Log #151 - Glorious Pepper

John Martyn Glorious Fool

Truckstop Honeymoon Big Things And Little Things

The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Harmonia Deluxe
Tord Gustavsen Trio The Other Side

The Black Keys El Camino

Still enjoying the John Martyn album - it's one of his best actually. Possibly his last great album but considering it's his 11th studio album that represents a remarkable longevity of critical success.

Some of the slower drawn out tracks like Hearts and Keys and Please Fall In Love With Me recall the epic Small Hours from One World.

Ever revered by contemporaries that enjoyed greater commercial success, guests include fans Eric Clapton and Phil Collins.

I continue a Beatles retrospective with Sgt. Pepper. You can't really argue against this being their best album, and possibly the best album by anyone ever. The songs are magnificent and furthermore the sum is even greater than the considerable parts (the album being almost a concept with tracks running into each other, bookended by versions of the title track, plus the grand finale A Day In The Life which I think is The Beatles' greatest song)...

... when I was young my favourite album for ages was ELO's Out Of The Blue and when my father used to overhear me playing that album he'd always tell me that there was something on there that was exactly the same as on Sgt. Pepper - it took me a while to realise what he meant - at first I thought it was Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite! - but eventually I realised he meant the coda to Mr Blue Sky being very similar to the "woke up, dragged a comb across my head" section of A Day In The Life - of course ELO were huge Beatles copyists and many of their songs were similar.

Everything they did in their previous 7 albums led to this. The follow ups Magical Mystery Tour, The White Album, Abbey Road and Let It Be, each represented incremental retreats from this peak.

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Log #150 - From Barroom To Stadium - The Black Keys Go Large

I've come late to the Black Keys. Shame actually as this album sounds tremendous - heavy, exciting and melodic. Even my house mates love it. Of course they compare with other 2 bit bands, The White Stripes and Royal Blood for instance, but I think I prefer this; I love the grungy dirty bluesy emphasis and Dan Auerbach's distorted vocals. They seem to have translated well from barroom to stadium without selling out (can the same be said for Kings Of Leon for instance?).

John Martyn Glorious Fool

Truckstop Honeymoon Big Things And Little Things

The Beatles Rubber Soul

The Beatles Abbey Road
Tord Gustavsen Trio The Other Side

The Black Keys El Camino

The Tord Gustavsen album is gorgeous. Previously featured here it will remain one that I return to often. His playing is spare and spacey verging upon classical at many points through The Other Side. I will check out some of his earlier recordings and hope he turns up at Love Supreme one year.

I'm going through a John Martyn retrospective. Log #142 examined Martyn's first 6 albums. I've decided to extend this examination and revisit all of them. Glorious Fool is a "mid-period" Martyn album. I say mid period but, as is the case with all artists who started in the late 60s or early 70s, 1981 (when this came out) is actually chronologically still relatively early period of course, but thematically artists seem to go through a series of eras musically and these eras were stacked up closer to each other in the "olden days". So for young John he went through relatively short eras of folk, folk/acid, trip hop, jazz, and then a long period in the wilderness from the 80s onwards which you'd have to describe as easy listening. I'd say this was his last great album from his heyday before the decline set in. Anyway as I say a retrospective is on its way and there are some latter period surprises.

Finally a word on The Truckstop Honeymoon who are Americana/bluegrass duo Mike and Katie West. They've been knocking around for years and occasionally rock up at my local to play a set here in Brighton. If you ever get a chance to see them live go for it as they put on a blinding show and are hilarious entertainers to boot (think The Handsome Family on speed). Such a live experience rarely translates to a recording of course but their musicianship and songwriting skills are such that the albums don't suffer in comparison. Always on the money with politics and the current climate check out Got No Use (for a Gun) from their latest album:

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