Better late than never

So, was 35 t'other day. Clearly not cool.

Have just discovered Kanye West, thanks to Kate. So def. not cool at all. Would have been cool in about 2003. But anyway, on 23rd Nov 2009 I wrote some stuff about albums. Well, clearly I missed The College Dropout

Wow. Quite incredible. Buy it.

Albums you don't own, Episode 13 - Can't Buy A Thrill

Steely Dan? The band that put the "middle" in MOR? I mean, seriously dude, this is Jazz-Rock for goodness sakes! You cannot be serious!

Can't Buy a Thrill, is the first, and in my humble, best Steely Dan album. Rolling Stone liked it so much they listed in as the #238th best of all time, though I'd place it even higher than that.

Despite featuring 13 different musicians, and a diverse range of instruments (including an electric sitar, and flugelhorn), I think it works best of all the Steely Dan albums because of its musical simplicity. Jazz influences are clearly present, but not overplayed. Add some great lyrics and great stories - Kings, Turn That Heartbeat Over Again, Brooklyn (Owes The Charmer Over Me) - and some fantastic perfomances, particularly on Reelin' In The Years, and you have one mighty fine album. Kate suggests that Dirty Work is the best song here, and I won't disagree with her. And of course, you need something anthemic to sing along to in the bath. Midnight Cruiser should suit your tastes perfectly sir.

I think it gets better and better the more you listen to it, and should grace absolutely any record collection.

No Man Is An Archipelago

Hello

British Sea Power's next Album is a soundtrack to a documentary that was recorded 76 years ago. Odd.

The link, aside from the fact that I like British Sea Power, to this blog, is that Kate & I have just got back from a splendid weekend on the Isle of Wight. Usual suspects attended. 10 units of alcohol per drinker per night were successfully consumed.

"But hey!", you cry, "you haven't posted for a month and this is the best news you can offer?"

Well, no. There is news of a very significant nature. Indeed, the very significance of this news is more significant than any previous news, even news from May of last year. To whit, Kate & I are expecting a baby, in September. Which is considerably more of a hassle for Kate than it is for me. Mumsnet might give you an idea of the sort of hassle that can occur. I am glossing over the details.

I'm not sure I can top that, so I'll sign off here.

Albums you don't own, Episode 2 : Super Furry Animals "Rings around the world"

Certain records are, to me, evocative of a certain time and place. I suspect they evoke feelings of a different time and place in you. I mean, if we all got the feeling of my slightly damp student room in Jericho when we listened to "Bosanova" by Pixies, it would be weird.

It turns out, as I stick on SFA's "Rings around the world" that it evokes the feeling of living in Philadelphia. After some consideration I have come to the conclusion that this is because I bought it while living in Philadelphia. And listened to it in Philadelphia. And saw SFA on tour, playing music from the album, in Philadelphia. That, as they say, would be it then.

It's a stonking album, the Furreez strongest, I think (though I haven't yet heard Mwng). Lacking the descriptive talents of music journalists, I can only state that while the album doesn't have (to me) any tracks that stand out individually, the construct is a marvelous, symphonic marvel. It's quite unlike anything else in my record collection, and I think it's interesting that while Indie and Britpop seemed to have reached a dead-end by 2001, SFA came out with something completely from leftfield that left everyone else looking confused. And the videos were great too.

If ya don't have it, buy it. Or at least borrow my copy.

Joy of Six

Sign this. www.petition.fm/petitions/6musicasiannet/1000/

Or don't.

Albums I don't own : Episode one

Kate's records have turned up. There's some incredible stuff here which I'm going to try and extract into digital format using our new turntable. Highlights include

• Flanders and Swann, "At the drop of a hat" and "At the drop of another hat"
• Linda and Paul McCartney, "Ram"
• Elvis Costello and the Attractions, "My Aim is true", "Armed Forces" & "Get Happy!" plus "Almost Blue", his C&W album
  
• various Bob Dylan, Kate Bush and Steely Dan albums
• plus "Lazarus" by the Boo Radleys on EP and a 45 of "The King of Rock 'n' Roll" by Prefab Sprout!

Much fun to be had.

Following on from an earlier conversation (in the real world)

10 Albums from the last decade better than "Is this it" by The Strokes.

1. "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" - The Flaming Lips
   
2. "The Decline of British Sea Power" - British Sea Power
   
3. "Elephant" - The White Stripes
   
4. "Rings Around the World" - SFA
5. "Through the windowpane" - Guillemots
6. "Fleet Foxes" - Fleet Foxes
7. "Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!" - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
8. "Stories from the city, Stories from the sea" - PJ Harvey
9. "Back to Black" - Amy Winehouse
10. "The Magic Numbers" - The Magic Numbers
    

and I didn't even have to mention Franz Ferdinand...

Unearthed

Just rediscovered "Rings around the world" by SFA. I'd forgotten just how dashed good it is.

Buy it. In fact, by their entire back-catalogue. Now. Even the one entirely in Welsh.

Albums you don't own : Episode One, Stereolab "Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements"

Stereolab at perhaps their most uncompromising. Or raw. Perhaps I mean raw. Packed, of course, with the usual, gorgous Laetitia Sadier driven vocal harmonies but here they compete against massive layers of sound. Crunchy guitars. Thumpy base. Weird feedback shit and distorted comptuters. And, of course, this being Stereolab, lots of moog.

At 18:08 Jenny Ondioline comes in as comfortably the longest Stereolab track I own but at 49 characters the title of the album itself is only the second longest, the record held by "Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night". But whereas in there, and in other S. albums, the mometum is driven by synths and inventive percusion, Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements it's the guitar that takes the lead, with the moog playing catch up. This is the character that gives the album a more abrasive edge than subsequent, more stylistic, S. efforts. and just as Lock-Groove Lullaby, the final track, is about to lull you off to sleep, it takes a left turn and you wake up with a bang.

Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements brash, bold and agressive, where even the more melodic moments such as "Pack Yr Romatic Mind" have sudden, unexpected Grungy guitar riffs. This was 1993, after all. But this is record wasn't thrown together by 3 kids in garage. Not even a double garage. There are layers here. Wall of sound? This is a Berlin Wall of sound. Try listening to it with sub-standard headphones. Make's you're brain's leek out of you're ear's.

I may have "The following signal is recorded equally on both channels but is out-of-phase" on my gravestone, just for the pub quiz question.

We love life

There's a drippingly sentiment, nostalgic tune called 'Wickerman' on the Pulp album 'We love life'. It's all about going home to Sheffield and following the river.

I feel like that (well, not Sheffield, obviously, since I never lived there) quite a lot of the time. Nostalgia seems to me to be a natural state of mind. I think I first noticed it when I moved to Philadelphia in 2001.

It's quite ridiculous. I even get nostalgic for Leeds, and I really didn't like Leeds very much.

Tsk.

What am I listening to?

Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band

Sidewalk Dances by Moondog (arranged by Joanna MacGregor)

Blue by Joni Mitchell