Not my usual fare perhaps. Largely because I watched Jackie last night. For the first time. This film features largely throughout. Because it evokes the short lived moment when JFK and Jackie were in The White House. Burton has one of the best narrative spoken voices of course and it always makes me think of my mother and her oft-repeated mantra, 'Camelot's a lot of rot...'
Tuesday, November 9, 2021
Monday, November 8, 2021
Albums of the Year # 48 Durand Jones & The Indications - Private Space
Durand Jones & The Indications already have a considerable and splendid track record. On new album Private Space, they do exactly what you would expect them to do, do with glorious restraint and style. Utterly Retro in every respect, this is Sweet Soul from the Golden Age, circa 1960-1975, so immaculately achieved at every turn that you simply have to take your hat off to them.
Veering towards the funky side of the particular road more than they have previously, this is by turns, and also at once, good time and social conscience music. One moment taking its lead from Kool & the Gang and The Stylistics, the next Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield. A rich stew indeed.
Wonderfully imagined and realised, you won't hear a better record of its sort all year.'Diamond in the back, sunroof top. Diggin' the scene, with a gangster lean.' Altogether a wonderful album which is always there whenever you need it. A comforting thought.
Song(s) of the Day # 2,843 Mod Con
Another to add to the evermore tottering pile of Post Punk albums that the youthful and frankly not so youthful seem so keen on these days. What is in the water in 2021 that makes so many musicians make you want to think it's actually 1981?
Still, as far as these records go, this is a pretty good one.Melbourne trio Mod Con and their debut album, erm Modern Condition.
To be fair to the band, this doesn't just channel 1981 bands such as Girls at Our Best, The Modettes, Au Pairs, Delta 5, B52's and so forth. It also fast forwards into the 90's for Bikini Kill, Riot Girl and most of all, prime time Sleater Kinney.
Too derivate ultimately to be essential, Modern Condition is still great fun. Mod Con know what they're doing and do it very well indeed. If they can mix a little bit more of themselves into the bowl as well as running through the favourites songs in their record collection next time, they could be ones to watch.
Sunday, November 7, 2021
Waiting For the Sun by Barney Hoskyns # 9 Joni Mitchell
The peak of early Seventies singer songwriting. So here you get Randy Newman, James Taylor, Van Dyke Parks and Joni who was surely top of that particular tree and is 78 today. You also get David Geffen.
ABBA - Voyage
I've been listening to ABBA's back catalogue over the last couple of weeks as part of an immersion based music listening group on social media that I'm part of. Firstly, through the Seventies, when virtually the only records my parents bought were ABBA ones. Then into the Eighties when they stopped buying them, except perhaps for the Best Of ones on CD. It's been an interesting ride through my childhood memories.
Of course ABBA's initial run was always going to be a finite one though they made the very most of it, because my god, they were talented. But their subject matter was fundamentally love, desire and relationships and there are only so many variations on those themes on offer, fundamental as they are.You can't keep making records about that stuff all your life, or at least ones worth listening to, no matter how good you are.
Listening through to the original albums one by one, it's interesting to see them coming up with various takes on those themes though. The themes? Isn't it great falling in love. Isn't it awful falling out of love and having to divide up your possessions. Slightly dubious jailbeat dancefloor and schoolyard stuff. One that appears to be about sex addiction, (Gimme Gimme).Then the ones that are not directly about these things. I'm on the stage, look at me. Rehearsals for the West End musicals that Bjorn and Benny were always destined to deliver. Boom bang a bang schlager songs. And, I'm not actually a person, I'm really an animal or a bird. There are only two of those. Shame really, they're two of their best. Delightfully, there's one about insects on Voyage, (though I'm jumpling slightly ahead), and it's another delightful one in Bumblebees. They're older now and quite content to stand at the kitchen window and watch what's going on in their back gardens.
So, miraculously in 2021, ABBA are back. I'm pleased to report that they're still very, very good. As good as they ever were really. Well they would be. They're ABBA aren't they? They've also found an appropriate new theme. Getting older and slightly wiser and reflecting. Like The Beatles albums and ABBA's old ones, this is a grab-bag of styles. Something for everybody. Everybody that is except for people who don't like ABBA. They're highly unlikely to convert any in that particular camp at this late stage.
Because this is ABBA, as you remember them. Except that now they're ABBA in their Seventies. It suits them really. We'll all get old. I'm well on the way myself. But if you get old like ABBA, you've not done badly, because they still remember how it's done and on Voyage, their new, and we're told, their final act as recording artists, they definitely do it.
I like it all really. The ones that I don't like so much, because they're not so much aligned with my own personal taste, I still recognise how good they are. There are precious few artists in Rock and Roll history, (if you conside them part of that and I would), who can move you and make you tap into specific, deeply ingrained, fundamental emotions as well as ABBA do. They do that one last time on Voyage.
So, they do ageing, they do Christmas. ABBA were always bound to do Christmas at some point or another and this is certainly good enough to be this year's John Lewis Christmas ad soundtrack. They do West End musicals. They do love.They do it all in that measured, stately, graceful, and ever so ever so slightly sentimental way, (OK, really sentimental), that only they can really do.
They save the best 'til last with Ode To Freedom, which is one of the best things they've ever done, an altogether glorious and moving last hurrah, (classically arranged, ABBA's understanding of the classical was always extraordinary), before they take their final bows and leave the stage. It's appropriate really giving that they first appeared onstage in a brilliant flash in 1974 in the Eurovision song contest with Waterloo an anthem to Europe, and it seems they're finally leaving the stage with another one and astonishingly with a song that's just as good as Waterloo was and is.
Now to milk it. To put their feet up and watch their own virtual concerts next year and wait for the applause, and, thinking more cynically, for the cash tills to ring. Boy, do they deserve both. One of the most surprising and successful musical returns I can think of.
Albums of the Year # 49 Albertine Sarges - The Sticky Fingers
Interesting. Berlin born Albertine Sarges ushers in her debut album Sticky Fingers, (a couple of weeks old, so still relatively hot off the press), with a carefree but disciplined workout number called Free Today that immediately drew me in.
The album builds and blossoms and explodes into light from here.This record is as good an argument as I can see for an immediate UK U Turn and Britain returning to Europe's loving bosom pronto. Sticky Fingers is sticky, sexy, vibrant, inventive and diverse. Sparky poppy but leftfield explorations of mood, tempo, impulse and emotion.
Sarges is consistently at the heart of proceedings, with a voice that swoops and swerves with remarkable elasticity. For one there's no need to play 'spot the influence.' This is a record and a singer and ensemble that are clearly happy in their own skins.
Sarges apparently has pinched her first name from Viv of the Slits, as good a starting point as any. That band put out a song called Shoplifting after all and it was apparently a regular extra-curricular pastime of theirs. There's only minor larceny of any kind going on. Sarges and her cohorts have their very own bags of tricks.
Sarges switched from English to German and is equally comfortable in both. One of the the most inventive and original albums I've heard this year. Post Post Punk and about time too. Sarges and Co. give eight good reasons why it's not always necessary to stick to the script and sometimes it's better to tear it up and start again from scratch. Infinity and beyond.
Song(s) of the Day # 2,842 Damon & Naomi
Seeing as I gave a glowing review to Dean Wareham's splendid new album, I Have Nothing To Say To The Mayor of LA, it seems only fair to salute another which I've neglected in recent months. A Sky Record the latest from Damon & Naomi, or, to give them their full due Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang, the other 2/3 of Wareham's original band Galaxie 500.
Krukowski and Yang have been more faithful over the years to the Galaxie 500 legacythan Wareham has since he left them hanging by dropping them and heading off in 1991. That's no criticism at all as that particular band seemed to have a lot of gas left in the tank, even though Wareham had clearly decided he no longer wanted to drive that particular car down that particular highway anymore.
So Krukowski and Yang take turns at the wheel and A Sky Record goes by like a particularly lucid dream. It's a good record as most of their stuff does. It's good to see the two of them keeping this thing going. Wareham doesn't sound a lot like this nowadays, except that he's never really quite shrugged off his debt to The Velvet Underground. Why on earth would he want to? Anyway it's great to have him and it's also great to still have Damon & Naomi, the other side of this particular coin.
Saturday, November 6, 2021
Albums of the Year # 50 POSTDATA - Twin Flames
A rather exciting, personal musical discovery for me last week, (thanks Rod), was this one. Twin Flames, the latest from Canadiant outfit POSTDATA. Note the capitals. That's how they want to be presented. They're an Art Rock concern if you want labels, but not one that do what they do in conventional manners. There's plenty to explore and think about here. I'll do my best in the coming paragraphs.
First of all they remind me of the early Eighties, when I personally was first really starting to listen to music and read books and truly think about them alongside constructing my own adult identity. They sound like a lot of those early British synth bands who were starting to make their early waves then, weaved out of dreams, intuition and ambition.
What I like most about POSTDATA is their emotional attack. It's subtle but quite obviously heartfelt and nuanced. The band's singer and designated leader, Paul Murphy, (also of Wintersleep), is at the core of their sound. His voice is deeply warm and powerful and can affect the lstener, or at least it affected this one, in strange ways, with its quite palpable sincerity and intent.
Twin Flames is not an album that opens its petals all at once. It's clearly impacted by deep emotional intensity, thoughts and not always happy or easy ones but Murphy martials all that is going on with a quite courageous intent to make the record a glorious, immersive journey.
There's a thread going through this. The songs here are not melodically or structurally similar, there's a lot of variety here. But they're united by a core mission statement of commitment and bravery that is quite unusual in 2021. Twin Flames is one to return to and get to know. It's a brilliantly conceived and executed statement.
Song of the Day # 2,841 Gold & Youth
Rather elegaic and elegant opening trrack from Vancouver band Gold & Youth's latest Dream Baby.
Friday, November 5, 2021
Albums of the Year # 51 Golden Apples - Shadowland
Coming out of Philadelphia, Pensylvannia, Golden Apples latest, Shadowland, is a very fine thing indeed. Immediately 'indie' in terms of it's sensibilities, (whatever that means entirely these days) it's never obvious in terms of its sound. You can't immediately place it as Felt or Stereolab, or Pavement or Wire or the standard referential touchstones for these kind of guitar driven records.
Russell Edling is the man behind this. Golden Apples is a new moniker for him apparently, he previously went under the banner of Cherry. All this means little to me, I think this is the first time I've come across his work
It's a record that takes a slightly blurred focus. Like all the best leftfield records, you're not given a script. 'T's are not crossed and 'I's not dotted. Imperfections which make the record more fascinating and tempt you back for another listen.
I'm grateful to Darren Jones, regular supporter of this blog, who constantly encourages me to listen to records I might not otherwise come across. Golden Apples and Shadowland is second only to Dark Tea, something he directed me to earlier on in the year.
Both splendid examples of the American underground and how it can still come up with fascinating stuff. Just doing my bit here and passing on the recommendation to you.
The 500 Greatest Singles Since Punk & Disco # 456 Blueboy
'a dry run for Fatboy Slim's entire career.'
Song of the Day # 2,840 ONETWOTHREE
From a few weeks back. A new album from ex-members of Kleenex and LiLiPut. Full of the fervour of both of those bands. Sounds a bit better a song at a time than listening through to the whole record but there's plenty of interest here.
Thursday, November 4, 2021
Albums of the Year # 52 Elizabeth & The Catapult - sincerely, e
I was always likely to be taken and drawn towards an artist called Elizabeth & the Catapult. I'm generally attracted to those who choose interesting monikers to embark upon pop careers under, and this one is particularly curious and eccentric. Sounds like the follow up to James & the Giant Peach to me.
I only became aware of Elizabeth and her catapult earlier on this week. On Monday to be precise, when I went to Metacritic to find out what was coming out on Friday. The name appealed to me and so I did some initial research during the week into the Elizabethan back catalogue. My interest increased appreciably.
So now the new record sincerely, e is here and it's a wonderful thing. Freewheeling, inventive, playful and lyrical, the work primarily of Elizabeth Ziman, a New York musician and artist who's been plying her art and putting out records for over ten years before she came to my attention. My loss.
The music here is reflective and meandering, working within singer songwriting conventions but digressing delightfully into jazzy side street inflections that reminded me of Ricky Lee Jones. But the person that came to my mind most forcefully was Regina Spektor, one of my very favourite musicians of all.
On thirsty Ziman utterly inhabits Spektor Land. Quirky, carefree and full of the joys of spring, riding a wave of funky finger clicks, joy and Doo Wop. But sincerely, e is thoughtful and reflective too. In many ways a record for Covid-19, a time of dread and fear in many respects but at least an opportunity to think and compose our thoughts and creative endeavour.
Ziman exists in a tradition. Not just that of Ricky Lee and Regina but also that of Joni, Laura Nyro and often here of Carole King the original Brill Building dreamer. These influences and reminders by no means diminish the impact of this quite lovely record. Don't make the mistake I made. Discover Elizabeth and her catapult now. It made me wish I could still do cartwheels. But then again come to think of it, I never could.
The 500 Greatest Singles Since Punk & Disco # 455 Blur
'Odd that Blur should find a way out of Britpop's dead end by ripping off The Beatles.'
Song of the Day # 2,839 The New Existentialists
Not unlike The Go Betweens in tone. Somewhere between Robert and Grant.
Wednesday, November 3, 2021
Waiting For the Sun by Barney Hoskyns # 8 Crosby, Stills & Nash
The Manson Murders leads to paranoia, retreat into the hillsides and pretty much the end of the dream. Morrison dies shortly afterwards and bands give way to the singer songwriters of Topanga and Laurel Canyons. This band represent this shift as well as any other.
Albums of the Year # 53 Bowerbirds - becalmyounglovers
Bowerbirds hail from Raleigh, North Carolina. A place with a small, notable musical legacy of its own. Their latest album becalmyounglovers has a lilting, romantic quality that I found most appealing on first listen.
The band have been putting out records since 2007 and should know what they are doing by now if they're ever likely to.They evidently do. This is a set of beautifully crafted songs in the folk indie tradition that muse on the past occsionally but are mostly intent on the open road ahead of them.
Doing this blog thing and being intent on posting something virtually every day I have little time to hang around and move on quickly if an album doesn't take my fancy. Bowerbird were tugging on my sleeve in an insistent and urgent manner only a couple of songs in.
I'll be back for more of this in the coming days. In the meantime, here a selection of songs that might pique your interest. Bowerbirds are a wise and thoughtful troupe and becalmyounglovers is at once and easy and intriguing listen.
P.S, having listened to this a second time I realise I will need to come back to this at some point at a later date. It's a quite wonderful record.
Best Ever Albums - Top 1,000 Albums - 833 Grandady - The Sophtware Slump
Shoud be much, much, much higher. A masterpiece.
The 500 Greatest Singles Since Punk & Disco # 454 Prodigy
'one of the all time great rhythm tracks ever to be dragged out of a computer...'
Song(s) of the Day # 2,838 Dog Daisies
Once again I'm greatful to Darren Jones, constant supporter of this blog, for pointing me in the direction of this. Moonbathing, the latest album from Dog Daisies, essentially a Northern DIY project for Stephen Hudson and his friend.
Beautiful described on their Bandcamp Homepage as 'Stand By Me put to music and set on a motorway.' A beautifully arranged and presented set of independent pop songs. Baby Bird reborn.
Tuesday, November 2, 2021
Albums of the Year # 54 Jane. Inc - Number One
Yowsa. Out of a list of new record releases last Friday that seemed very unpromising on first appearances, during the week I've managed to delve a bit deeper and come upon a set of highly varied and interesting new product. Not least this, Number One, the debut album from Canadian multi-instrumentalist Carlyn Bezic.
Bezic has had a long and varied CV before arriving at this, her latest identity. What should be foregrounded immediately is that she has had a long term working relationship with Meghan Remy aka U.S. Girls., one of my favourite musical artists of recent years.
Like U.S.Girls, Number One is deceptive, all glossy surfaces and shiny chrome. The American Dream essentially, a glorious highway a gleaming mall, or set of shiny towering skyscrapers in the heart of the modern metropolis. Though not so modern anymore, the cracks are showing. It's no revelation to state that surfaces can deceive and as with Remy, state of the art electro dance effects are the vehicles for a deep and fascinating exploration of the modern American condition.
Number One is never remotely hard work. It has melody and seductive beats, it's not a demanding listen and if that's what appeals to you then go with the tunes. But it has much more to offer than that, it's a highly modern and impressive politicised critique of the way we live or think, or are encouraged to think by corporate power. How we construct our identities and how, regardless of what we think of ourselves as modern, savvy consumers, it may not actually be ourselves that are doing the construction work.
Number One may not actually get to Number One, though it would be really great to see it there. It's a subtle and sophisticated record. It's also very good company, highly impressive for a record that never goes for the easy option. Perhaps, easier to like than love on occasion but I like it very much and will be back here I'm fairly sure fairly often, in order to get to know it better.
Song of the Day # 2,837 Rachel Love
First track of rather lovely, nostalic albume from Rachel Love, once of Dolly Mixtures.
Monday, November 1, 2021
Waiting For the Sun by Barney Hoskyns # 7 The Doors
'The Stones were dirty, but The Doors were dread,' wrote Lester Bangs. '(And) dread is the great fact of our time.'
Songs of the Year # 55 Grave Flowers Bongo Band
The best track from an album that is otherwise just too 'out there'.
Albums of the Year # 55 Kiwi Jr. - Cooler Returns
A Shady Lane. Everybody wants one. New Sub Pop signings Toronto's Kiwi Jr. for sure. Their debts to Pavement and Stephen Malkmus are so entirely obvious, glaring and fundamental that it really has to be foregrounded from the off, before even mentioning, never mind discussing their second album Cooler Returns.'
But wait, because there's more to say. First and foremost Kiwi Jr. are far from the only alternative guitar band around these days that owe a considerable amount, perhaps their very existence to those well schooled, well fed indie chancers who gagged at their big shot at the mainstream by deliberately making a goofy video for Cut Your Hair when genuine rather than 'Cool' marginal stardum beckoned. back in the early Nineties.
Nevertheless, Pavenment's legacy remains huge. Ask Parquet Courts. Ask Nap Eyes. Ask any number of slacker early Twenty Somethings who choose to eschew the obvious melodic pop action plan and wander off into the trees like a non-placing Whacky Races contestant. Kiwi Jr. are merely the latest contenders.
And they're most definitely contenders. This is a darned good record. It should also be remembered very early on that Pavement most definitely did not invent this particular wheel, although they've come to define it more and more in some respects since the millenium.
So here comes, a list of progenitors for the alternative world of pop wonder that Kiwi Jr. draw on. This really started with The Velvet Underground. Then Jonathan and his Modern Lovers, early Television, Subway Sect, Buzzcocks, Orange Juice, The Go Betweens, The Clean and all those fabulous, fabulous Flying Nun bands. If you like I could make you a playlist but you'reprobably best directed to Twee by Marc Spitz which pretty much definitely catalogued and itemised this approach.
Kiwi Jr understand this school of thought from top to bottom, inside out. They add their own entry to this alternative encyclopedia with Cooler Returns and like Fonzie it is cool, though those who are not prone to this kind of thing will probably not understand. The record never lets up. One song after another takes the self same route. The same but different.
Listen to this if you like the bands I've mentioned. Listen to it even if you don't. You'll understand immediately where I'm coming from. You'll hear Pavement, but also Loaded suss and strum, the guitar solo in Boredom, echoes of Blue Boy, Anything Could Happen and any number of wonderful bits from other alternative universe pop hits. But it's not stealing. It's all used and utilised with the best possible intentions. And most importantly it works...
Everyone gets to be young at least once. Kiwi Jr. are grabbing this particular chance in life by the collar and squeezing every inch of joy out of their opportunity. This is a wonderful, joyous record and I love it to bits. Same as it ever was. If a thing ain't broken, there's no need to fix it. Just understand its essence, what makes it tick, and do it for yourself.
The 500 Greatest Singles Since Punk & Disco # 452 Blackstreet
Black America's version of manufactured pop.
Song of the Day # 2,836 Rural France
The hardest working nineties-influenced inde rock band from West Wiltshire according to their press release. Doesn't sound like the greatest mission statement but there are worse things to be.
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