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| Track list: 1. Whirlwind In D Minor 2. Visit From The Dead Dog 3. You Only Call Me When You're Drunk 4. The Last Cigarette 5. Shadowboxing 6. Late Night Partner 7. Revolution In The Heart 8. Until Tomorrow Then 9. Scatterbraine 10. Rain On The Pretty Ones 11. The Pristine Claw 12. I Am The Drug 13. Braille 14. Good Friends Are Hard To Find Running time: 54 minutes Released: 2006 |
It has been a week since I posted - not a case of not having the time, more not having the right frame of mind. Time enough to need to force this one or risk losing the drive.
Ed Harcourt. For a time he was a real favourite and I am still very keen on the odd song here and there, but in general I found the quality of his output to deteriorate album by album. This is not the last of his albums that I have but it probably should have been. Looking at the track list, it starts strong and then drops off markedly into the sort of nothing songs he became prone to. Or so my impression is to begin with.
I love the hook in the opening track, and whilst I am less keen on what goes on around it until we hit the chorus it is enough to engage. The more audible vocal on the chorus makes it work in a way the ethereal nature of the signing in the verses does not quite match. The outro loses the plot a bit, subsuming what was good about the song to a noisy presence that, for me, adds nothing. Visit From the Dead Dog is the one song from the listing that I recognised immediately as a favourite. It's a strange title and a strange tale but the vocal performance harks back to the Ed Harcourt I first got interested in, the melody is accessible and the arrangement comes together nicely - its a lazily lovely song: never demanding, just supplying. It harks back in another way too - the trumpet; I went through a period in the late 90s, early 2000s of really liking the use of a trumpet in "pop" music and Harcourt's work with (I think) Hadrian Garrard was one of the drivers for that.
The tone turns maudlin now, slower and more orchestral initially, I recall this song as having a horrid end - chanting the title over and over. I wonder if I am conflating it with something else as what I hear now does not at all match my recollection of You Only Call Me When You're Drunk. In fact it puts me in mind of a TV show, orchestral, slightly sad. Oh, no... I was right. It goes harebrained and scattershot, a sonic mess that is really not pleasant. At least on the bright side my memory (so often exposed as fraud in these pages) is proved correct for one, and thus not wholly useless! The maudlin returns and this is the abiding emotional association I hold with The Beautiful Lie. As someone who has never smoked it takes a lot to make me care about cigarettes and this song does not manage it either, especially when Harcourt's voice goes all strained in places - like the perfect embodiment of my disillusionment with his later works.
My thoughts turn away from Ed Harcourt and to Fiona Apple because I cannot see the title "Shadowboxing" without thinking of Shadowboxer, which is a vastly more compelling track. This one is jingly percussion and muted melodies. The delivery of the chorus is pretty good and saves the song from being a complete waste, but all it has really served to do is make me wish I was listening to Tidal instead. That won't be for several years though - not in this context anyway. So why have I not been able todo any more posting this week? Honestly I am not sure; going back to work after a week off was not particularly stressful, but I did end last weekend feeling that I had not done enough with my time. Being busy Monday through Wednesday evenings did not help, and the drive to come here to write and listen simply did not appeal on Thursday, when I was writing up game notes instead, or Friday when I deigned to shoot digital tanks. I have decided to ditch the Bloodbowl league for the time being though; stresses of scheduling are better avoided now I am GMing again, and a terrible final game left me cursing the overly dicey nature of it. That happens every now and again and the tanking has a similar problem. Both together is a recipe for stupid frustration and misplaced anger so only one persists.
Another song drifted by whilst I was whittering on there, the sort of nothing tune that Harcourt seems to have drifted toward over his career, but there is something more palatable playing now as we hit half way through. Unfortunately I dislike the chorus and bridge that follow - the composition and arrangement toward the start of Revolution in the Heart is great, but the harmonies in the singing and the devolution into "shanananana" that follows is a terrible progression. Time for an execution of the track, I feel. Spooky black and white movie music: that is what Until Tomorrow Then feels like - but somehow it works. A fuzzy not-quite jazzy arrangement and a pained but controlled vocal which is charged in the chorus to the point of desperation... its really well done. Maudlin but not depressing, hard to listen to but not unpleasant and above all pretty darn evocative. I can just see those 1930s cityscapes and old cars, downbeat bars and femmes fatales.
Unfortunately the jumpy and inconsistent nature of this album which allows for such interesting little tracks is the same nature which produces awful songs like Scatterbraine. It is, I think, Harcourt's career in microcosm; capable of genius but pulled in so many directions that the output suffers for it. This was true even on Here Be Monsters and Maplewood, but less so. Thankfully Scatterbraine is sandwiched by two of the better examples as Rain on the Pretty Ones is also nicely crafted, tugging at the heartstrings in a way that some of the earlier tracks tried to do unsuccessfully.
Hmm The Pristine Claw was not a name I associated with anything, but when the song starts it is immediately recognisable and it is one I rather like. It is a very simple string melody and a very softly sung lyric but unlike some such songs it trades on its simplicity for good effect. Tonally speaking Harcourt is all over the place on this disc. It is not a new sort of inconsistency but it is a source of frustration both from the standpoint of wanting something more cohesive to write about and tie together but also from the perspective of jumping from mood to mood along with the changes of tempo and life when consuming it. He can, however, be beautifully eloquent at times, very effective at pulling you around emotionally. Braille is a fine example of this, and again trades off the aural equivalent of soft focus in the voice recording. It belies my preconception that the album drifted out to nothing but providing a track that leaves you feeling like you have nothing. It is crafted to make you feel empty, lost, bereft... well, probably not, but such is the skill with which the song has been put together that it really had an impact on me hearing it now. It is a glorious track that I had never appreciated before. The final song plays on similar emotions but not nearly so well - the playing, the singing, the arrangement... the same triggers are present but they just will not pull. This does end up the nothing song I expected and even the trumpet cannot save it.
So I now have to pick over the track list and spit out the casualties. I thought I would be removing more that I will delete in actual fact, but actually it comes out to just over half the tracks being jettisoned even so. Many of them not bad (only 2 were actually unpleasant), but simply not good enough for me to want to listen to again given the wide array of other things I could be hearing.
I will try not to make it a week before the next post; if I got into that habit, I would never finish.
Ed Harcourt. For a time he was a real favourite and I am still very keen on the odd song here and there, but in general I found the quality of his output to deteriorate album by album. This is not the last of his albums that I have but it probably should have been. Looking at the track list, it starts strong and then drops off markedly into the sort of nothing songs he became prone to. Or so my impression is to begin with.
I love the hook in the opening track, and whilst I am less keen on what goes on around it until we hit the chorus it is enough to engage. The more audible vocal on the chorus makes it work in a way the ethereal nature of the signing in the verses does not quite match. The outro loses the plot a bit, subsuming what was good about the song to a noisy presence that, for me, adds nothing. Visit From the Dead Dog is the one song from the listing that I recognised immediately as a favourite. It's a strange title and a strange tale but the vocal performance harks back to the Ed Harcourt I first got interested in, the melody is accessible and the arrangement comes together nicely - its a lazily lovely song: never demanding, just supplying. It harks back in another way too - the trumpet; I went through a period in the late 90s, early 2000s of really liking the use of a trumpet in "pop" music and Harcourt's work with (I think) Hadrian Garrard was one of the drivers for that.
The tone turns maudlin now, slower and more orchestral initially, I recall this song as having a horrid end - chanting the title over and over. I wonder if I am conflating it with something else as what I hear now does not at all match my recollection of You Only Call Me When You're Drunk. In fact it puts me in mind of a TV show, orchestral, slightly sad. Oh, no... I was right. It goes harebrained and scattershot, a sonic mess that is really not pleasant. At least on the bright side my memory (so often exposed as fraud in these pages) is proved correct for one, and thus not wholly useless! The maudlin returns and this is the abiding emotional association I hold with The Beautiful Lie. As someone who has never smoked it takes a lot to make me care about cigarettes and this song does not manage it either, especially when Harcourt's voice goes all strained in places - like the perfect embodiment of my disillusionment with his later works.
My thoughts turn away from Ed Harcourt and to Fiona Apple because I cannot see the title "Shadowboxing" without thinking of Shadowboxer, which is a vastly more compelling track. This one is jingly percussion and muted melodies. The delivery of the chorus is pretty good and saves the song from being a complete waste, but all it has really served to do is make me wish I was listening to Tidal instead. That won't be for several years though - not in this context anyway. So why have I not been able todo any more posting this week? Honestly I am not sure; going back to work after a week off was not particularly stressful, but I did end last weekend feeling that I had not done enough with my time. Being busy Monday through Wednesday evenings did not help, and the drive to come here to write and listen simply did not appeal on Thursday, when I was writing up game notes instead, or Friday when I deigned to shoot digital tanks. I have decided to ditch the Bloodbowl league for the time being though; stresses of scheduling are better avoided now I am GMing again, and a terrible final game left me cursing the overly dicey nature of it. That happens every now and again and the tanking has a similar problem. Both together is a recipe for stupid frustration and misplaced anger so only one persists.
Another song drifted by whilst I was whittering on there, the sort of nothing tune that Harcourt seems to have drifted toward over his career, but there is something more palatable playing now as we hit half way through. Unfortunately I dislike the chorus and bridge that follow - the composition and arrangement toward the start of Revolution in the Heart is great, but the harmonies in the singing and the devolution into "shanananana" that follows is a terrible progression. Time for an execution of the track, I feel. Spooky black and white movie music: that is what Until Tomorrow Then feels like - but somehow it works. A fuzzy not-quite jazzy arrangement and a pained but controlled vocal which is charged in the chorus to the point of desperation... its really well done. Maudlin but not depressing, hard to listen to but not unpleasant and above all pretty darn evocative. I can just see those 1930s cityscapes and old cars, downbeat bars and femmes fatales.
Unfortunately the jumpy and inconsistent nature of this album which allows for such interesting little tracks is the same nature which produces awful songs like Scatterbraine. It is, I think, Harcourt's career in microcosm; capable of genius but pulled in so many directions that the output suffers for it. This was true even on Here Be Monsters and Maplewood, but less so. Thankfully Scatterbraine is sandwiched by two of the better examples as Rain on the Pretty Ones is also nicely crafted, tugging at the heartstrings in a way that some of the earlier tracks tried to do unsuccessfully.
Hmm The Pristine Claw was not a name I associated with anything, but when the song starts it is immediately recognisable and it is one I rather like. It is a very simple string melody and a very softly sung lyric but unlike some such songs it trades on its simplicity for good effect. Tonally speaking Harcourt is all over the place on this disc. It is not a new sort of inconsistency but it is a source of frustration both from the standpoint of wanting something more cohesive to write about and tie together but also from the perspective of jumping from mood to mood along with the changes of tempo and life when consuming it. He can, however, be beautifully eloquent at times, very effective at pulling you around emotionally. Braille is a fine example of this, and again trades off the aural equivalent of soft focus in the voice recording. It belies my preconception that the album drifted out to nothing but providing a track that leaves you feeling like you have nothing. It is crafted to make you feel empty, lost, bereft... well, probably not, but such is the skill with which the song has been put together that it really had an impact on me hearing it now. It is a glorious track that I had never appreciated before. The final song plays on similar emotions but not nearly so well - the playing, the singing, the arrangement... the same triggers are present but they just will not pull. This does end up the nothing song I expected and even the trumpet cannot save it.
So I now have to pick over the track list and spit out the casualties. I thought I would be removing more that I will delete in actual fact, but actually it comes out to just over half the tracks being jettisoned even so. Many of them not bad (only 2 were actually unpleasant), but simply not good enough for me to want to listen to again given the wide array of other things I could be hearing.
I will try not to make it a week before the next post; if I got into that habit, I would never finish.
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