Library Inspired

Today working at home I had the chance to listen to loads of old music. One album I feel had a big influence in my music “upbringing”; “Low Life” by New Order.

The big memory that this album triggers is of the local library where I lived when growing up. It was a fair size library but I wasn’t into books at that time; but the treasure it had in its bowels was a record library. Yes it was a department where they had lots of vinyl albums that could be borrowed just like a book. This album was one of the ones I borrow before buying it; it fact it is probably were I was first exposed to the albums New Order were creating at the time.

It has the typical unusual album sleeve that was common place for Factory records at the time. This one has a frosted, translucent sleeve that slid over the top of the normal cardboard record sleeve. I know once I eventually bought this album after the library version I treated it with great care not to rip it. In hindsight it was pretty impractical but I do miss the feel and spectacle of a big record sleeve.

The album has some great tracks all with the unique New Order sound; I do think this album cements New Order as very much an “album band” compared to other compatriots being more singles focused with the rest of an album full of filler tracks.

“Sunrise” is a good example as it’s a great track but would never do well as a single. It is very heavy guitar based like the old Joy Division music. A contrast to “Sub-Culture” which develops on the electro sound of their previous album but takes it to a pop style. Then tracks like “Sooner Than You Think” have that classic New Order sound of keyboards mashed with heavy bass overlaid with Barney’s vocals struggling to compete.

A Mystery Album

Today driving to work I listened to a mystery album; “A Short Album About Love” by The Divine Comedy.

I describe this album as a mystery because I have no recollection of why or when it was bought. It’s just always (since 1997) been there in the cupboard. My guess is we bought it on the back of the “Everyone Knows (Except You)” single which, at the time, was their most successful single. This single shows off the dry humour of The Divine Comedy lyrics.

The album is full of big sounding tracks as it was recorded with a 30 piece orchestrate that is used with great benefit. The lyrics and vocal perfectly complement the rich sound. I think Neil Hannon’s voice is brilliant and so unique.

The title sums up pretty accurately the motive behind the songs on the album. I don’t own an album that has a clearer title than this one. Apparently it was released to coincide with Valentine’s Day.

First of 2015

Today I listened to my first album released in 2015; “Matador” by Gaz Coombes.

I bought this after hearing some of the tracks on Spotify in one of their new music playlists. I have previously bought the single “One of These Days” by Gaz Coombes (actually titled Gaz Coombes Presents) so was already aware of his solo material. This track was particularly a house favourite at home.

For those that don’t know Gaz Coombes is the lead singer of Supergrass whom I have already posted an entry. I’ve always thought of Supergrass as the modern day equivalent of Madness. Three cheeky chaps that make friendly happy tunes.

However this solo work is very different. It has a real maturity and depth to the tracks compared to that earlier material. The track “Detroit” is my favourite on the album but there are plenty of other good ones. His vocals on a couple of the tracks are very similar to Thom Yorke; both come from Oxford so maybe it’s a local thing !!!

It is fair to say it is my favourite of the album so far this year; of course it is actually the only album from this year so far………but I think it will stay near the top of my list as the year progresses.

Live Music

A few weeks ago we went to watch Alt-J play at the O2 arena in London and saw this great band supporting them; Wolf Alice. They don’t have a full album out yet but do have a couple of EPs that handily are on Spotify “Blush” and “Creature Songs”.

So I had heard of Wolf Alice beforehand but to be honest hadn’t any idea what they sounded like. But I found that they make great guitar music and they were very good live. The music reminds me a bit of Lush with lots of heavy distorted guitar. It’s also has a similar sound to The Sundays from the nineties with the female vocalist. A couple of the tracks on “Blush” have a feel of The XX as well.

On the latest Creature Songs EP the stand out track is “Moaning Lisa Smile”; a track that should be played loud.

I guess one way online music has helped is with these smaller bands. So years ago if I had heard a band I liked at a gig I would have to find a record shop selling their album. That could be difficult if they were unknown. The alternative was to buy the dreaded cassette the band were selling at the gig themselves; that could be hit and miss with the quality. But now I was listening to the full back catalogue the day after the gig at home.

Sampling taken to the extreme

Today driving home from work I listened to a strange one hit wonder album “Since I Left You” by The Avalanches.

This album apparently reached number 8 in the UK charts but I have always considered it as being a bit obscure. What is pretty amazing about this album is a good friend of ours from university bought it for us as a present but she knows nothing about music. So either she is a secret follower of music or it was a total random guess.

The style is described as “Plunderphoncis” on Wikipedia which is music made up of many samples; hence the Plunder name. Apparently this album contains over 3000 samples which is pretty hard to imagine. Some of them are easily recognisable; “Stool Pigeon” by Kid Creole and the Coconuts is one I particularly recognised.

The tracks naturally flow into each other without gaps for virtually the whole album; making it a perfect driving album. Sandwiched in amongst the 18 tracks are the 2 big singles “Frontier Psychiatrist” and “Since I Left You”.

Years broken down

A break from album posts today with a playful look on my previous posts. I seem recently to have been playing a lot of albums released in 2014. This got me wondering if there was any trend in the albums I reviewed so I use the information from my Album List to build a chart.

It shows the number of albums per year of release. Obviously this isn’t the same as the year I bought the albums but I’ve assumed that anything after 1980 was purchased quite close to the release year. 1980 was the year I started buying music myself.

Release Year of Albums reviewed

What is interesting about this chart is it suggests my consumption of new music has increased with age. This was unexpected since I always assumed as we get old our tastes become more solidified; but this shows differently. There are a number of possible explanations for this:

I have more disposable income now so am willing to risk buying albums that previously I may have avoided.

Many of my earlier albums are on LP or cassette and I have not played them yet because they are harder to listen to. For example I know there are cassettes by “The Police” that I haven’t risked replaying yet.

The advent of buying music on line for instant download without going to the shop makes me buy more.

I’m having a mid-life crisis !!!!

Probably all of the above are true.

Something new

Last night out running I listened to “The Balcony” by Catfish and the Bottlemen.

First of all; top marks to an interesting and unique band name. Certainly stands out from the army of dull one word band names.

I had heard the single “Kathleen” on the radio and liked the sound of it. My wife tried to convince me that they sounded like “The Zutons” but I wasn’t convinced so bought the album to gauge the likeness. Well they are not much like The Zutons but it’s still a reasonable listen but still not a bad album. I would describe them as traditional indie.

Also it has an interesting album cover design; I’m sure it’s trying to portray a hidden message. It’s lost on me.

Has this album got better over time?

An album from way back in the past today “The Score” by the Fugees.

I’ve already posted a few times about revisiting old albums but today’s choice is something on a different level. This was an impulse purchase years ago and as a result it has not been played since the year of it’s release, 1996. In my mind I have always not liked this album hence adding to the slim chance of it being played every again. However I’m running short of CDs that I haven’t covered so it had to be played.

But what a surprise as I loved listening to it this morning. I’ve no idea why I thought it wasn’t liked. It deserves to be cranked up loud to get the great deep bass thumping. There are some brilliant tracks. “Ready or Not” is probably the track that most people have heard before. It has a great feel to it, sort of very pensive and foreboding. Then there are tracks like “How Many Mics” where the three of them seem so in time with their rapping; just following on naturally from each other.

The album does have some strange elements; there are a few talking sections that play out some scenes. In a similar way to the classic “Three Feet High and Rising” by De La Soul. However whilst the latter is full of humour, “The Score” is quite hard hitting. The strangest is the scene in the Chinese take away at the end of track 5.

The album is generally pretty hard hitting. It’s full of swearing and I’m not sure I would want to listen to it with the kids around; although they probably hear just as bad at school. Also it is littered with the ‘N-word’. I’m not sure how this album would go down today with these lyrics, maybe it wouldn’t even be made these days.

The Fugees just seemed to appear out of nowhere and to become a worldwide success and then as quickly as they appeared they just disappeared. Of course the members have gone onto quite different end results with Lauryn Hill serving time in prison for tax evasion and Wyclef attempting to become president of Haiti.

A cold night

Last night out running I had the little purple one with me; Prince with his classic “Sign o’ the Times“.

I haven’t posted much about running recently; not because I’ve not been out but because I’ve exhausted the music on my iPod. Everything that is on the iPod I have already blogged. I uploaded this album over the weekend when I had a few minutes.

In fact In have been pushing up my weekly mileage in preparation for a half marathon next month. Last year when I did this race I found it very hard, so this year I am concentrating on going in to it feeling strong. Normally I’m squeezing in a 10+ mile run during the weekday evenings but last night just couldn’t find the time. It was pretty freezing last night; round about zero degrees centigrade. However there were quite a few fellow runners out last night; all like me covered up with hats, gloves and tights. Once you get warmed up there is certainly a buzz running in very cold weather.

“Sign o’ the Times” has quite a wide mixture of tracks. It’s a bit of a sprawling mess in a way but because it’s Prince he sort of pulls it off. The title track is undoubtedly the best of the collection with it’s very catchy rhythm and hard hitting lyrics. Another Prince album were he seems to play nearly all the instruments.

All this pales into insignificant when considering the one single track, “U Got The Look”. Sheena Easton? What the hell was going on there? I remember seeing the video and thinking “that really is Sheena Easton from the hit ‘9 to 5′”. It must go down as one of the most unexpected collaborations ever.

January is over already

Well January seemed to pass very quickly, I can’t believe it’s February already. January was pretty busy and so I didn’t manage many posts. Today’s choice is the last of the Christmas present butch; “Jungle” by Jungle.

So Jungle are one of those collectives of musicians and artists that perform together. Different tracks, different members.

This is my wife’s album so I had only knew one of the tracks “Busy Earnin'”. This was the main single and I’d heard it a bit on the radio. The genre is classified as Modern Soul. I can’t say it really did anything for me. There was something about it that I found a bit dull.