inevitable and TRAAMs. Latest album Egg takes us a smooth ride on metal veins into the heart of the city.
The bands Spotify bio throws a lot of genres intothe destciption pot/ Indie Alt Rock, Slowcore, Posy Rock and Progressive. This is the alphsbet soup of Modern Experince. There's much here that would be just as happy in 1985 as it seems in 2025.
It's all fluid and ensured, Infirmed by the freedom of the Internet Age. Giant Baby shake free of the anxiety of influenc. Easy Ruders into the abyss.
Wednesday, December 4, 2024
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,731 Depeche Mode - Some Great Reward
Al, the guy who works behind the counter in the record shop across the road from me is a font of great wisdom. We had a discussion about The Cure and their new album recently. How perhaps they have entered the pantheon over time. Something you would never have anticipated in the Eighties, When they were widely ridicued.
Perhaps the same can be said of Depeche Mode. I grew up with them. And always felt myself slightly senior to them . And was slightly disdainful of them. Now decades on their records resonate in a way I would never have umagined when they first came out.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 22 Tapir ! The Pilgrim Their God & the King of My Decrepit Mountain.
People need escape. Release from the constant pressures and stresses they're having to deal with and endure. Withstand. From their bosses. Their spouses. Their mortgages. Energy bills. Its tough out there. Unrelenting. Who can blame them.
Where do they escape to. To the pub. The beach,.Cinema. Football. TV. On Thursday evening at a loose end I switched on my TV. And instead of opting for my streaming services, looking for a film like I usually do I turned on the terrestrial service to see what BBC had to offer before the news.
I found myself watching The Traitors, the latest hype reality sensation they're all talking about. At least in the Sainsbury's I shop at. I realised on Thursday pretty much immediately that it wasn't for me. Hunger Games in the living room, Brave New World. 1984. Feelies. Hate Week. Mass stimulation. Mass manipulation.People I didn't know but was being asked to pretend that I did. I didn't really like it in short.
Perhaps I'm taking this all too seriously. Ir's all just a bit of fun I hear you say. But every third programme is a reality show now. They all work on similar principles from what I can see though some are more pleasant and engaging than others.
But they're all based on the principle of competition and I'm tired of competition. It's not the only approach available to us. I'd rather see a bit more collaboration personally. And they're talking about a citizen's army and the evelasting war like the one in The Book of Revelations on Question Time so forgive me for taking this all seriously. .
I go for music and writing on here for my escape and release for the most part. On Friday morning I turned to South London's Tapir! for consolation.I got what I was looking for. I found pleasure and collaboration with a single objective in mind.. Tapir!'s debut album is The Pigrim Their God & the King of My Decrepit Mountain. And it's a source of considerable beauty, wonder, invention and imagination. Generosity
I've been waiting to hear this record since last May. That's when I caught the band by chance in a support slot with The Golden Dregs at Cluny 2 in The Ouseburn Valley. I was won over. Enchanted frankly. The record is promise realised. I'd rather listen to it and explore than watch reality shows.
Like Aldous Huxley Tapir! look to Shakespeare's Tempest for inspiration. The record's a concept and it's out now on the ever constant Heavenly label. It's epiphany enough for me. I won't trouble you with further reference points though I was pleasantly surprised to be reminded of Grizzly Bear at times. Always a happy reminder. Discover the Tapir ! Eden experience for yourself.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,934 Indochine
An evocative name. Vietnam and its cultural resonance still has a powerful hold on the Western imagination, An album cover that is not unlike the closing sequence of that film, where the Marlon Brando character meets his grisly end.
Eighteen tracks, recorded in Paris, Brussels, London and Madrid.Amanda Lear meets Pet Shop Boys style slick Eurodisco of the kind which I remember growing up to.
Tuesday, December 3, 2024
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,732 Dizee Rascal - Boy In Da Corner
Not the kind of thing I generally listen to 'of an evening'.
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 170 Grace Jones - Nightclubbing
Look up the word 'iconic' in a dictuinary and you will find a picture of this album. I doesn't dae.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 23 Adrianne Lenker - Bright Future
Adrianne Lenker in a big white cowboy hat. What more could you want. Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat. Sit back in your easy chair. Put some headphones on. Listen to Bright Future. You know you want to.
You certainly won't regret it. Lenker is certainly a singular talent. At the helm of Big Thief. The juggernaut she's guided for the best part of a decade now. Appallachian Folksiness, facial hair and genuine cameraderie, warmth, heart and intent .
Every song on Bright Future could be in a Big Thief album. But that's just as it should be. If it's not broken just add tried and tested ingredients and recipe. She's an artist. A great songwriter. A wonderful talent, With a genuine and impeccable soul.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,933 Johnny Blue Skies
A literate new school Amerucana C & W album with an old school New Orleans elevator on the sleeve. Jonny Blue Skies' Passage Du Desir.
The record eschews, (any excuse to use that word), the opportunity to indulge redneck tendencies. Quite the opposite. This is old school Southern courtesy from the off.
Not a record that surprises so much as it charms. Old school values of the best kind. A mellow way to pass forty minutes of your time.
Monday, December 2, 2024
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,733 Manu Chao - Clandestino
This is a bit of all right. From a Clash fan who took it in an interesting direction when he went back to his Latin roots.
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 171 Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Punch The Clock
Not my favourite Costello album. t also contains the terminally irritating and narcissicistic Every Day I Write The Book. But as always with this man it has so much to recommend it.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,932 The Innocence Mission
I have the tendency to get highly emotional in response to music and the chords it can instantly strike, it's phenomenal, inexplicable resonance. I'm not ashamed to say it can make me cry.
I always find listening to the Innocence Mission an incredibly emotional and immersive experience.Lo Fi Pennsylvania musing from a married couple who seem to have an intrinsic grasp on the things that really matter.
Sufjan is a huge fan.'Small songs whuch make careful observations about things which really matter.' Midwatter Swimmers is the bands 13th album and charts the passage of time, memory and experience in a deeply poetic and sensitive manner whuch can be quite transfixug and almost heartbreaking.
A beautiful way to set forth into the working week. Here us a band that unlock the inner child. This could easily be my album of the year.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 24 Nilufer Yanya - My Method Actor
Nilufer Yanya is an original. And that surely is a quality to be cherished. Latest album My Method Actor explores rhythms, mantras and emotions fir 45 minutes. She's always great company,
Described on her Spotify biog as 'mercurial' . It's a good use of the word.She's a brave musician and her records have a dense, layered quality,'
There's a refusal here to be defined by strict generic classification. That's rare. Definitely one to watch.
Sunday, December 1, 2024
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,734 Billy Joel - An Innocent Man
'I am an innocent man !' Well that's just your opinion. Billy. Many would consider much of this record a crime and no mistake.
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 172 Magazine - The Correct Use of Soap
Magazine enacted their book collections. Immersed themselves in Art and pose.The Correct Use of Soap was arch and taut.Dostoevsy meets Sly Stone.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 25 FatherJohn Misty - Mahashmahashna
It's taken a while with Father John Misty and me. I found his constant ironic front a bit wearing. Then I thought it might be a good idea to acrually listen to the records.
Mahashmahashna is another magnificent entry to his portfolio. Another attractive addition to his CV. He's eminently employable. As a first class Elton John impressionist if all else fails.
He's got all of Elton'searly Seventies grandeur and yearning in spades. But thus us not mere impressionism and mimicry, Mahashmahashna why they call it the blues. wears its heart on its sleeve, And can tell you if you care to learn exctly why they call it the blues.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,931 Good Morning
Good Morning ! Good Morning ! Good Morning! December is here. Good Morning are a band/ duo/ recording dio who have fearured on It Starts previously and are making theor way into theur thirties with their latet album, The Accident.
If maturity is desirable they're working their way towards it. They're more reflective than they once were. There's more space in their output. More care put into their arrangement. Coming up to midday.Onto the next.
Saturday, November 30, 2024
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 173 Van Halen - 1984
Oh I camt get far with this rot. They all struck me as High School bullies.
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,735 Antonio Carlos Jobin - Wave
Antonio Carlos Jobin's fifth album. The best way to take you from 5 to 6 that the Brazilian's ever invented.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 26 Phosphorescent - Revelator,
Oh I give up. I really do! there is simply too much great music coming out just now. We're at the beginning of April and I already have 70 great albums for my end of year countdown. I've reviewed most of the albums I've liked, though it becomes more of a struggle to keep up, and might set off on here with my 200 albums for the year in a couple of months.
I have no fears that there will be at least 200 albums that I like or love this year. Last Friday was a great new release day and there were at least seven or eight albums released which will make my end of year list. I start with the best known releases. Then make my way down to the more obscure. There are probably some genres I favour more than others. I am Indie, essentially. That is my disposition. As a person and as a music listener. I try to be as broad as I can. I'm pleased to see my blog is getting a lot of hits these days.Onwards and upwards.
To Phosphorescent, an artist I will always associate with one of my best friends Rod. I went to university with Rod and we roomed next to one another in our first year and attended the same school, English at American Studies at UEA Norwich. I like to think we got lucky. I realised afterwards that this was probably the best University to attend and study Literature in the UK at the time and remained so for a quite a while after we both left. Oxbridge had a fossilised approach at the time. I learned so much in five years there and am still feeding on what I learned and the friendships I formed. The memories I made.
I lost touch with Rod for over twenty years. The details don't matter. The important thing is we reconnected and have renewed our friendship on a constant basis for the last fifteen years. Through Rod, I've reconnected with some other fundamental friends I made at UEA. The stuff of life.
Rod turned me onto Matthew Houck, the myseterious artist behind Phosphorescent about 2013 with the release of Muchacho which I'd still say is his go to record. He has precedents as an artist. I always think of Van Morrison for some reason. Bon Iver. He's essentially an artist who takes you 'Into the Mystic'. Latest record .Revelator, his first for eight and my reeckoning his eighth in all finds him mining the rich mineshaft of glod he first started working on about twenty years back.
Houck is somebody who makes similar records I'd say but that doesn't really matter. It's like friendships. You don't expect people to change, there was a reason you got on in the first place. But you hope you'll all grow. And prosper. It generally happens. Revelator is another magical record. Devotees will not be disappointed.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,930 Lady Blackbird
Lady Blackbird's Slang Spirituals is one of those fantastice Neo Soul spiritual extravaganzas that you see showcased on Jools on the New Years Hootenaney to mass adulation and hysteria. Raving choirs and school children with impressive afros.
This doesn't make it any less welcome round my gaff on the last day of December as we prepare ourselves for yjay hallowed month. It's a euphoruc showcase allowing Lady Blackbird to indulge her diva instincts to the max. Hallelujah !!!
Friday, November 29, 2024
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 174 The Style Council - Cafe Bleu
Many of the mannerisms and affectations of Cafe Bleu were widely mocked at the time. You git the impression that neither Paul Weller nor Mick Talbot gave a tinker's cuss. There's a lot of nice stiff on this record. Though it's very much of its time. Of course Tracy Thorn guests.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 27 Mary Halvorson - Cloudward
2024 gathers pace as The January Steeplechase reaches its final furlongs and medal contestants gather at the front of the field. Prominent in the chasing pack is Jazz dark horse, the leggy and bespectacled Mary Halvorson (sorry if that comes across as sexist, I was aiming at descriptive), who commentators discounted as an also ran before the starting pistol was fired.
Not so. Halvorson's latest album Cloudward is muscular and spacey in turn. Mary, who you might assume is Norwegian, but is actually based in Brooklyn, martials her eight piece band masterfully, contributing guitar herself on a set of fabulous improvisatinoal, instumental pieces that made me think of Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane though in terms of Jazz I don't know much, I just know what I like. Like the Rolling Stones' schoolboy although he of course claimed not to be. .
I'm no Jazz specialist, though I listen to lots of Jazz, live and in my living room. This though immediately strikes me as something else and I urge you to put down that Bill Ryder Jones record, good as it is, and cup an ear to this instead. I'll leave the descriptions to critics with a better thesaurus than I own, (I'll direct you here, a fine job is done). Sometimes though words are not enough to describe what is happening on a record. This is a case in point.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,929 Oisin Leech
A veteran of The Lost Brothers, Dublin's Oisin Leech released Cold Sea his first solo album in 2024 and it made splashes in both Uncut and Mojo's end of year charts.
It's a rather wonderful, evocative Folk tinged record, Best lstened to late at night or first thing at dawn. Leech has a poignant, resonant voice.The songs are unembroidered yet moving.
The record shifts like the colours of the landscape in the cover of the record. Songs called October Sun and Colour of the Rain. What more could you hope for as we head yowards the weekend.
Thursday, November 28, 2024
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,737 Linda Perhacs - Parallelograms
A journey as deep into the heart of the late sixties hippie dream as you could possibly hope to take. This will doubtless leave some listeners cold but Parallelograms, the debut, and for a long time only album by Linda Perhacs, (actually released in '70), is certainly a remarkable document. The record was barely noticed and soon forgotten on its release but was later unearthed, as these things often are, partly through the encouragement of musicians it inspired, and listening to it you can well understand why it found its way back. It's an almost definitive 'love child' statement.
So light up a joss stick, take your shoes and socks off, sit cross-legged on your living room floor, (headphones of course are obligatory), inhale, exhale, close your eyes and take the journey within. Linda moved back to her career in dental hygiene on the album's failure, before being drawn back to singing on its re-emergence thirty five years on. As for my experience of the album on listening to it yesterday, I enjoyed it greatly, but certainly don't plan to move there.
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