Sunday, June 30, 2024
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 326 Green On Red - Gravity Talks
Green On Red were the gritty end of The Paisley Underground. Gravity Talks was representative of their early sound. Mire Farfisa and Dylan and Nuggets driven than their later work. Meandering, but rather lovely.
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 -1,886 Alanis Morisette - Supposed Former Information Junkie
I always found Alanis Morisette exceptionally annoying. To much emoting orecious few conclusions. She also seemed a stranger to melody. Next.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 179 Lord Esme
Welcome to the World of Fragile Indie. Where gamine girls with wondrous, flowing hair and wardrobes full of floral dresses, dance to Felt tunes with blokes who dream most nights of being in the Byrds bashing a tambourine like Gene Clark and singing heavenly harmonies. That's if their haircuts are anything to go by.
A world where everybody is polite all the time and people let you through to the front at gigs when the band starts to play. One where every Fourteen Iced Bears release makes the Top Thirty and gets played all day on Daytime Radio.
WAKE UP INDIE LOSERS! YOU'RE DREAMING YOU BLOODLESS WASTRELS! But never mind. You might like this. It's Lord Esme, Sydney, Australia's latest Indie sensation. Their debut album, the thrillingly entitled, A Nice Sit Down is just out and it's Indiepop Heaven in a glass!
The sleeve has a hearty looking lady with wavy hair and wearing a lovely frock. She surveys her pint and regards the viewer at one and the same time, with studied indifference through psychedelic shades. Promising.
The record itself? It's ripper peeps ! Setting off with Shane Warne. The best song about a recently departed spin legend you'll hear this year and proceeding winningly from there. Lord Esme is all about having a gentle good time with your besties and never showing more urgency than is absolutely necessary.
Male and female players harmonise winningly and a wonderful time is had by one and all. Melbourne clearly doesn't have a complete monopoly on alternative guitar fun.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,781 Still Woozy
A souffle lite Pop Funk Psychedelic Cottage proposition out of a recording studio in a Garage in Portland Oregon. A gentle feelgood operation. Hardly startling, but a laidback easy listen.
Saturday, June 29, 2024
Labelled With Love - A History of the World in Your Record Collection - # 26 Homestead Records
Indie kudos, Homestead Records was famous for refusing to pay its artists. A fabulous Late Eighties roster; Sonic Youth, Green River, Bug Black, Screaming Trees, Dinosaur Jr., Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Cool!
I See You Live On Love Street - Music From Laurel Canyon 1965 - 1975 # 23 The Byrds
From The Leaves, a band that sounded a bit like The Byrds to erm, the Byrds. From Sweetheart of the Rodeo, the album that featured Gram Parsons. He left when they decided to go to South Africa. Well done Gram.
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 -1,887 Paramore - After Laughter
I like Tennessee's Paramore. They're like The Thompson Twins. If they'd been good.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 180 J.Mascis - What Do We Do Now
' I feel the pain of everyone. Then I feel nothing...'
It's comforting to say goodbye to January. Hello to February. Onwards to Spring. And to be able to do so to the sound of a new J Mascis record. Everything is changing and at the same time. nothing is. Sun comes up. It's Friday morning.
Mascis is a comforting figure. Almost a biblical one. Standing at the crossroads. Guitar in hand, Distinctive guitar solo incoming. End of the world is nigh but he'll stand his ground. What Do We Do Now his new record offers nothing new but that hasn't been what we look to him for really. Not for a while.
There are a couple of stunned looking animated otters on the front of the record sleeve floating in what seems to be the great virtual pond of life. Meanwhile J's voice drones on in the comforting way it does. It all seems apt.
Let's face it we know what he does by now. The eternal troubled teen. Neil Young's confused but talented nephew. Still just as troubled. Even as he plods towards sixty. Enjoy. Make a cup of tea. Put this record on. I'm glad he's here. We all should be.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,780 Folk Implosion
Way back in the mists of time Lou Barlow left Dinosur Jr. because he found that he couldn't get on with the others. He formed Sebadoh to pursue his own noise inclined interests. Folk Implosion for his quieter moments.
They made some fascinating records.Now Barlow and Boston area Folk Implosion partner John Davis are back with a new record called Walk Thru Me.
They're a well named band. The record explores some of the more fascinating backroads of late Sixties and early Seventies Folk Obscurantism. .
This is almost Hippy-ish in it's instincts. It's introverted in the extreme. Barlow was always a thinker and a sensitive soul, despite hus willingness to put his foot on the speaker occasionally. Sebadoh and Folk Implosion cater to these differing moods and instincts.
Friday, June 28, 2024
Labelled With Love - A History of the World in Your Record Collection - # 25 Harvest Records
Urrgh !!! Dark Side of The Moon. I think I'll leave that ro people who like Dark Sideoif The Moon.It hurts my head
....
Pearl Jam - Dark Matter
Pearl Jam always make me think immediately of my Pearl Jam supporting friend. A great bloke I met in Dortmund in 1992 who I went thrugh the Grunge years years with. Nevermind had just been released. Plaid was worn. Hair was grown. My mate had a Tonto headband. We followed the fortunes of the main Grunge players for the next couple of ways before I made my way to Turkey and then Poland just in time for the arrival of BritPop years.
I heard Ten plenty at Matt's flat in Dortmind on Friday afternoon. Then we were bth taken by Vs. I left Germany and bought a bootlegged cassette of Vitalogy from the stalls outside Empik on Marsalkowska and enjoyed that too. Then I lost contact with the band for a while before we reconnected with their No Logo reinvention in 2000 with Binaural when I found myself in Sicily.
I'm not enough of a fervent disciple of Pearl Jam to have followed them through for every record since. I generally like them well enough to l listen through to them at some point, generally a few weeks after they've come out. This pretty much tells you where they stand in my affections.
I've listened to Dark Matter a couple of times in a couple of days and it seems like a pretty good record. There is Eddie at the front of the attack. His manly baritone as breathy and full of doubt about himself and the world around him as he ever was.
Sacred Of Fear the slbum opener plays out like a missions statement. 'We used to laugh. We Used to sing. We Used to believe...' Meanwhile the guitars howl and rage and summon up the ghost of the Riders of Rohan, the bass rumbles as uf for an oncoming earthquake, the drums thunder. This is Pearl Jam. That much seems clear.
Dark Matter does what Pearl Jam do. They're not a spent force. They do light and shade. They do nuance.They serve up a few songs you'll find yourself coming back to if you generally like what they do. There may not that get that many fresh 'I see the light. Hallelujah' ' conversions IYou wouldn't expect them to really/f you like Pearl Jam records you'll like this one. I did. I give it 8. They'll be back I'd warrant.
I See You Live On Love Street - Music From Laurel Canyon 1965 - 1975 # 22 The Leaves
The Leaves sprang up in the wake of The Byrds and were best known for their version of Hey Joe which reached the US Billboard Top Forty and was a huge regional hit in California in 1966. They didn't stay the course, probably through failing to make a strong enough impression of their own, but this is another of their moments.
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 328 Jean Michel Jarre - Magnetic Fields
Try as I might, I can't get teribly excited by Jean Michel Jarre even if it sounds slightly interesting at eight on a Friday morning on headphones in my parents front bedroom at the end of June. But I have to get ready and I can't tarry, indulging myself with this hippie shte. Next !
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 -1,887 Placebo - Placebo
Placebo never particularly rattled my cage. Perhaps they would have done if they'd arrived when I was youger. When they did I was pushing thirtyand not interest in teenage brattishness. The culture of complaint and dissemt with out a particular political slant. Their debut album from 1996 generates a certain tense, nervous energy without being wholly persuasive. To paraphrase Morrissey's words. 'Some songs cut deeper than others.'
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 181 sundots - Honeyspot
No sleep for the wicked... the devil will find work... the early bird... And other cliches about not putting off until tomorrow...lazy bones and so on and so forth. Don't shilly shally in short. Get on with it.
I need to too. First Mate Starbuck aka Darren Jones is seting a fine example for the rest of the crew. Not tarrying and back at his post ealy new year for the 2024 voyages of the Peqod, aka It Starts With a Birthstone. Here is his latest musical recommendation and as I'd expect it's another fine one.
sundots, (and that's a lower case 's' , I'm still not entirely sure how these things work), have a new album called Honeyspot which certainly does what it says on the tin and hits mine. Honeypot that is. I made some New Years Revelations but improving the quality of my Joke Portfolio was not among them. I'm my father's son.
sunspots are from Philaelphia. What they do strikes me as Post Millennium Shoegaze. I' hazard a guess that they've spun some My Bloody Valentine records down the years. Red House Painters.And why not. Onwards to the distant horizon and beyond. Infinity beckons. Nice work Starbuck!
Song(s) of the Day # 3,779 Hayes Noble
It's fitting that I'm posting a review of a Placebo album today. In many ways this sounds like a cotemporary take on Placebo schtik. Hayes Noble sticks a petulant upper lip on As It Was, As It Were and wishes he was sharung a stage in Seattle at the dawn of the Nineties.
But the attiude reeks just as much Brian Molko as it does of Screaming Trees. It's a record that puts it's leg up on the speaker at the lip of the stage and howls into the void, determined to remain seventeen forever. Perhaps we all should.
Thursday, June 27, 2024
Labelled With Love - A History of the World in Your Record Collection - # 24 Geffen Records
John Lennon recorded and released albums on Geffen Records. This is news to me. I think of Nirvana primarily when I think of that record label. Nrvaa probably did Geffen as great a favour as they did Nirvana.
I See You Live On Love Street - Music From Laurel Canyon 1965 - 1975 # 21 Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band
Safe as Milk. Hardly an orthodox record. But the good doctor had Ry Cooder ro steady his ship. It's a wonderful freaky beginning to an extraordinary journey.
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Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 -1,888 Gorillaz : Strange Machine: Season One; Strange Timez
From 2020. This us a record of collabirations with stars of yesteryear. Robert Smith, Beck. Lee John and no end of others get their turn of the mic. Not dull.
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 329 Meat Puppets - II
Andy Gill of the NME in 1985 cited Meat Puppets as one of the four most important American alternative bands. Along with R.E.M., Replacements and Hisker Du.II from them finds them ploughing their pioneering thrash meets Country weirdness. Pur offbeat vision. Many owe them a debt' Nirvana, Wilco, White Stripes.It's fascinating to listen to them again now and wonder at how ahead of the curve it all was.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 182 Lupo Citta - Lupo Citta
Lupo Citta, from what my rudimentary research uncovered are a Boston trio of some vintage and with excellent credentials.
Their debut album, just out, is fascinating from the off, With that depressive undertow that underpinned so many great Sonic Youth records. Feedback, slurred and vaguely threatening vocals.
The whole records has an intent and purpose that I was immediately impressed by.. This is primarily a Nineties sound that Nirvana's arrival gave enormous overground licence for a few years.
A thrilling guitar record f that knows its Outsider Rock & Roll lore. Lupo Citta rocked my World early on a Sunday morning and made me forget the cold outside because things were simmering nicely under my headphones.
I was so impressed I transferred my listening from my laptop to my TV screen while I made myself some breakfast and the record provide a thrilling soundtrack. The best West Coast Punk record I've heard since BEECHWOOD and Sunflower Bean's Human Ceremony.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,778 Richard Thompson
Thompson Part Two. After Linda yesterday here's a plug for Richard's latest Ship To Shore. I saw the man play a magnificent set a few weeks back at the Sage in Gateshead, It was the most expensive gig tickets I've ever bought. And one of the best gigs I've seen.
There's something quite magnificent about both Richard and Linda as they make their way down their own roads well into their Seventies. Something thrillingly alive about both of them. A refusal to bow to allcomers. A refusal to allow moments of hubris, self-regard. Full of wonderful humour and lust for life.
Ship To Shore is a formidable record. One where Thompsom's past and pride in where he comes from is evident but also a refusal to stand still when there's still work to be done For the best reading of this wonderful album, please refer to the excellent Mojo record which does it better justice than I can. Or else of course you could just listen to it.
Wednesday, June 26, 2024
Songs About People # 1,397 John Grant
An outstanding track from the new Linda Thompson record calle Proxy Music reviewed earlier today. A song named John Grant, sung by ... John Grant.
I See You Live On Love Street - Music From Laurel Canyon 1965 - 1975 # 20 The Millenium
Crl Boetcher of The Association formed The Millenium, A pastiral curiosity that put out a fantastic Folk / Pop obscurity called Begin that cries out to be discovered and appreciated.
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 330 The Monochrome Set - Strange Boutique
One of the great band names. And their great albumfrom 1980. A band with an eternally arched eyebrow. They remained cult. Never a bad thing to be. Morrissey loved them.From the cover with a high diver caught in a perfect arc to everything about the record itself.
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 -1,889 The Residents - Meet The Residents
The Residents world is at once deeply unsettling andd rather comforting. This wa sslightly too harring for me at half seven this morning.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 183 Dog Unit - At Home
Post Rock. Sunny Post Rock. I loves me a bit of Sunny Post Rock. Especially of the Instrumental sort occasionlly. Thanks again to Darren Jones. Fisherman on the High Seas of Alternative Music. His latest recommendation.
I don't generally like Instrumental Rock Music. I'm a bit impatient. I'm usually waiting for the vocals to kick in.To colour things in . To give me narrative or emotional direction. In the case of Dog Unit's At Home I'll make an exception. There is enough nuance and thought in their playing to give the listener all the direction he or she might need.
At Home has great track titles Concrete Barges on The Banks of The Thames. When Do We Start Fighting. John X Kennedy. So far, so intriguing. And the tracks are even more intriguing.
Who needs Ian Curtis. Stuart Staples. Laetitia Sadler. Or whoever. Great as all of these people are. But Dog Unit give you free rein. To think what you want to. To encourage you to dream. I like bands that do that.
In short I thoroughly enjoyed At Home and I sign up for Dog Unit's fanclub and look forward to them coming to my hometown. They're my new favourite Post Rock Instrumental band. Everybody needs one. Just as much as they need a Shady Lane.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,777 Linda Thompson
If in doubt trust in Thompsons. This seems to be one of the most persuasive Pop narratives of 2024, A few weeks after I saw Richard Thompson put on a blistering and unforgettable performance at The Sage in Glasshouse supporting his splendid new album. Now here comes Linda. It feels like the arrival of Blucher at The Battle Of Waterloo. Not a moment too soon.
Proxy Music This is a sumptuous record in every respect. Frim the cover which finds Linda decked out in lace and frills. A reminder of a classic of yore. A beautifully judged tongue in cheek homage to Roxy's first, Another late career classic. We're becoming acccustomed to them now. Richard, Eno. John Cale, now this. A sumptuous set of collaborations, alliances and partnership this one, Each succeeding one outdoing the last,
One of the most original albums of this, or any other year. Linda of course has been robbed of her own singing voice. On Proxy Music other artists step in and sing her songs for her. The Proclaimers, Martha and Rufus Wainwright, John Grant, Eliza Carthy, The Unthanks. The great and good line up to take their turn. The tracks they lay down are gorgeous. Layered instant classics. You recognise very early that you're in the company of something very special.
A dazzling collection of treasurable Folk Aet Pop tracks. It plugs into the mains of Sixties and Seventies English Folk Tradition It's veined with life, love, the struggle and the roads that life lays down before us. The magnificent experience. Wonderful album
Tuesday, June 25, 2024
I See You Live On Love Street - Music From Laurel Canyon 1965 - 1975 # 19 Dillard & Clark
From the wonderful Fantastic Expedition of Diilard & Clark.
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 -1,890 Van Morrison - St Dominic's Review
'I;m so wired up.Don't need no coffee in my cup...'
A fabulous, rolling and rambling torrent. A lesser know gem. Take firty minutes out of your day and give yourself a treat. There's no one quite like Van. Like William Blake and other true visionaries, he flies.
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 331 Felt - The Pictorial Review
'As Felt got older they got weirder... Eight glorious pop songs that are among their best.'
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 184 Pet Shop Boys - Nonetheless
'Everyone's dancing to Roxy and Bowie.'
In my last year at university I met the biggest fan of the Pet Shop Boys I've ever known. He didn't half go on about the Pet Shop Boys. He's since told me that I introduced him to the joys of John Coltrane which he's grateful for, but Pet Shop Boys have plenty to recommend themselves too. And I'm thankful for his enthusiasm and input during this last year of education before we both made our way out into the cruel world of work.When I hear the Pet Shop Boys I will always think of Matt. .
I remember him saying that Being Boring might as well have been the band's definitive moment. You could always have accused the band of being boring.It was a huge part of their persona and appeal. The way that Neil Tennant sang. Their austerity and sensibility. They embraced the accusation.
Never more so than on new album. Nonetheless. An archetypal Pet Shop Boys album title.The Phatic Filler.The understated. The droll, English wit. And language. And sound.
Pet Shop Boys have not really been about enormous change down the years and they're not starting here. This sounds like a Pet Shop Boys record that might have come out in 1994. Every bit as much as 2024. They still look young. Why not?
All their standard tropes are here. Minimisalism. Spareness. Wit. That sound. The light. The space. Generally I'd consider myself an advocate of change. Of growth. In some cases if it ain't broke don't fix it is actually the right approach. Much of Nonetheless comes across as a prolonged curtain call. Tennant and Heath. Masters of their craft.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,776 Bleib Modern
Bleib Moderrn. Stay Modern. A Berlin Band thaat don't strictly do 'what it says on the tin.' Their fifth album is pure early Eighties austerity,
Jot Divsion, Visage. Half forgitten names like Fischer Z. B Movie. Not a record I'll go back to. For me it makes more sense to return to the source. Bit a diverting half an hour.
Monday, June 24, 2024
I See You Live On Love Street - Music From Laurel Canyon 1965 - 1975 # 18 Buffalo Springfield
Richey Furay. The focus in Buffalo Springfield is often n Stills and Young. Furat ha his moments.This is only 2 minutes thirteen seconds. But bears replying.
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 332 The Prisoners - The Wisermiserdemelza
'heady scenes ins sweaty rooms of ace faces.'
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 -1,891 The Hold Steady - Boys & Girls In America
The Hold Steady. Somewhere between The Replaceaments and Springsteen. Celebration. Consolation. Get another beer. They tell stories about life. How we rise against it. Don't lt it get the upper hand. I'm quite partial occasionally.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 185 Bleachers - Bleachers
Bleachers is a very American English word. You don't quite understand it if you're English. Have to look it up to check. Two nations divided by a common language. For interested parties Bleachers are the uncovered part of sporting stadiums. The cheap seats.
Bleachers are also an American Rock band and their debut album is called .... er Bleachers. It has a picture of an all Anerican guy grinning out at you from its sleeve.Leaning proudly on his prized car. Muscled, tanned. But pleasant enough looking. A jock but not one of the ones that bully freshmen. A good bloke.
The record itself is a very American one. Somehwere between Springsteen and The National. Bleachers are from New Jersey and they instinctively understand the importance of having a good car, and taking care of it are to the male American psyche.
Some things change. Some things never will. This is a smart, thoughtful record with any number of cared for, well turned out songs. Not a reinventor of a wheel that certainly doesn't need reinventing just yet for the most part. Occasional they stray from the Girls & Cars path and try something a bit more modern and dancefloor. It's all interesting.
I really enjoyed this. It wear its heart on its sleeve, never tries to be anything other than what it is for fifty minutes and fourteen songs as it makes its way down the modern American highway.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,775 John R. Brusseau
Up an 'at 'em. Another working week and I findd myself in Canterbury with my dear parents as they make their way through life's journey. Heading towards their nintieth birthdays.There are worse ways to set off towards immediate goals that with Laughing Towards The Sun's Parade. The opening track of John R. Brusseau#s latest record.
Are you ready for this. The album is called Everybody Gets What They Want: The Gospel Of John R. Brusseau. All good records are gospels. testaments. This is certainly a fine, worthy record.
It's American independent American eccentricity. Somewhat reminiscent of the voices of Lou and Sufjan. A sixty six year old Christian Junguan thinker, His thoughts are scattered but determined. He shifts, sometimes within individual songs from religion, to politics to the ongoing fight against insanity and inanity.
Brusseay has a whispering, rambling, impressive spoken intonation. As well as Sufjan an Lou I was 'minded of St. Lenox. And his phenomenal, remarkable Ten Songs Of Worship and Praise For These Tumultuous Times.
The Gospel Of John R. Brusseau. stakes out similar territory. Finding holy ground in a Godless terrain. THis is an incredible record that offers ip mutitudes. Time for my bath.
Sunday, June 23, 2024
I See You Live On Love Street - Music From Laurel Canyon 1965 - 1975 # 17 Scott McKenzie
Scott's take on Twevle Thirty. An incredible narrative written by John Phillips and best known as a Mamas & The Papas single.
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 335 Teddy Pendergrass - TP
The sensitive loverman, soft and smoochy Soul pool that I genrally just dip my toes in. This is state of the art. But I never kiss on first dates.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 186 Pylon Reenactment Society - Magnet Factory
Whn I first discovered R.E.M. in 1983 I was so overcome by the discovery and everything about the band that I did everything they told me to in their music paper interviews, This meant chasing down every single band that they raved about, Because if R.E.M. rated them they just had to be great.
So I bought records by Let's Active, True West, Replacements and dB's and loved them all..Most of all I craved records by fellow Athens, Georgia scenesters Pylon, who R.E,M. drummer Bill Berry insisted were the best band in the world.
In Pylon's case it wasn't by any means easy. Their records were not released on UK shores at the time and so were unavailable to me, I was not detterred. In 1987 when my dearest girlfriend from university went to the US on a BUNAC summer course experience I gave her a little kiss and asked her to return with a Pylon record, In retrospect it feels like a moment from Beauty & The Beast.
Loving me as I loved her she returned a couple of months later. with a copy of Gyrate Pylon's debut. I played the record ragged. Pylon were clearly every bit as wonderful as R.E.M. said they were. I've loved them ever since.
In 1992 I went to New York City for the first time to see my brother Michael. Typically for Michael this entailed living and working out of a fabulous brownstone building in Greenwich Village. He never did and still never does anything by halves.
I used the opportunity to get myself a copy of Pylon's fabulous sophomore album Chomp. I've played Gyrate and Chomp regularly ever since.
Now Pylon are back. Or at least Vanessa Briscoe Hay their singer is, With Pylon Reenactment Society an offshoot band and a new record Magnet Factory.
Typically ir's every bit as magical, kinetic, danceable and lovable as her first band and their records and performances were,. It's like an incredible swimming pool slide that you get to the bottom of in childhood and are so thrilled in every ounce of your being that you race immediately back to the stairwell because all you want is to do it all again.
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 -1,892 Elbow - Build A Rocket Boys
Elbow are an interesting one. I always think of them as something of a Prog outfut and something of a hit and miss one as far as I'm concerned. Their latest is excellent. There's much of note on here too. From 2011.They hover often between overstatement and profundity, But you can never fault their ambition and drive. And their are moments of beauty, poise and remarkable scope.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,774 Moon Diagrams
I'm sat at the kirchen table of a wonderful townhouse outside Reading on a Sunday morning. With headphones on and a mug of peppermint tea. The morning after the night before. An incredible celebration for my niece and her life partner.
I'm listening to Cemetry Classics by Moon Diagrams, An interesting, echoey album. Largely informed by the 'isolation and anxiety of the pandemic area,' That's big subject matter we're talking.
I wasn't sure the record quite coheres. But it takes on incoherent subject matter that's tough to nail down. What it certainly does is conjour up a heady atmosphere. One to come back to.
Saturday, June 22, 2024
I See You Live On Love Street - Music From Laurel Canyon 1965 - 1975 # 16 The Sunshine Company
A Sunshine Pop Band. A lovely category and some lovely music. You might as well listen to this. Nice take on The Beatles song.
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 336 Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Welcome To The Pleasuredome
Frankie Goes To Hollywood passed me by rather as an eighteen year old. Their singles were something. But I didn't buy the records and still can't get very excited at this remove. The Power Of Love is nice.
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 -1,893 Morrissey - Your Arsenal
Ah Morrissey. The eternal unhappy camper. Your Arsenal has much to reccommend it. Hey, it's got Glamorous Glue on it. Released in 1992 on RCA it found Morrissey at his most embattled. He's always worth listening to when he's feeling like that. Here he starts a fight with himself in an empty room. Mick Ronson features. So do a bunch of younger Rockabillies.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 187 RIP Dunes - RIP Dunes
Just before your date with Dune 2 at your local multiplex, you might like to make an appearance and experience Dune the funeral. With RIP Dunes. Geddit!!!
Now I've got that shocking pun out of my system.Back to RIP Dunes and the fabulous, erm RIP Dunes a dappled Indie guitar record of the loveliest hue.
Matthew Iwanusa grew up in New York. He follows the New York Knicks and sports a beard. His music is melodic, gentle Indie fare. Not a million miles from Papercuts.
There's synth here in the mix, of a Seventies stripe. It all passes by in the blink of an eye. You wouldn't really know this was a New York guitar record. You would I imagine recognise and acknowledge its filmic and rather lovely qualities. Total Amazeballs !
Song(s) of the Day # 3,775 Been Stellar
Diwn South for a family wedding celebration. Home Counties experience. But the blog goes on. I'm sitting in the kitchen with headphones on. Listening to Beeen Stellar and their latest record Scream From New York, NY.
It's quite a bracing experience frankly. Familiar. But not a bad way to start a special day.
Friday, June 21, 2024
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 337 Minor Threat - Complete Discography
Angrier than thou purists. Hip types pretend to have been really into them when they were in diapers. Some terrific, barnstorming stuff here for refuseniks.
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 -1,894 Enya - Watermark
For the most part Enya was pre-Raphaelite twaddle for the Home Counties masses. Ludicrous, orchestrated tosh for bereft suburban housewives to weep into their elevenses to. I do have a very happy memory of Orinoco Flow. I have a heart too you know. Plenty don't credit it.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 188 Ty Segall - Three Bells
Do you want to go back in time? Go through a portal and find yourself back in ....1972. Lying on an unmade flat with bongs, joss sticks and the general detritus you would associate with an unkempt suburban teenage bedroomin the Midwest from that year. If you fancy that experience then fret not. The record has arrived to tick all of the 1972 boxes you might possibly have.
The record concerned is West Coast acid troubadour Ty Segall's new record Three Bells. As you might expect. It's FAR OUT MAN! Segall has form for this kind of stuff. I've listened to quite a few of his records down the years and this time portal thing to 1972 seems to be his guiding principle pretty much every time he visits a studio to 'lay down some tracks' as they tend to put it in Rock & Roll parlance.
I like Segall as I like his closest musical cousins Oh Sees and have enjoyed a number of his records down the years. Just as I've enjoyed theirs. Fine as their records are though, I'm not an obsessive fan of either. I've seen them both over the years in the local gig warehouse The Boiler Shop and got tired of both acts mid way through their sets.
While both are exceptionally proficient they both seemed like massively talented acts involved in what I found to be a kind of Retrophilia. An exercise that was ever so slightly devoid of actual soul and heart even though the groove patterns laid down were incredibly impressive. I decided that I thought records were both band's natural element. Perhaps I didn't experience either in their best venue.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,774 Russian Baths
New York band in the line of Television , Sonic Youth and Blonde Redhead, so their Spotify biography tells us. That will do me.
Latest record Mirror has all of the intensity and engagement you could hope for given this lineage. It's a spooky, old school but relevant exercise..
Some things don't change with the passage of time. Human beings will always appreciate atmosphere and tension. Wonderfully achieved. Thanks once more Darran.
Thursday, June 20, 2024
I See You Live On Love Street - Music From Laurel Canyon 1965 - 1975 # 15 Mamas & The Papas
I love Mamas & The Papas. Their story is so sad. The definitive tale of how the Sixties dream went sour. Four talented, attaractive people. Yes, of course Mama Cass was attractive. Very attractive. Four people who slept together Did dyugs. Tried to dream but fell out and foun their lives going south. They left behind some wonderful records which told the story of those times as well as anybody did. This is a good song to listen to in this respect.
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 336 Phil Collins - Face Value
'I never thought time could pass more slowly...'
Oh no. Not Phil Collins. Oh no. Not Face Value. You coudn't find an album that waas more ubiquitous in the Eighties and interested me less. It seemed to scream Surrender ! Give up life. Give up hope. Go out to the suburbs. Catch your morning train. Don't forget your brolly. Crossword on the train. Maybe have a fling with your secretary. Be dull. You know you want to. No thanks Phil ! Good drummer. But his music post a few decent songs on ate Seventies and early Eighties Genesis albums is the very definition of blandness and giving in.
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