January in Newcastle has finally succumbed to an equally unpromising February whuch if today is anything to judge by is going to be highly demanding. Spiritually. No signs as yet of Spring. So Sophie Bridgers Stranger In The Alps has been my go to.record all week . I wonder if she actually went out to look at the Alps on her holiday on Swirzerland or Austria.. Frankly I suspect she stayed in and moped in the ski lodge, Nick Drake without the walk in the woods.
Depresesed teenage years drift into depressed twenties. Settle down towatds depressed thirties and start a family and bring some depressed offspring onto the planet. This stuff has been gettimg more introspective and mopey since the turn of the millennium. Travis wondered in 1996 Why it always rained on them. 25 year on we're not alone . We await. the deluge.
It's a relentlessly cheerless record but quietly comforting at the same time with little chance of respite or a break in the clouds pn either side. Like Edward Munch on mogadon. But introspection has always been a part of the human condition and this has always been an album that's on relatively frequent rotation on my record player. Along with Belle & Sebastian, Radiohead, Nirvana, Joy Division, Magazine, Smiths, Bowe (whose mentioned early here, another reason to be sad. A long list is made) . Dylan, Leonard Cohen Simon & Garfunkel and the Beatles too, Once they decided they wanted to do more than hold your hand and started wondering where all lonely people came from and why that girl made Lennon crawl off and sleep in the bath..
The depressed state of white Rock & Roll,'Jesus Christ I'm so blue all the time.' On and on Sophie drones but somehow it's all rather like being under a warm blanket..All this relentless post millennia drifting into Z Gebration atrophy I love this record despite myself, Meanwhile Sophie and pal are staying in at The Chelsea Hotel.You can't help wondering what Sid and Nancy might wonder about the fate of The Ghost of Rock & Roll. It's under the blanket Sid.
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