Log #158 - Plant Returns To His Roots

The Decemberists Picaresque

 Robert Plant Band Of Joy

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss Raising Sand

Belle and Sebastian If You're Feeling Sinister

Palace Brothers Palace Brothers (Days In The Wake)

Felice Brothers Yonder Is The Clock

Listening back now it is difficult to understand why Belle and Sebastian became such indie media darlings. If You're Feeling Sinister is pleasant enough acoustic whimsy which may have been fresh and original at the time (1996) but it's pretty lightweight stuff - a lightweight that is giving further airiness by simple nursery rhyme like melodies, that are echoed by trumpet on several tracks, and lead singer Stuart Murdoch's fey vocals. 

I'd pass over this much admired album for the stronger (albeit less well received) follow up, The Boy With The Arab Strap. 

More brothers this week - the Palace Bros joining the Felices. This Palace Brothers album actually being a solo acoustic guitar album pretty much from one Will Oldham, better known as Bonnie Prince Billy, plus real brothers Ned and Paul. Also slight and very short, like a few of his albums actually, but there's always quality with Oldham and I don't think I've ever heard a bad album from him: An artist of whom I could invest in many other albums, with confidence of not being disappointed. My personal favourite to date?: Lie Down In The Light.

Continuing to enjoy Picaresque. Having dipped into some other albums from the boys and girls I do conclude, as my friend told me, they all sound very different. This one shows The Decemberists' indie folk side, but I've also heard the band branch out into heavy rock, synth pop and even prog - a multi talented band. I will investigate further albums and examine whether they can really pull off these multiple styles. I suspect Picaresque will remain a favourite and probably their default sound (and I'm pleased I started here).

When listening to Robert Plant's solo music it is tempting to compare it to Led Zeppelin - a comparison Plant himself has been keen to distant himself from via ventures into different styles and collaborations with various world artists (his alternative takes on some classic Zeppelin tunes met with mixed reactions from fans). He has also reportedly been the sticking point in any attempts to reform the band, save for the famous O2 gig way back in 2007 now. However the voice is still strong and still his and particularly when playing with a rock band the comparisons are inevitable. When I hear a track I therefore find myself thinking where would this sit in the pantheon of Led Zep music? Which album would it suit, and indeed would it have been good enough to make any of the albums?

Would any Plant solo music make it on to a Led Zeppelin album?

The answer to the last question is on the whole positive. In both of the albums featured here there are songs that would have been good enough for the mighty Zep - although note that this whole premise is off the mark as both albums consist entirely of covers! Perhaps more valid to say the best performances or tracks are the equal of some Led Zeppelin tracks. 

His Band of Joy project is probably Plant's most deliberate and closest approach to past glories (save for the Page/Plant reunions in the 90s).

Band of Joy were originally formed in Birmingham in 1965 with John Bonham (and Dave Pegg, later of Fairport Convention) before disbanding in 1968 without recording any albums (two albums were released by a new version of the band, without either of their Led Zeppelin members, in the late 70s and early 80s). Then Plant himself revived the band's name again in 2010 for this album and a tour, albeit without any of his original colleagues.

The preceding country rock Raising Sand album with Alison Krauss came out in 2007 just before the fabled Zeppelin gig. Critically acclaimed it went on to pick up five Grammys including Album Of The Year for 2009.

With a preponderance of Nashville session players in Band of Joy's ranks the expectation was for a follow up (further sessions with Krauss herself were apparently on the cards but never came to pass).  There are indeed some up beat light touch R&B / country tinged tracks favoured by the mighty Zep themselves in later albums, but generally the album has an intense depth of distorted grungy guitars. There are a even a couple of covers from low-fi Minnestota rockers Low - Silver Rider is a magnificent slow burner which could have come off Neil Young's Zuma album:

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Log #157 - Another Indie Folk Rock Band - Eddy Hears The Decemberists For The First Time

Two exciting new entries this week in The Decemberists and The Felice Brothers, plus a return to two artists I tend to group together for some reason although their albums are not necessarily similar: Scott Matthews and James Morrison. Bringing up the rear we take a listen to John Legend's debut album and revisit a perennial favourite - Gram Parson's two on one solo collection GP/Grievous Angel.

The Decemberists Picaresque

 Scott Matthews Passing Stranger

Gram Parsons GP/Grievous Angel
John Legend Get Lifted

James Morrison Undisclosed

Felice Brothers Yonder Is The Clock

Very grateful for the introduction to the The Decemberists. A friend told me they were his favourite band. I asked which album was the best to get (there are 8) and he said "all of them". I don't get all of anybody these days (once in the past I would collect everything by one artist but nowadays, like reading books, there is only so much time so I try and limit myself to the best). 

Anyway after a little bit of perfunctory investigation I decided to go for the band's third album Picaresque and what a stonker it is - packed to the hilt with dramatic songs of cow punk and indie folk - a mash of Fairport Convention, The Waterboys, Belle and Sebastian, REM, Tom Waits, The Tiger Lillies and The Felice Brothers.

Hear The Decemberists at their most theatrical here:

I won't be getting all 8 but can see me investing in at least half of them.

It's a short leap from The Decemberists to the fantastic Felice Brothers. There are many similarities - lyrical story based songs, fiddles and accordions, ramshackle arrangements, and a charismatic front man with a voice of gravel. If I was pushed to highlight a difference I'd say The Felice Brothers are more roughly hewn diamonds.

Yonder Is The Clock (already their 6th as early as 2009) is another excellent album from the Felice Brothers' catalogue. There are plenty of down tempo ballads on this album but the brothers never fail to serve up a crowd pleasing stomp or two. Run Chicken Run fulfilling that role here:

Chickens get no life after death! Who knew?

Gram Parsons' two solo albums of melodic love songs and ballads are conveniently collected on this 2-CD set. Parsons almost invented country rock and the genre is amply demonstrated throughout these 20 tracks which maintain a remarkable standard throughout. For CD collectors this edition is essential for any rock fan, along with Capt. Beefheart's Spotlight Kid/Clear Spot 2-CD edition.

Great singers both, James Morrison and Scott Matthews. The former a bit more souly and the latter more rocky. Two excellent albums that I return to fairly frequently.

Lastly this week comes John Legend's 2004 debut album Get Lifted. As explained in Log #155 I was alerted to Legend through a track in the Tarrantino film Django Unchained, and purchased this record and the follow up Once Again. The latter record grew on me. This one not so much to date. It has a more gospel leaning. Neither records quite reach the peaks of the Django track Who Did That To You?

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Log #156 - Whole Lotta Led Zep

Mouse On Mars Vulvaland

 Emeralds Does It Look Like I'm Here

Cluster Zuckerzeit

Cluster II

John Legend Once Again

Led Zeppelin II

Just the one survivor from last week's log #155: John Legend's growing album Once Again. Growing in this context meaning it's a grower on me.

The early chop fell on Beirut to whom I had promised to give more time but it only confirmed initial impressions: I don't like the singing and don't really like the instrumentation either to be honest (has a ukulele ever made it in rock?); so that's probably it for me and Beirut.

Feed the flowers, cut the weeds. 

I don't really get Wilco either. I do love Americana and Alt-Country but don't appreciate Wilco that much. Again, maybe it's the singing? Or maybe the persistent glum mood. As well as Yankee Hotel Whatsit I have their equally revered Being There double album which will get a spin one of these days.

Once Again Again From John Legend

As for last week's soul boys Anthony Hamilton, and John Legend in particular, I really started to enjoy their albums. The John Legend has some very catchy tunes and even some moments of raw Hendrix like guitar (although Legend's main instrument is the piano as on this lovely tune below). 

Let's go to the park

I wanna kiss you underneath the stars

Maybe we'll go too far

We just don't care

What is PDA (the name of the above track) anyway? It took me a while to figure. In this context it's not "pathological demand avoidance" or a "personal delivery assistant" but a "public display of affection".

Who is the guitarist elsewhere on the album - I assume it's not Legend (real name Stephens)? I can't find out (and not worth trying to read CD inserts is it?).

For this sort of super smooth mega produced soul music the mood and timing has to be right and the underlying songs have to be good enough to carry it off and they are on the whole in Once Again.

Cluster Leap

On to the new entries. Well not really new. As recent readers will have noticed I've been on a major Cluster trip for a month or two now and two of their albums return for further assessment. So this Sunday we have Cluster no. II and the follow up Zuckerzeit. Both excellent, both different. 

Whole Lotta Led Zep 

Why Led Zeppelin now? Well, you know, it's just great stuff and sometimes you just need to rock out. A more specific reason is I heard Whole Lotta Love on the car radio during the week and wow, what a track. I remember hearing it for the first time (even just the curtailed Top Of The Pops version) and it was everything I wanted in rock music. I purchased the live album The Song Remains The Same as it had a 15 minute version of Whole Lotta Love on it, but actually it disappointed. You really did need Led Zep II. 

So my first experiences of Led Zeppelin and Whole Lotta Love would have been around 1980. By then they were pretty much defunct (calling it a sad day after John Bonham died in September 1980, just two months before John Lennon) (Lennon was 40, Bonham just 32). 

I can't remember the order I purchased the Led Zep albums but I guess it would have been something like The Song Remains The Same, II, IV, III, Houses Of The Holy, Physical Graffiti, I, Presence, In Through The Out Door, Coda. Pretty exciting stuff even 10 years after the event but imagine hearing Whole Lotta Love and II in October 1969 on its original release. It must have blown a lot of people's minds.

Sometimes I realise I have 2 of the same albums in my collection. This is the case with Physical Graffiti, not clever...

The cover for Led Zep II was designed by David Juniper, an art school colleague of Jimmy Page's. He took an old German WW1 photo of the Red Baron's Flying Division and superimposed faces of the band and various members of their entourage including manager Peter Grant. The cover also allegedly includes Neil Armstrong and Miles Davis but this is debatable as the faces are heavily disguised. 

Mouse On Mars and The Emeralds

The Mouse On Mars album Vulvaland, their debut, is excellent powerful electronica with heavy beats and bass, and sprinklings of lush ambience too. It's scarcely believable this is music from 1994. The Emeralds album has all the elements I love but somehow doesn't quite float my boat (just yet) in the same way.

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Album Review - Neil Young's Prairie Wind

Old age isn't making Neil Young any easier to second guess, but the personal traumas of the last couple of years (death of his father and a brain aneurysm) certainly seem to have focussed the wayward canuck again. Whereas 2003's Greendale gave us woolly polemic wrapped in dreary arrangements, Prairie Wind gives us sweet pedal steel-driven songs and the plush sheen of Nashville's finest (Spooner Oldham, Ben Keith etc.) effectively completing his acoustic Harvest trilogy.

It's an album about looking back, coming to terms with mortality (Falling Off The Face Of The Earth, When God Made Me) and reflecting on childhood roots (Prairie Wind). While the arrangements often seem cloying, especially in the vocal accompaniment, the songs at least return to the simple acoustic heartland that lies at the centre of some of Young's best work. They're not unlike the rolling prairies he sings of. Thankfully, after ten years it sounds like Neil's come home again.


A creative commons creation by Chris Jones @ http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/chp2/

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