Log #101 - A Rush of Lambs and Modest Mice Dressed In Suede

More Rush this week, with possibly their three best albums? I've played a lot recently and my current favourite album is 2112 which is joined this week by two of their best 80s "synth" albums Moving Pictures and Signals - plus a Modest Mouse and a Lambchop finished off in Suede.

Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Love Bad News

Rush - 2112

Rush - Signals

Rush - Moving Pictures

Lambchop - Nixon

Suede - Suede

Modest Mouse take a bit of getting used to, which is a good thing. It means they're a bit different. I'm thinking Pixies with a touch of Vampire Weekend, Tom Waits, Beck, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers and even The Clash. The singer  Isaac Brock is a real squawker a la Black Francis but I like it - he certainly doesn't lack passion.

The intriguingly entitled Good News For People Who Love Bad News is the Seattle band's 4th album and comes before We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank (which I have somewhere but can't lay my hands on at this juncture) and after a debut in 1996 called This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About - great titles.

Unlikely Rock Trivia Fact No. 1: Modest Mouse's We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank album features Johnny Marr.

And it's true we named our children

After towns that we've never been to

And it's true that the clouds just hung around

Like black Cadillacs outside a funeral

3 top Rush albums in the player this week following on from the clean sweep in log #100. I'd forgotten what an amazing album 2112 is.  The first side is a 20 minute concept piece about a future dystopia ruled by "The Priests of the Temple of Syrinx" who dismiss a man (/young boy?) who discovers an ancient guitar in the dirt:

What can this strange device be?

When I touch it, it gives forth a sound

It's got wires that vibrate and give music

What can this thing be that I found?

See how it sings like a sad heart

And joyously screams out its pain

Sounds that build high like a mountain

Or notes that fall gently like rain

I can't wait to share this new wonder

The people will all see its light

Let them all make their own music

The priests praise my name on this night

The ruling priests respond with:

Yes, we know it's nothing new

It's just a waste of time

We have no need for ancient ways

The world is doing fine

Another toy will help destroy

The elder race of man

Forget about your silly whim

It doesn't fit the plan

The whole piece is stupendous musically with mind blowing musicianship and gravity defying changes. My favourite part is where the boy learns to play the guitar - starting from tuning it to strumming a lovely ascending scale (all in about 2 minutes).

The only disappointment is the story ends suddenly without resolution with:

Attention all planets of the solar federation

We have assumed control

What's that all about, eh? Any Rush fans know?

Side two consists of 5 excellent regular sized tracks (a high proportion for a 70s Rush album and the quality is maintained through all of them). Check out Twilight Zone below - it's got a lovely Rush "bounce".

As ever with early Rush you do have to contend with Lee's ear splitting vocals. There are moments where he sings normally (as in the above track) and he has a great regular voice which I wish he had used more.

Unlikely Rock Trivia Fact No. 2: The cover of Rush's 2012 album Clockwork Angels shows the time of 21:12

In the early 80s Rush trimmed down their progressive pretensions and produced a series of accomplished synth/pop/rock albums including Moving Pictures and Signals. The former is more revered but I actually prefer the latter now which was arguably Rush's last great album -  they are both very good albums which stand up well today. 

Unlikely Rock Trivia Face No. 3: Geddy Lee's full name is Geddy Lee Weinrib and Alex Lifeson's orginal name was Alexandar Zivojinovich.

By the way while researching Rush albums (I am preparing an album ranking) I came across this. At first I thought what a talented band to be able to reproduce Permanent Waves so closely, then on looking more closely I realised it was the same person playing all parts, including the singing! Incredible.

Lambchop are so lo-fi, down tempo, and laid back, my wife actually fell asleep at one of their concerts (but she also fell asleep during Kraftwerk so maybe that’s not so significant). I think they were the sort of classy Americana band that enjoyed a very brief moment of fame just around the turn of the millennium when that kind of music became very popular. Previously a bit of a cult underground band they reached a level of commercial success first with this album Nixon (2000) and then the follow up Is A Woman (2002). I haven’t followed them since then but understand they are still going under the stewardship of regular leader Kurt Wagner (the only original). 

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Log #100 - The log Rushes to a Century

Log no. 100! 100 weeks of logging 6 albums per week. I thought I should revisit my original premise:

Several years ago when my CD player expired I replaced it with a 6-CD magazine changer I found on ebay for around £30. Providing not an endless stream of music but a good 5 hours worth, plenty enough for a weekend. It has been one of my best ever purchases.

One weekend I was shuffling through my 6 CDs and realised my current choices were what I would consider atypical of my usual tastes. How did I get here I thought to myself? Would this be symptomatic of a permanent change in taste or were there good temporary reasons for my choices?

So here the idea of a journal of listening was born. A musical journey through listening choices over a year - 52 weeks and (potentially) 312 albums. The log derives from a snapshot of the contents of my magazine changer taken each Sunday. Each log contains thoughts on the reasons behind the choices and a brief review of the albums, interspersed with occasional separate lengthier reviews of CDs and gigs.

I also started a youtube playlist but that became so unwieldy I abandoned it after about 80 entries and now embed most reference videos in each post. I have of course gone past 52 weeks now. I suspect I've exceeded 312 albums too (bearing in mind that some albums stay in for more than a week, and some are inevitably repeat listens).  Many weeks I only review one or two of the 6 albums - I have realised that 6 albums is actually a lot of listening in a week. 

I have covered many artists (246 to date) as indicated by the appearances chart, but there are of course still many who have not yet made an appearance (of course I'm talking from the perspective of someone whose record collection is heavily weighted towards rock music). One such example is this week's entry, Rush. They were my favourite band for a brief time - around the age of 18 or so but fear their particular brand of prog has not aged well. We shall see this week as I've gone for a clean sweep - an honour rarely bestowed in the log.

Appearances in the log - we have a clear leader

Rush in the 70s were a teenage dream with their skilful musicianship, pretentious concepts and spectacular gatefold album sleeves. But I do remember (although I didn't appreciate it at the time) reading a review of one of their concerts where the writer observed that there was no one over 18 in the audience. I was indeed one of those 18 year olds in the audience at The Brighton Centre sometime in the 80s. Using the amazing setlist.fm I'm going to see if I can actually find the very gig...

I'm pretty sure it was this one...

2/11/1981 Rush at the Brighton Centre

Setlist: 

2112 Part I: Overture

2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx

Freewill

Limelight

Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres Part I: Prelude

Beneath, Between & Behind

Subdivisions

The Camera Eye

YYZ

Drum Solo

Broon's Bane

The Trees

Xanadu

The Spirit of Radio

Red Barchetta

Closer to the Heart

Tom Sawyer

Vital Signs

Working Man

Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres Part IV: Armageddon

By-Tor & The Snow Dog

In the End

In the Mood

2112 Part VII: Grand Finale

Encore:

La Villa Strangiato

That is some set list pretty much covering everything I would have wanted to hear at the time! The gig must have been near 3 hours. There are 25 tracks here and some aren't short. I expect in keeping with the overblown nature of the albums from such bands (although Rush to be fair, were just starting to become a more trimmed down version of themselves by 1981), they also went over the top live too.

So on to the clean sweep of 6 out of 6 for Canadian progsters Rush this week! Congratulations Neil, Geddy and Alex:

Rush - Fly By Night

Rush - Hemispheres

Rush - Vapor Trails

Rush - Power Windows

Rush - Permanent Waves

Rush - Signals

Rush are such a recognisable band. Obviously there's the singing, but also the other instruments are very recognisable - the bouncy bass, the flangey guitar, and the complicated drums and percussion.  I purposely add "percussion" here as drummer Neil Peart is a particularly complex drummer who uses a massive kit fully equipped with (literally) all the bells and whistles (a musician who has never betrayed his prog leanings and has always eschewed the move to a scaled down kit). Check out his credentials as listed on the sleeve notes: drums, orchestra bells, bell tree, tympani, gong, cowbells, temple blocks, wind chimes, crotales. What is a crotale?

With these characteristics I'd venture that even without Geddy Lee's unique vocals you'd still recognise most Rush instrumental tracks.

And it all comes together in perfection. The overall production is amazing - every sound is crystal clear and separated, topped off by the vocals that (probably due to Geddy's particular high register) are literally elevated above the music such that every lyric is clear and decipherable.

1. Fly By Night

First track Anthem on Fly By Night (the band's second album from 1975) and the first thing that strikes you is the high pitched singing, but I mean super high! Much higher than mid or latter period Geddy. It's quite disconcerting. But it's a great single that pretty much encapsulates Rush in 4 minutes.

Rivendell is a beautiful slow solo acoustic track and, take note, has a lovely normally pitched vocal. Best I Can is boogie rock and Making Memories is a lovely jaunty acoustic strummer.

The meat of the album is In The End with it's stringent riff all the more devastating after Rivendell, and the epic By-Tor and the Snow Dog which has a lovely John Martyn Small Hours like phased guitar solo. I've always been intrigued by the sudden start of the track where the vocals and guitar burst in simultaneously. The drums on this track are amazing and you can really sense the battle raging between "By-Tor" and the growling "Snow Dog" as the bass grinds. A masterpiece.

One of Rush's best albums and one I used to enjoy on LP as part of the Archives box set containing the first three albums.

2. Hemispheres

Hemispheres - the titles, for goodness sake. They had had a good go at some pretension with the full on concept album 2112 (1976) but this 1978 album takes the biscuit with the side long Cygnus X-1 Book II (following on from Book I from the previous album A Farewell To Kings).

The 18 minute track has 6 (or to give them their proper nomenclature VI) parts each with a title, and sub-title, so we have III Dionysus (Bringer of Love) and IV Armegeddon (The Battle of Heart and Mind) for instance. The CD only recognises it as one long track.

On Side 2 we have La Villa Strangiato which is a relatively modestly lengthy 9 1/2 minute instrumental with... wait for it... 12 parts!

For completeness I should list the parts of the track (which is superb, by the way, and one of my all time favourite Rush tracks, and that's not just because it lacks Geddy Lee's vocals).

I: Buenas Noches, Mein Froinds! 
II: To sleep, perchance to dream... 
III: Strangiato theme 
IV: A Lerxst in Wonderland 
V: Monsters! 
VI: The Ghost of the Aragon 
VII: Danforth and Pape 
VIII: The Waltz of the Shreves 
IX: Never turn your back on a Monster!
X: Monsters! (Reprise) 
XI: Strangiato theme (Reprise)
XII: A Farewell to Things 

To be fair to the band they may have realised this was a final fling for pretension as La Villa Strangiato is subtitled An Exercise In Self-Indulgence (Hemispheres was the last of their concept albums and was followed by the much more manageable Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures).

Probably the best track on Hemispheres and one of Rush's mini masterpieces - they play so fast they fit an awful lot into 5 minutes - is The Trees:

There is unrest in the forest
There is trouble with the trees
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas

3. Vapor Trails

I was mightily impressed when I first heard Rush's 2002 album Vapor Trials - their first for 6 years *. Gone are the synthesizer led pop songs, replaced by a powerful heavy rock/metal sound where the guitars are back and the drumming epic. Also toned down is Geddy Lee's high pitched vocal, replaced by a markedly more mid-register range. Representing a further shift back to basics Vapor Trails really sounds like a band revitalised and even reminds me of Black Sabbath or Metallica in places.

There is an anger in these tracks and also fight and resilience in some of Neil Peart's inevitably personal lyrics such as on Ghost Rider:

Shadows on the road behind
Shadows on the road ahead
Nothing can stop you now

People who think they know Rush, from either their prog heyday of the 70s or the 80s synth pop rock, should hear this and be surprised.

4. Power Windows

Power Windows (1985) for me really represents the wilderness years for Rush. The musicianship of course is super tight but there isn't much soul in this uninspired set. I'd venture there isn't a lot of  difference between any of the mid 80s period albums as Rush suffered the general plague of over production and an ill conceived emphasis on the synthesizers, electronically enhanced snare crashes and treated guitar, which seemed to affect nearly all artists (particularly rock bands) at the time. Some of the songs sound like pale imitations of more successfully rendered pop/synth/rock from the previous 80s albums Signals and Moving Pictures even seemingly repeating some of the same music - a clear case of treading water. Naff cover too.

5. Permanent Waves

Unbelievably Permanent Waves with it's six efficiently honed tracks was received as a bit of a disappointment on it's release in 1980, following the epic concept album Hemispheres.

However the band's new direction represented by a slick amalgamation of rock, pop and prog has aged well and the album is now rightly judged one of the band's best. Key track is the single The Spirit of Radio which was the band's biggest hit in the UK. Then there are tracks like Freewill which tick all the "best of both types of Rush" boxes. Plenty for both new and old fans to like.

6. Signals

Signals further developed the Rush sound of the early 80s and together with Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures represents a triumphant triumvirate which many fans (even including the die-hard prog fans) now consider Rush's peak.

Despite leaving behind the extensiveness of the concept tracks of the 70s the overall quality of the songwriting meant the band were able to pack just as much into tracks of 5 minutes instead, and the synthesizers, which are very prominent right from the opening bars of the first track Subdivisions, are at home and actually add to the music without detracting from Alex Lifeson's guitar.

Two of the best tracks are the oppositely titled Analog Kid and Digital Man. Both super efficient tracks of dazzling musicianship and mind bending changes like The Trees or Spirit of Radio.

The moving Losing It is another standout:

Thirty years ago, how the words would flow
With passion and precision
But now his mind is dark and dulled
By sickness and indecision
And he stares out the kitchen door
Where the sun will rise no more

Signals was the band's last great album prior to sleep walking into unfashionable irrelevancy in the late 80s until their reinvention as a grunge/heavy rock band in the 90s and 00s.

* In the late 90s Rush drummer Neil Peart experienced personal family tragedy. This was recounted in his book Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road written while taking a sabbatical from Rush. This was closely followed by Traveling Music: The Soundtrack to My Life and Times.

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Log #99 - Old Wave From The Bush

1. Echo And The Bunnymen - Killing Moon The Best Of

2. Cast - All Change

3. Curtis Mayfield - Love's Sweet Sensation

4. Badly Drawn Boy - Have You Fed The Fish?

5. Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

6. John Surman - Coruscating

A bit of an odd week this one (after such a storming selection last week). Why? Well, the first two CDs in the magazine I actually found, in a bush, on my walk home from work (along with REM and Gang of Four). Who chucks their unwanted CDs into a bush (rather than car booting them, leaving them on the wall, or simply throwing them in the bin)? 

They aren't ones I would have otherwise. Certainly not the first one. Why not? Well, I saw Echo And The Bunnymen once live at Glastonbury and they were rubbish (and even worse, rude to the crowd calling us a bunch of hippies - was anyone else there?). 

Is it fair to damn a band on one brief appearance? Maybe not, but you do remember. Another band I saw live once which had a similar effect on me was Florence And The Machine. I know Florence is quite cool and popular these days but frankly she couldn't sing in tune. Maybe she was just having an off day, and Echo and the boys were likewise just having a bad day at the office. It's perfectly acceptable - we all have them, Van Morrison famously has a lot of them (although he doesn't let this affect his voice!).

Ok, so it is with trepidation that I slot the first half of this monumental 36 track Echo greatest hits compilation into the player (I had similar trepidation with a Bruce Springsteen anthology a few weeks back). It's all new to me. I have no idea what the Echo hits were.

It's better than I expected but obviously the singing is monotone, the songs sound the same, and the music is unsurprisingly stuck in the 80s. Why is it that 80s and 90s music seems to sound more dated than the 60s or the 70s? I imagine that is just an illusion and perception or maybe merely a personal preference. Or maybe there was just more variety then (and now) so giving you more opportunity to find what you like.

I liked The Puppet though and Over The Wall has a Tangerine Dream pulse beat - eh?

I don't know the music that well from the period but am fairly confident in stating that it is similar to a number of other bands in fashion at the time - Flock of Seagulls, The Cure, Teardrop Explodes etc. Perhaps being kind I'd say they sound a bit more on the Smiths / Joy Division edge of the genre but lacking the originality or impact of either of those bands.

I know I should give more time to this but unfortunately when you get older you realise life is too short to invest too much energy into stuff you aren't that interested in (or reading a book that doesn't grab you in the first 50 pages or so). 

Back to the bush for you my Echo (or the back of the filing cabinet for a few years).

Cast is another band I saw at Glastonbury - most likely the same year (1996 or thereabouts?). They rode in on the Britpop coat tails of Oasis and Blur with their retro rock fundamentals and scored some singles hits including Alright and Fine Time from this album. Based on the 90s guitar rock blueprint Cast did nevertheless have a 60s feel and even sound like very early Who in places, and a lot like fellow post Brit poppers Suede.

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Log #98 - The Spirit of '68 (1) and My Favourite Record of All Time

The stories about the recording of Astral Weeks are well known and I don't need to add a lengthy analysis to the numerous reviews and articles already out there about Van Morrison's seminal album suffice to say it is, and has been for many years, my favourite record of all time and one that has truly enriched my life.

The gentle jazz tinged music ebbs and flows and meanders like a mountain stream, the lyrics are simultaneously fantastic and down to earth recalling places and feelings many of us have experienced.

I can't listen to this album as background music, it demands my full attention and it makes me feel things very few other records do... think green, earthy, organic, wet, lush, celtic, spring, sunshine, dewdrops, rain, rainbows, walks in the woods, trees, stone circles, nature, rivers, childhood, family, the past, the future, in the beginning and afterwards... and ultimately life and death. 

And I will stroll the merry way

And jump the hedges first

And I will drink the clear

Clean water for to quench my thirst

And I shall watch the ferry-boats

And they'll get high

On a bluer ocean

Against tomorrow's sky

And I will never grow so old again

And I will walk and talk

In gardens all wet with rain

Is there a more evocative lyric than the oft quoted "gardens wet with rain" from Sweet Thing. Look at the cover too, it's all perfect.

Van produced a lot of great music in the late 60s and early 70s and several albums do approach this greatness. For many Moondance is it's equal although it has quite a different flavour being more brass based than string backed. Personally I think Saint Dominic's Review and Veedon Fleece come closest to Astral Weeks but just don't quite capture it's atmosphere.

Greil Marcus's Listening to Van Morrison is a personal account about how he feels when err... listening to Van Morrison. As such it does exactly as it says on the tin and in leaning heavily on Astral Weeks does not pretend to offer another autobiography or comprehensive review of the whole of Morrison's output. I thoroughly enjoyed this short book and find such accounts enhance my enjoyment of the music.

1. Midlake - The Courage of Others

2. Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther

3. Rokia Traore - Beautiful Africa

4. Badly Drawn Boy - Have You Fed The Fish

5. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

6. Van Morrison - Astral Weeks

And this week Astral Weeks is in good company with 5 excellent albums including the gorgeous americana folk rock of Midlake, the bluesy afro rock of Rokia Traore, the perfect pop of Badly Drawn Boy at his peak, and a classic Floyd which was also once my favourite album before I moved on. What a great week!

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Log #97 - A Gang Of Dead Bees

The Guardian's readers recommend series, which I only discovered two weeks ago, is now being withdrawn after 13 years! This was a disappointment for both new contributors like me who was hoping to curate a playlist myself in the future, and stalwarts who have kept the concept going all this time. They will now be congregating over at the similarly formatted song-bar.com .

The final topic was on the subject of The Influence of India and I was chuffed to have one of my nominations (out of over 600) selected for the final play list of 13. It was Krishna Blue by David Sylvian which appears on his Dead Bees On A Cake album.

Here's the Guardian write up:

I certainly couldn't have described it better.

David Sylvian got so good after he went solo with a string of excellent albums. The first one I discovered was (ironically also on a bee theme) Secrets Of The Beehive which I remember most for the stunning acoustic guitar as on this track below.

It's a truly beautiful album and for a few years probably my favourite album of all, and not something I would have expected from the ashes of a pop band like Japan. I am shocked now to remember that that album came out in 1987 as it is one of those I remember clearly where I was at the time on first hearing.

Dead Bees was the follow up coming 12 years later!

1. Bonnie Prince Billy - Master and Everyone
2. David Sylvian - Dead Bees On A Cake
3. Efterklang - Springer
4. Mojo Presents - Return to the Dark Side of the Moon with Wish You Were Here Again
5. Fairport Convention - The History Of
6. Gang of Four - Entertainment!

The Gang of Four album isn't my usual sort of listening. Why have it then? Well, several reasons - I like to try all sorts of new music all the time. And the second reason is it literally fell into my lap. I found it in a bush on my walk home from work the other evening - along with three other Cds - REM's Automatic For The People, Cast's All Change, and Echo and the Bunnymen's Killing Moon The Best Of.

On first listen, as expected, I didn't like the simple Jam / Ramones post punk ranting and scattered guitar strumming over pumping bass. It was made in 1979 and so sounds like it. A few more listens and I am beginning to appreciate the Wilko Johnson like staccato guitar. Late in the album there are even a few variations on the theme.

Gang of Four - mostly like Dr. Feelgood but a hint of new romantic dress sense too

How about this for plaudits though - the album was ranked as fifth Greatest Punk Album of All Time and at number 483 in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The album was listed by Pitchfork Media as the 8th best album of the 1970s. Kurt Cobain listed it as his 13th favourite album!

Here's his Top 20 for passing interest:

1. Iggy & The Stooges - Raw Power 
2. Pixies - Surfer Rosa 
3. The Breeders - Pod 
4. The Vaselines - Dying for It 
5. The Shaggs - Philosophy of the World 
6. Fang - Landshark 
7. MDC - Millions of Dead Cops 
8. Scratch Acid - Scratch Acid
9. Saccharine Trust - Paganicons 
10. Butthole Surfers - Pee Pee the Sailor 
11. Black Flag - My War 
12. Bad Brains - Rock for Light
13. Gang of Four - Entertainment! 
14. Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols 
15. The Frogs - It's Only Right and Natural 
16. PJ Harvey - Dry 
17. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation 
18. The Knack - Get the Knack 
19. The Saints - Know Your Product 
20. Kleenex - "anything by" 

...interesting, not many I'm aware of there.

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Log #96 - Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - A Master For Everyone

I do love Bonnie 'Prince' Billy. Every album I have heard of his is class. This one Master and Everyone is short and soft - it's effortless lo-fi, mostly just acoustic guitar and his whispered voice with occasional fiddle, bass and backing vocal accompaniment. I would imagine the 'Bonnie Prince', real name Will Oldham, is an interesting chap judging by his lyrics and music videos. There is one video in particular that reminds me of one of the scariest scenes in the brilliant first season of True Detective. It's not a track from this album but I'm going to find that video now and compare it with what I recall in True Detective.

And then there's this beauty Hard Life from this album:

Youth and Young Manhood is the debut album from Kings of Leon released in 2003. It's a good rock album with 4 or 5 catchy numbers and a singer in Caleb Followill who possesses an unusually gruff and slurred vocal delivery sounding like someone twice his age. I guess that's the band's main USP albeit not being able to decipher most of the words leads to faint annoyance. They also looked unusual with their long hair and big beards recalling other Southern rock stalwarts like ZZTop and Lynyrd Skynyrd (Kings of Leon hail from Nashville).

Later on the Kings hit the big time, cut their hair, smartened up their look and sound, and lost a bit of their original mystic but with this debut album you can see why they made such an impact early doors.

We all know The Dark Side of the Moon of course, which remains a great listen even given its ubiquity. But less of us have heard the brilliant Easy Stars All Stars reggae cover of the album Dub Side of The Moon or this compilation of covers presented by Mojo magazine.

This Mojo compilation has some really interesting interpretations of these well worn classics like this one from Matt Berry...

Or this back to basics cover of Money by The Pineapple Thief...

Additionally the CD also collects covers of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here too... Lia Ices interpretation of the title track is particularly impressive breathing new life into this well known song:

Efterklang remain one of my favourite bands despite their latest album taking them a bit off the rails in my opinion. Tripper is officially their debut album from 2004 although it is now often twinned with the earlier (and now extended) EP Springer released originally in 2003. It is full of interesting electronic clicks and beats. Parades, their follow up album from 2007, I have always had trouble fully appreciating with it's ambitious arrangements. For new listeners I'd recommend the more fully rounded experimental pop they produced on Magic Chairs and Piramida.

~

1. Kings of Leon - Youth and Young Manhood

2. Bonnie Prince Billy - Master and Everyone

3. Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon

4. Mojo Presents - Return to the Dark Side of the Moon with Wish You Were Here Again

5. Efterklang - Parades

6. Efterklang - Tripper

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Log #95 - Another Year Of The Cat

A masterful album that seems to transcend all personal tastes - Al Stewart's 1976 masterpiece Year of the Cat is universally loved by all.

1. Black Sabbath - We Sold Our Soul For Rock 'n' Roll cd 2
2. Richard Hawley - True Love's Gutter
3. Al Stewart - Year Of The Cat
4. Roni Size and Reprazent - New Forms
5. Other Lives - Tamer Animals
6. Bonnie Prince Billy - Lie Down In The Light

Just the one Black Sabbath CD retains its place this week - the second half of We Sold Our Soul... this covers tracks from all of their first six albums (strangely the first half of the partly chronological double album only covers their first two albums). Enough said on Black Sabbath for now pending release of my album ranking shortly for which this compilation has been good research

I recently read a review on Guardian Music for a Belle and Sebastian album. It was in a series on favourite albums from staff writers and possibly the public too at the time (the article seemed to suggest that, but on visiting the links the opportunity to write your own reviews had long disappeared - I think this review was posted in 2011). I did however discover Readers Recommend where readers can recommend tracks on a particular subject for potential inclusion on a playlist. This week's subject was "Obsolete Items". I nominated Triumph '73 by The Felice Brothers and Highwayman by Jimmy Reed but actually covered spectacularly by US grunge rockers Arbouretum. I also nominated (Straight to Your Heart) Like a Cannonball by Van Morrison but that offer was removed for some reason. I doubt either remaining nomination will make the shortlist. All 3 tracks are contained in this embedded mini playlist below. By the way most the obvious ones have gone before and you can't renominate any song that has appeared already in the series - this is known as a "zedded" song. What fun these private members' clubs have.

Anyway from that site I also discovered a parallel project at www.song-bar.com. Over there they were inviting nominations for songs of "Remaining or Staying". I nominated Stayin' Power by Neil Young and Soldier On by Richard Hawley. And that's how, to cut a long story a bit shorter, I came to have True Love's Gutter in the series this week. It's a beautiful record - possibly Hawley's most intense and atmospheric (this clip of the epic Soldier On also features a beautiful video):

On a morning from a Bogart movie
In a country where they turn back time
You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre
Contemplating a crime
She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running
Like a watercolor in the rain
Don't bother asking for explanations
She'll just tell you that she came
In the year of the cat

And that's how Al Stewart's great Year of the Cat track begins. This album was doing the rounds when I was a young student and was one of those soft pop records that seemed to transcend all personal tastes being universally loved by all.

It is simply a masterful collection of great songs - lovely melodies and excellent musicianship. But playing this again this week what struck me most were the lyrics. Each song tells an evocative story that takes you to a place and time.

Great lyrics of exotic escapism run like a thread through this album.

Lord Grenville:

Go and tell Lord Grenville that the tide is on the turn
It's time to haul the anchor up and leave the land astern
We'll be gone before the dawn returns
Like voices on the wind

On The Border:

The fishing boats go out across the evening water
Smuggling guns and arms across the Spanish border
The wind whips up the waves so loud
The ghost moon sails among the clouds
Turns the rifles into silver on the border

If It Doesn't Come Naturally Leave It:

Well I'm up to my neck in the crumbling wreckage
Of all that I wanted from life
When I looked for respect all I got was neglect
Though I swallowed the line as a sign of the times
But dealing a jack from the back of the pack
They said - You lose again

Flying Sorcery:

With your photographs of Kitty Hawk
And the biplanes on your wall
You were always Amy Johnson
From the time that you were small

Broadway Hotel:

You told the man in the Broadway Hotel
Nothing was stranger than being yourself
And he replied, with a tear in his eye
Love was a rollaway
Just a cajole away

This album came out in 1976 and became Al Stewart's go to record. I don't know if he had much success elsewhere but is still touring today playing to dedicated fans in small venues. I saw an amusing clip of him at a backstage signing where a fan said he was surprised he was still going and doing "this". He quite rightly said, "Of course, what else would I be doing?". When you think about it that makes complete sense. It's not like he would decide to give up and become a plumber or school teacher.

One minor gripe on my CD reissue. It has a couple of live tracks, fine, but also an interview. This just disrupts the flow of the music and doesn't have a place here.

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Log #94 - A Mighty Return

Well the first thing to say straight off the bat is that 13 actually sounds like... well erm... Black Sabbath! For an old fan like me this is really exciting. Apparently producer Rick Rubin told the boys (men in their 60s at the time of this 2013 recording) to refer to their feted debut album and forget everything subsequent to that thus treating this project as if it was going to be their second album.

Does it succeed on that basis? Does it sound like a second album from a band that had just released their debut Black Sabbath a few months earlier?  Well, it's close, remarkably so, considering the passage of time and the various traumas and false reunions that have affected the original band members since their original disbandment in 1978.

In fact there are some tracks on 13 that (almost too deliberately possibly?) sound remarkably similar to tracks from their debut album, certainly in structure. Ozzy Osbourne's voice sounds amazing. Tony Iommi's guitar riffs are thick and lush and there are some great distorted slow arpeggios. Geezer Butler's bass is pumping and high in the mix particularly on the blues stomp of Damaged Soul which even features harmonica (although there is some debate whether this is Osbourne or not).

It's almost there, it's almost a perfect comeback. There's no denying the chemistry of the original band members. But something isn't quite the same. Is it the drumming? Perfectly decent but maybe Brad Wilk doesn't quite have the special galloping swing of original member Bill Ward and is perhaps over complicating things with an over indulgence of fills and rolls. Or is it the production which almost inevitably is going to be different from 40 years ago? It's loud, deep and  heavy, but sounds more modern and perfect in the vein of the metal wall of sound you get from the likes of Metallica, not quite as organic or edgy as the original Black Sabbath. Or does it sail too close to pantomime and parody sometimes particularly on the very Black Sabbath (the track) like opener End of the Beginning?:

Reanimation of your cyber sonic soul
Transforming time and space beyond control
Rise up and resist to be the master of your fate
Don't look back before today - tomorrow is too late

Then the final track finishes with the same tolling bell and thunder which announced Black Sabbath on their debut in 1970. A neat completion of the circle or a corny reference? *

Although there are suspicions that this record has been "enhanced" in the "modern way" to something beyond what this band could do live these days (particularly with the vocals one suspects) reports from the studio sessions maintain this was not the case and the tracks, although painstakingly mixed, were essentially laid down by the band as you hear them:

The basic tracks were recorded live in the studio, with only the vocal later being replaced, mostly because the lyrics were not finished yet. The rhythms and tempos are very tight, but people make the mistake of thinking that this means things were fixed. That does a disservice to these guys. They've been playing for 40 years, and what you hear on the album is the natural result of how they've developed over that time.

 Engineer Andrew Scheps

The songs themselves only number eight ** which is a welcome old skool classic album number. But the tracks are multi-dimensional with changes of tempos and keys - a characteristic of many of the Sab's ambitious early numbers - yet continuity both within tracks and across the whole album is excellent.

The lyrics are spot on classic Sabbath too - all about life and death, your soul, religion and the universe (they of course went a bit "goblins and pixies" after Osbourne left which is odd really as Butler wrote most of the lyrics and remained a member of the band off and on long after Osbourne had gone but this indicated the influence of Osbourne's replacements which included most famously Ronnie James Dio).

Give me the wine, you keep the bread.

All in all this could easily be an album from 70s Sabbath - perhaps not their second or third but certainly a sixth or seventh and at least an equal of Technical Ecstacy or Never Say Die! in both quality and sound. Check out The Loner below, one of the more straight forward rockers on the album. Could this or could this not be from almost any one of Black Sabbath's 70s albums?

I'm impressed. It surpasses my expectations hugely and by virtue of Ozzy's voice alone, which in my opinion was irreplaceable, immediately launches itself into one of their best records in the context of their full career.

1. Black Sabbath - We Sold Our Soul For Rock 'n' Roll cd 1
2. Black Sabbath - We Sold Our Soul For Rock 'n' Roll cd 2
3. Black Sabbath - 13
4. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
5. Bjork - Homogenic
6. Francois And The Atlas Mountains - Plaine Inondable

Some context, and comparison, is possible by way of the order of my magazine this week with Black Sabbath's We Sold Our Soul For Rock 'N' Roll compilation taking up the first two slots. This classic compilation covers tracks from their first 6 albums, for many their golden era which has never been equalled. It is true, where longevity is a very rare commodity, both then and especially now, to have produced 6 albums of such consistent quality was a remarkable achievement:

Black Sabbath
Paranoid
Master of Reality
Vol. 4
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Sabotage

Even the two that followed although much less popular are excellent records:

Technical Ecstacy
Never Say Die!

Which is Your Favourite Black Sabbath Album?

The first 6 original Ozzy fronted Black Sabbath albums dominate fans' favourites. In fact I commissioned a Facebook survey which bore this out with the Ozzy years dominating the vote although Dio's Heaven and Hell does split the top 6.

Rather than one or two albums outstripping the rest, which you would often get with many bands, there is a wide range of support across all the first 6 albums (plus Heaven and Hell) which tends to confirm this consistency, but practically nothing post Dio (I expect there are some hidden gems amongst those too but probably not many of us have heard them).

The results out of 337 votes were:

1. PARANOID with 66 votes
2. BLACK SABBATH 59
3. VOL 4 42
4=. MASTER OF REALITY and SABBATH BLOODY SABBATH 41
6. HEAVEN AND HELL 31
7. SABOTAGE 27
8. MOB RULES 11
9. 13 8
10. NEVER SAY DIE 4
11. LIVE EVIL 3
12. TECHNICAL ECSTACY 2
13. BORN AGAIN 1
14. TYR 1




* "13" did not become Black Sabbath's final album - a live album followed the same year and then two "The End"s came out in 2016 and 2017 respectively. The first was an album length "EP" featuring outtakes from the "13" sessions with some live tracks from the album, and the second was a recording of the official final show which oddly didn't feature any tracks from "13".
** note there is a "deluxe" version of "13" with 3 bonus tracks.

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Log #93 - They Sold Their Souls For Rock 'N' Roll

Black Sabbath were really something else. They had a unique sound instantly recognisable. This sound was employed and developed over their first 6 albums from 1970 to 1975. This classic compilation We Sold Our Soul For Rock 'N' Roll draws from these 6 albums. Two later albums featured singer Ozzy Osbourne following this compilation before the band sacked him and set off on a revolving door's worth of new members. Although they had their moments most notably on the Dio fronted Heaven and Hell album they had essentially become another metal band having lost a lot of their uniqueness - a uniqueness that was pleasingly reignited on their recent reunion album 13.

This compilation in it's own right is an excellent record. However the first 6 albums are so strong that I would really prefer readers to just buy the original albums. We Sold Our Soul For Rock N Roll draws heavily on the first two albums meaning their third (and their best in my opinion) is neglected with only two tracks - luckily one of them being Children Of The Grave which I think was the first Sabbath track I ever heard and one that stopped me in my tracks with a "Wow, what is this?!"

For new listeners see if it has the same effect on you:

Sadly there is also only one track from their fifth album the groundbreaking Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

1. Black Sabbath - We Sold Our Soul For Rock 'n' Roll cd 1
2. Black Sabbath - We Sold Our Soul For Rock 'n' Roll cd 2
3. Chris Rea - The Road To Hell
4. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
5. Various - Rock Chronicles: The Seventies
6. Francois And The Atlas Mountains - Plaine Inondable

Last entry in the 6 way slot this week is a curious affair from little known band Francois and the Atlas Mountains. I know little about this band. I saw them at a festival years ago and was suitably impressed enough to buy their album which translates as Flood Plains.  Here you go >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A0n%C3%A7ois_%26_the_Atlas_Mountains

It would appear they are a Belgian/French/Bristol collaboration.

One of their songs reminds me of Imagine by John Lennon. Let me see if I can find it.

Actually more like Paris 1919 by John Cale or Belle and Sebastian.

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Log #92 - A Supreme Festival of Love, Jazz and Dad Rock

1. The Cardigans - Life
2. Traffic - John Barleycorn Must Die
3. Chris Rea - The Road To Hell
4. Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
5. Various - Rock Chronicles: The Seventies
6. Neil Young - Greendale

Love Supreme 2018

It's festival season again and a particularly hot and sunny one here in England. This Sunday I visited the excellent Love Supreme Festival in beautiful Glynde, Sussex (more famous for the Glyndebourne Opera Festival).

The festival has grown appreciably since my last visit (or was this just the weather with many festival goers now so spoilt for choice they don't always have to pre-book any more?) but the site was still able to absorb the numbers (albeit the bars did run out of all except cider early).

One of the joys of the festival is the interview area known as the Jazz Lounge. Here artists talk about their music and inevitably their insights and enthusiasm encourage you to attend their slots later on and subsequently gain more out of their performances. One such highlight this weekend was world renowned tabla player Zakir Hussain who emitted such amazing sounds from his array of tablas that I could barely believe what I was hearing. Subsequent standard drummers sounded dull in comparison.

Mavis Staples followed with an energetic set of blues and soul infused with protest and anger from the US civil rights movement in the 60s. It was nice to see an established old time star without a massed band of keyboards, percussionists and backing singers. Her band consisted of drummer, bassist and electric guitar (and a couple of backing singers to be fair) and sounded all the better for it (I find the live sound of such old time acts inevitably blows newer bands out of the water).

I hotfooted over to the main stage to see a bit of Funkadelic but I didn't understand them - I think they had gone heavy rap or something (or maybe they were always like that?). On my way back to the Round Top to catch one of my favourite artists Steve Winwood I stopped by to appreciate a young upcoming talent in the jazz field, one Keyon Harrold who played trumpet like Miles Davis but also sang beautifully (sometimes instrumental music can get a bit tiresome and leaves one yearning for a song occasionally).

The young, cool and talented Keyon Harrold

Steve Winwood didn't disappoint. I've seen him before and he played a similar set of well known hits (many of which the casual punter would not realise are his). For instance I'm A Man and Give Me Some Loving from his Spencer Davis Group time, his own solo big hit Higher Love, and Can't Find My Way Home from the Blind Faith album, but the highlights were a Traffic classic from the listed album Empty Pages which I wasn't expecting, and the fantastic guitar rocker Dear Mr. Fantasy as an encore I was both hoping for and expecting.

An amazing talent on guitar, organ (with bass pedals!) and voice, ably demonstrated on the superb Traffic album John Barleycorn Must Die. I've banged on about it before being a bit of an old timer but this is when music was real and amazing (1970!).

The headliners for the night were Earth Wind and Fire. They did have a mass of people on stage of whom three were in the original band. They played a lot of easy listening ballads which didn't really float my boat but finally got to the tracks the fans were waiting for Boogie Wonderland and September and everyone went home sun kissed and happy.

Greendale

Greendale is an unfairly maligned Neil Young album. Sure it just sounds like one long jam and the plodding tracks just go on and on but there's a great barroom sound from Young and his band Crazy Horse and the effect is somewhat hypnotic and soothing. The album is a sort of concept album about a family living in a fictitious small town called Greendale but I can't say I've paid that much attention to the story.

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

A departure from their previous albums Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (their 5th coming out in 1973) is the closest Black Sabbath ever came to prog. Just check the track titles to figure - A National Acrobat, Spiral Architect and Sabbra Cadabra. Amongst these ambitious epics are two typical riff heavy rock monsters in the title track (many fans' favourite Sabbath track of all) and Killing Yourself To Live plus a couple of down tempo tracks - the acoustic instrumental Fluff and the innovative synthesized Who Are You?

It was a different album altogether with a new sound. We experimented on that and it turned into a creative high-point which took us to a different level.

Tony Iommi

For many years this was my favourite Sabbath album (and cover!) before I settled on Master of Reality as the true greatest!

The Road To Hell

Most pleasant surprise award this week goes to Chris Rea. I was given this album a while back and have paid little attention to it; I thought I knew all I needed to know about Chris Rea, a middle of the road guitar journeyman with a gravelly voice and a hit back in the 80s. The hit was the title track to this album and it's a decent track. But there is more especially with the Looking For a Rainbow track where Rea's slide guitar builds to a David Gilmour like climax.

Dad Rock

Talking of being an old timer I know most the tracks on this naff 70s rock compilation. It's starts off with Meatloaf's Bat Out Of Hell for goodness sake. From there we progress through standard fayre from Free, Black Sabbath, Judas Preist, T-Rex and Deep Purple. The most interesting tracks are less well known - the instrumental Frankenstein by the Edgar Winter Group, Tomorrow Night by the piano funky Atomic Rooster and Sylvia by Dutch progsters Focus.

Life

Lastly we have a lovely pop record by The Cardigans. The voice of lead singer Nina Persson is a bit high and twee which makes their cover of the aforementioned Sabbath Bloody Sabbath even more bizarre. I think it works well:

It's not the band's only Sabbath cover - apparently the guitarist and bass player played in heavy metal bands previously. It does make you wonder why, just why?

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Log #91 - Jazz and Wine

Cover album this week is Iron and Wine's Around The Well double-cd. This is a mostly solo acoustic low-fi collection of b-sides, outtakes and rarities. This is twinned with Neil Young's second solo album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. Not an obvious twinning perhaps save for the fact that I had the pleasure of attending the inaugural Americana and Country Black Deer Festival this weekend set in Eridge Park, Kent.

1. Earl Sweatshirt - I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside
2. Wiley - Snakes and Ladders
3. Sigur Ros - Takk
4. Quantic - Apricot Morning
5. Iron and Wine - Around The Well cd 2
6. Neil Young - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

Neil Young wasn't there but was represented by perhaps my highlight of the weekend which was a storming cover of his Down By The River by fellow Canadian barroom classic rockers The Sheepdogs - the singing from these Lynyrd Skynyrd copyists wasn't quite Neil's but the duelling guitar sound was spot on. Down By The River is one of two classic extended guitar whigouts on this tremendous album, the other being Cowgirl In The Sand; on both, Crazy Horse set down a rolling bass and drum groove allowing Young's guitar to soar. Never one for screaming fret burning he is a master of a cool languorous style that allows the music to breath and take flight in unexpected directions.

It has been said that Young only has one guitar solo, but it sure is a good one.

I'd just hot footed from the main stage headliner, the actual Sam Beam, aka Iron and Wine. Beam had sauntered on stage with an acoustic guitar and an actual glass of red wine which he placed on a stool beside him. Right on time he looked out upon, it has to be said, a smaller than expected crowd which didn't actually grow even with the ending of the excellent Eric Bibb's set on a nearby alternative stage. In fact I think the crowd diminished further as the set progressed - the crowd perhaps confused with the sound and chilled by the breeze after a day of glorious sunshine in this barmy English summer.

Beam started with the popular Trapeze Swinger from the featured record here with lovely percussive playing and his breathy vocals. But I'd probably say this was the highlight of a disappointing set beset with some sound issues, namely the bass drowning out the rest of the band (how often does this happen? - can the sound man not hear the same as me or is the sound set up for a new festival just not what you'd expect) including a cellist who was completely inaudible despite performing energetically. Even Beam turned to say he couldn't hear himself. "Nor can we," someone heckled (could have been me :) )

The songs were culled from his career but were all played with a more jazzy fusion arrangement which I understand has impressed on his latest album but didn't work well on a big stage and actually rendered some favourites unrecognisable.

When I first saw him during the excellent Kiss Each Other Clean tour he had gone full band electric which sounded fantastic to my newcomer's ears, although I did read subsequently some of his fans at the time didn't like his new direction and wanted to hear the introverted acoustic troubadour.

Recent album reviews have been very positive for his latest Beast Epic album heralding a return to the softer acoustic sound albeit with some experimental jazz overtones. I don't doubt the new record is excellent but as I say maybe it is music more suited to the living room, or the Festival Hall, than a festival main stage headlining slot.

Iron and Wine - the new band

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Log #90 - Tentative Excursions Into Grime

Bookends this week are two hip hop / rap / grime albums - well, the Wiley one is grime (being the British form of this sort of music). The other one, by LA based Earl Sweatshirt is more low fi. I really don't know what you'd call it actually.  It's very minimal, interesting and entirely original. There are some nice laid back grooves with phased keyboards / organ and killer bass... but parents beware, this is one record where a Parental Advisory sticker is wholly necessary.

The Wiley album is louder and faster. It's more in your face. There are some amazing tracks on this energetic album although personally I think I prefer the grooves on the Sweatshirt record. I think amongst the fans of this type of music some think Wiley (who I've heard referred to as the godfather of grunge) is a bit old hat compared to current flavour of the month Stormzy for instance. You can hear the differences in style in the clips below:

1. Earl Sweatshirt - I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside

2. Jamie T - Carry On The Grudge

3. Peace - Happy People

4. Catfish and the Bottlemen - The Balcony

5. Hozier - Hozier

6. Wiley - Snakes and Ladders

I'm not going to go into the other albums in much detail this week suffice to say I think Hozier is very talented. There's something about him that reminds me of a young, fellow countryman, Van Morrison. Jamie T is a bit rock and a bit indie in a Jam sort of way. As for Peace and Catfish I don't find this sort of guitar based power pop music too inspiring. It's very derivative reminding me of Britpop type bands, and Dodgy.

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