It's fair to say bands with stupid names have to try that little bit harder to make any impression on me. In the case of Dogs Die In Hot Cars, the turning point came with hearing a fantastic song called Somewhat off The Way on a compilation CD. Sure enough, further investigation into the band's debut album Please Describe Yourself showed a pop band very much in touch with early-80s new-wavers like XTC, best shown on tunes like the brilliant Pastimes & Lifestyles. They seemingly vanished soon after, but better to leave one brilliant album as a legacy than slowly [...]
It seems like only five minutes ago Hope & Social released Architect Of This Church , but they're back with another album already. I could swear there was no mention of it when I interviewed them at the start of the year. As with Architect, April can be downloaded for whatever you want to pay, and while not as strong as its predecessor, if you've liked any of their previous work either under the name Hope & Social or Four Day Hombre , there'll be something [...]
Some records have more expectations attached to them than others, and this year so far hasn't particularly been full of consistently good releases. I was hugely looking forward to the latest Josh Rouse and Rufus Wainwright albums, and while each has its moments, they're not albums that are finding themselves on the stereo too often. The really big one for me will be the new Crowded House album in June - Neil Finn hasn't let me down yet so I'm keeping my fingers crossed! One other album I now have high hopes for is the debut from [...]
Last weekend's Record Store Day reminded me of numerous trips to Minus Zero in London (which I read in the Guardian might sadly be on its last legs). A fantastic little shop, aside from an incredible selection of records and CDs, its key success lay with incredible knowledgeable staff. Reeling off a list of favoured artists to the guy behind the counter, he'd usually come back with a recommendation that turned out to be a winner. Even in these early days of Spotify, the idea of taking a chance on something unheard and splashing out a [...]
There can't be too many songs from the 80s I had on vinyl that I haven't managed to track down on MP3. Once in a while though I'm reminded of something I'd completely forgotten about, and the rush of nostalgia is a powerful thing. Waterfront were quite a forgettable late-80s pop duo who traded in the same kind of stuff as Johnny Hates Jazz. I remember the excitement of finding a 7" box set of their Broken Arrow single (complete with postcards and badge, naturally) at a car boot sale when I was about 12 or 13. Nature Of Love [...]
If you recognise the guy above, you probably grew up in the 80s. The Raccoons was almost certainly the greatest cartoon of the decade, although not one that seems to get much retro love nowadays. But aside from being a great show, it had a theme tune that continually pops up on any 80s compilations I put together. Not an obvious kids' cartoon theme tune ("Come with us / I see passion in your eyes"???), Run With Us by Lisa Lougheed is a power-pop masterpiece. MP3: Lisa Lougheed - Run With Us
I went to see Josh Rouse play in Manchester last week, a fantastic gig despite his new stuff still taking its time to sink in. A healthy selection of classics helped, especially the encore of Sparrows Over Birmingham, 1972 and It's The Nighttime. An extra bonus was a fantastic choice of support act. Alondra Bentley is based in Spain, but sings in English, with a speaking voice recalling Bjork and a singing voice somewhere between Charlotte Gainsbourg and Nerina Pallot. Sharing band members with Josh Rouse, she gave a great performance, cute and quirky [...]
Inspired by Laura Barton's glowing comments on the new Laura Marling album , I had a listen, thinking it'd be very much up my street. Turns out it's not, and it got me wondering whether I *think* I like folk music more than I actually do. Or is it just that, with the exception of one or two songs, the album on the whole just doesn't appeal to me melodically? I don't have a lot of folk music in my music collection, although I was recently sent some Fairport Convention which I've been enjoying a [...]
Haven't got too much to say about Stellar , although listening to anything off their fantastic debut Mix takes me right back to my Uni days. It was a result of one of those convoluted connections that I'd probably never take a chance on now. As a big Crowded House fan, I'd seek out any spurious link that might deliver something along similar lines. I chanced upon a single by Bic Runga that CH bassist Nick Seymour might have had something to do with. Quickly becoming enamoured with Bic's debut album Drive, I then moved onto... her [...]
I was introduced to the work of Jason Falkner around 2002, and his first two albums completely blew me away. 1999's Can You Still Feel in particular is a genuine pop classic. For whatever reason, he remained pretty much under the radar for most of the last decade, his third full-length record getting a Japanese release in 2007 (and only just getting a US release around now). That record, I'm OK You're OK, is patchy at best - a huge shame, given the long wait. Saying that though, in 2004 he put out an absolutely sublime 5-song EP, [...]
If you're in or around Leeds, the new issue of the free music mag Vibrations is now out (in music shops, pubs, and various other locations). Among other things, it has my feature on Hope & Social . If you know of the band at all, it'll more than likely be from their previous incarnation, Four Day Hombre , who released an album a few years ago in a blaze of next-big-thing press, but which ultimately failed to make much of a splash. A change in outlook later and they reappeared as [...]
I went to see Nik Kershaw play a solo acoustic show in Holmfirth a week or so back, and was reminded yet again of what a brilliant songwriter he is. There were evidently people there who only wanted to hear the classic hits, proceeding to talk through everything else. For me, his most consistent work emerged with his comeback in 1999 with the 15 Minutes album, but I guess that one passed most people by. The show was a nice mix of old and more recent, the biggest surprises of the night being the inclusion of Faces and Human Racing [...]
Embrace's first album was a big player in soundtracking my first year of Uni, bombastic, epic songs like Come Back To What You Know making their mark in those years straight after Britpop. The couple of albums that followed got slowly weaker, to the point that when they returned in 2004 with Out Of Nothing , hopes weren't high. Fortunately it turned out to be a career peak, full of big guitars and immense tunes, of which Someday is a fine example. MP3: Embrace - Someday [...]
A little bit of obscure long-out-of-print, super-fey 60s baroque pop this week, with Tinsel & Ivy from the self-titled 1969 album by Left Banke off-shoot Montage. I randomly found this in a record shop on Bleecker Street in New York, which was a nice surprise (never having seen anything Left Banke-related in any shop ever). By no means the most macho song in existence, but what a tune! MP3: Montage - Tinsel & Ivy Wikipedia: The Left Banke
Listening to Civil Twilight's 'Human' put me in the mood for further piano balladry, which I've stretched out into a very tasty compilation CD for the car, full of (mostly morose) piano/voice songs (with a little extra accompaniment here and there). Songs with this arrangement have always been hugely appealing to me - not sure why, just something about a well-played piano being a suitable setting for 4 minutes of maudlin beauty. Good examples? How about Number Crunch by Mike Viola, My Blue Manhattan by Ryan Adams, Only In The Movies by David Mead, NY by Frida Hyvonen, Flint (For [...]
Gotta say, I'm a sucker for a bit of melancholy, particularly when it's done by the likes of Leaves or Coldplay. In that vein, some of the stuff on the new album by Civil Twilight has really hit home. My pick would be Human, an utterly gorgeous piano ballad with a keening vocal that, while a more cynical soul might suggest it's been designed by committee to soundtrack death scenes in Grey's Anatomy, has more than enough emotional weight to stand on its own two feet. Other tunes on the album, like [...]
It's fair to say my knowledge of 60s girl pop acts hasn't previously stretched much further than the usual Motown suspects and a healthy selection of work by the late and very great Dusty Springfield. Hurrah then for the Eclipse label's 'The Girls Are At It Again: UK Beat Girls 1964-1969', which lays out 20 joyous pop obscurities on one disc. Some of the names are familiar (Diana Dors, Kiki Dee), but mostly these are presumably one- or indeed no-hit-wonders. Pick of the bunch is Love Made A Fool Of Me by the Carolines. It's a cracking tune, [...]
Neil Finn is a deity of the highest order, so any decision he makes is likely to be a good one. Like, reforming Crowded House after a decade apart. In the meantime, he'd put out a couple of fantastic solo albums and an even better one with brother Tim, so creatively speaking it's not as though he needed to kickstart the old band. But he did, and 2007's Time On Earth was a masterpiece. My personal favourite track isn't one that got a lot of love in reviews, and it's not one you often hear even hardcore fans discussing, but [...]
Obviously, phrases like 'lost classic' and 'underrated masterpiece' are batted around like confetti nowadays (and I guiltily hold my hand up as quickly as anyone), but the fact that the Zombies' Odessey & Oracle isn't as revered as work by contemporaries like the Beatles really is baffling. The story behind its recording and release is a good one ( the wikipedia account is well worth reading) and points to reasons why it wasn't the success it might have been, but to me, it might have something to do with the fact the record is so, [...]
If I had to pick one artist who stood head and shoulders above everyone else in the last decade, it would probably be Josh Rouse. Not only did he release a heck of a lot of records (by my reckoning there were 6 albums and a handful of EPs), but at least four of those were truly magnificent. The four in question are the run started by 2003's epic '1972', through 'Nashville', 'Subtitulo' and 'Country Mouse City House'. Each of those contains life-affirming pop songs, but '1972' edges it. In fact, if I were making a list of my absolutely [...]
On The Trail Of The Great
Lana Del Rey - Without You (Kill Paris Remix) [Dubstep]
Download: James Blake Live Album (Unofficial)
Miike Snow - “Paddling Out” Jacques Lu Cont Remix (MP3 Stream)
Iron & Wine and Patty Griffin
New single from Gemini Club
