Beat the Champ - The Mountain Goats

Track list:

1. Southwestern Territory
2. The Legend of Chavo Guerrero
3. Foreign Object
4. Animal Mask
5. Choked Out
6. Heel Turn 2
7. Fire Editorial
8. Stabbed to Death Outside San Juan
9. Werewolf Gimmick
10. Luna
11. Unmasked!
12. The Ballad of Bull Ramos
13. Hair Match

Running time: 45 minutes
Released: 2015

So this is a bit of a first for this project - a listen of something that has been out less than a week (here anyway, and only just). I found out about this whilst I was away, ordered it, and then when I got home it was lying on my doormat. The Mountain Goats equals an instant buy for me based on past output, has done since The Life of the World to Come.

This will also be my first listen to this (save for a track and a half that played whilst I was ripping it from the disc) so will not lead to snap decisions to clear out unless there is something irredeemably bad - and I doubt that very much.

We open with keyboard chords, quiet backing to John Darnielle's distinctive vocals. There is a soft edge to this, and a wandering clarinet (or similar) gives Southwestern Territory  a very different tone, almost confessional. It strikes me as an odd match for the subject matter, wrestling as per the cover, but it is oddly effective. Melancholy and lament, even a side of pity drip off the track from start to finish.

We then get more familiar sounds, guitar-lead, drums in evidence, pace higher and a harder set to the voice. My initial reaction is that the opening track is a better crafted song, but The Legend of Chavo Guerrero is more immediately accessible and recognisable as The Mountain Goats. Foreign Object has both echoes of earlier work - something about the percussion harks back to the boombox recordings - and richer textures of the studio-produced content. A horn section dominates here, as much as any of the instrumentation can cover the chorus line of "I'm gonna stab you in the eye with a foreign object" and the overall effect on first attention is weak. It may grow on me but somehow I doubt I'll ever like this song much.

Animal Mask is more pleasant, simple hook and percussion form the base, other instruments floating around, slightly distant creating the space for the song to shine. This again sees Darnielle singing with a soft voice. The choice by The Mountain Goats to do a wrestling-oriented concept album rather bizarrely makes this the second album on the subject that I have, the other being Luke Haines imaginatively titled Nine and a Half Psychedelic Meditations on British Wrestling of the 1970s and early '80s. Given I don't like or follow the sport in any way, that's something of a surprise even to me (I cannot recall what made me buy the other). It does allow Darnielle's narrative writing to stand out though as I find myself drawn in to these stories of masked fighters.

Choked Out is angry, violent and punchy and over before I register it. Heel Turn 2 follows on quickly and sounds a little like it could have come from All Eternals Deck in style and tone which I rather appreciate. It then transforms after 3 and a half minutes into a light piano composition... this is an odd transition but I rather like the tune that emerges, sparse and haunting and concluded with a slightly discordant sound. This album may be concentrated in subject matter but its tone is ever-shifting - the next piece up is jazzy, it carries a piano melody and lightly brushed cymbals and I am stumbling to think whom it reminds me of. The tune's simple wandering is arresting and my thoughts are shackled, only released when it ends - I think I will grow to really like this track. I am impressed at how easily the style of each track seems to shift.

That is true once more as we get Stabbed to Death Outside San Juan - here the vocal is almost spoken, menacing strums and drums, left to stand alone. A really dark tone to this - as you might expect from a song about murder. The threat is set off by spine-tingling strings and although it feels like all the parts are in isolation in some way, the whole coalesces well. The menace steps up a level as we get to the driven Werewolf Gimmick - tempo ratcheted up by frenetic percussion and frenzied strumming, repeated notes to the fore in creating the sense of urgency and danger.

I am relieved when the tension breaks and Luna is a softer tune. This carries strong traces of something I know but cannot place... that is really going to annoy me now! I like the song though. Ah, that guitar reminds me of a Gomez track I think, but was that what I meant? Argh, annoying brain failures. This is a really nicely rounded tune, lots of layers. Yes - it must have been what I was thinking of, Buena Vista from Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline; there's a similar kind of jangle to the guitar, even if it is far less dominant in this case, just one of many elements in Luna's composition as opposed to the main theme in the Gomez track.

The rich composition is jettisoned then... no, its my ears playing tricks. Another confessional track in Unmasked, simple voice and guitar seemed at first to be all this was about but there is a nice subtlety to how the piano line snuck in there and took me by surprise. There isn't too much else to this, but its really rather good. What follows is another tonal shift, staccato guitar to the fore, voice harder again... and the song is over before I can formulate any more thoughts enough to transition them to page. Is that tiredness or something else? The placement of The Ballad of Bull Ramos seems odd, a single punchier track amidst 4 quieter softer tracks to close the album.

The final song, Hair Match is almost funereal in pace, very soft in effect. It is almost a lullaby in delivery, quiet and warm, whilst the subject matter is clearly not of that ilk. In truth I am finding it a pretty weak closing track on first exposure, and as it ends I feel that the song's story is only half told - though in fairness that could well be because I missed it rather than because it wasn't there.

And so the album winds up. First impressions are mixed - some very nice tracks here, and I remain impressed by the variety of styles, tempos, compositions exhibited here. One or two of them fell flat initially and the whole thing will need more listens before anything will become a favourite. Overall though, more good than bad and I am happy with the purchase. There was something old-school about the packaging when I received the hard-copy - jewel case with security sticker - and I now look forward to taking this disc to the car to give it a few more plays. It clearly merits more attention, and a chance for things to grow on me.

Bastion Original Soundtrack - Darren Korb

Track list:

1. Get Used to It
2. A Proper Story
3. In Case of Trouble
4. Bynn the Breaker
5. The Sole Regret
6. Twisted Streets
7. Terminal March
8. Percy's Escape
9. Faith of Jevel
10. Mine, Windbag, Mine
11. Slinger's Song
12. Build That Wall (Zia's Theme)
13. Spike in a Rail
14. What's Left Undone
15. Brusher Patrol
16. The Mancer's Dilemma
17. Mother, I'm Here (Zulf's Theme)
18. Pale Watchers
19. The Bottom Feeders
20. From Wharf to Wilds
21. Setting Sail, Coming Home (End Theme)
22. The Pantheon (Ain't Gonna Catch You)

Running time: 60 minutes
Released: 2011

This slots in here as a recent purchase, and the first example of a growing trend: soundtracks for videogames. I have picked up a fair few in recent months/years as it becomes more common for them to be offered as part of the purchase on digital platforms. Bastion I bought just days ago in a Steam sale; I got the soundtrack edition because a) I had heard it was highly rated and b) I already had and loved the soundtrack to Transistor, a game from the same studio carrying music by the same artist, so I have good hopes for this. I have been playing Bastion recently too and the music has made more of an impression than the gameplay, but in a context where I was not really concentrating on it. I wonder what attention might reveal?

This is one of two inserts, new purchases that come in the mid-Folds period (the other being the new Mountain Goats record, Beat the Champ which will follow once I am back home). 22 songs in an hour speaks to short tracks, but some are very short whilst others are more usual track lengths.

It starts with the intro - spoken word over a structure. The start of A Proper Story is jarring as a transition but the track sets the tone of the game's music. Fairly jaunty, evocative of a western-style brush/scrub badlands atmosphere. Strong guitars, steel stringed perhaps, such is their jangle. In Case of Trouble is, I think, the main theme really - the one that was with me a lot of the way through the game (I finished the first run through this morning). Either that or my tune recognition is garbage. The percussion is fairly tense which befits the soundtrack to what is - exploration and story aside - a fairly typical fight-em-all style procession. That edge is present in the consistent banging and pulses in the following track too - this has a darker, rougher edge to it, more immediate danger less promised trouble. Electric wails come in as a top end, then synth strings carry the ominous sound into a lighter and more melodic phase before the oppression overtakes all again.

Even though I was only just playing the game, I can't recall the context of each track, but I can hear the narrator's voice over each piece as it plays. The opening of The Sole Regret absolutely sells regret as the theme (although that could be biased by seeing the title). It then morphs into a more sitar-inspired piece, less oppressive as much of it simply creates a central space which lines then rise to fill in an effective and pleasing manner. There is a hint of a voice at one point (no words mind) and I am looking forward to the voice-as-instrument tracks to come (there must be at least one) as that was one of my favourite things about Transistor's music. Before then it has all gone more cyberpunk in tone, which feels slightly off - images of 90s videogame music arise in my mind as one of the treble themes is reminiscent of Street Fighter 2 music to me... thankfully its not a dominant sound.

I was not overly sold on the game, I have to say. Played it through, finished it with one of the two endings, but in no rush to go back to it. Too repetitive and really too designed for play with a console controller for me to want to replay on a laptop keyboard. Some cheap tricks too like hiding the ground and/or your character sprite; not a fan of that. The tension has ratcheted up again for Terminal March - rolling percussion is ever-present and the melody does nothing to take the edge off. Where it breaks in to the cacophony it actually serves to increase the sense of discomfort and unease, as if something bad is waiting just ahead, or following just behind. Apt. It isn't that much of a march though, if I am being picky - there's nothing regimented enough for that. Then, suddenly we're being chased. There is no other way to describe Percy's Escape, as it gives me a distinct impression of someone on my heels, footing not sound, but plunging on the only option. Funny - I don't recognise this track at all; not sure how the music is organised or coded in game so it is possible (however unlikely) that certain tracks did not appear in my play through.

Darker, but less immediately threatening now. Kinda like the idea of heading home after a nice holiday as I will be doing tomorrow. Mine, Windbag, Mine has the clanging of pick on rock in the background of a lushly layered piece. Strings and more strings over the clangy percussion, then an opening an electro-break followed by a sparser sound, double bass threatening us still. I am trying to think what I would liken this too, where I have heard a similar approach to percussion before but I am coming up blanks.

The badlands overtures return now; maybe Slinger's Song was the theme I heard most. Certainly it is more immediately identifiable with the section I started with this morning - jungle-type terrain, swampy in nature - watch out for that 'gator, don't swim in the bayou. I like the bluesy overtones here, they groove nicely, better without the visuals actually where it could simply apply to the stereotypical deep south.

Ah, there is the voice; humming and singing. The song not so much, but the hum I like, along with the maudlin tone. This has to be the same singer as on Transistor or my ears are deteriorating day by day. The song reminds me of Anaïs Mitchell - its about building walls and really rather bland, but nicely intoned even if the lyrics are terribad. The tone has left the Eastern themes of sitar (I guess meant to be associated with one of the cultures in the gameworld) and strangled notes aside and is squarely back in that southern/western badlands vibe now and I think this is the stronger suit, mixing tension with some interestingly modified tones, driving pacey beats with lines that could be played for relaxation in another context.

Occasionally lighter pieces drift in, like the Mancer's Dilemma, harp-like strains lead this, and whilst there is still a solid background rumble that contains the promise of threat, here it doesn't dominate like it has on most of the tracks thus far. It is a nice change-up, being more effective for that than the song that follows. Different singer this time, less enchanting but almost as effectively crafted to build the emotion. Unfortunately this effect is spoilt by the abrupt shift into the next track right as the final word is uttered - a second or two of quiet for the transition would have been more effective for me. What we drop into is more generic soundtrack music, tension conveyed but without the interesting themes that prior tracks had. Don't misunderstand, I think that Pale Watchers is a pretty decent track but... it lacks the character of something like Brusher Patrol or Slinger's Song where the decisions to use those steely guitar sounds really paid off and helped to craft memorable, enjoyable tunes that stand up well away from the game.

Into the run-in now, and Bottom Feeders has some character back, but alas its very definitely videogame character, not transcendent of the medium. There is a tinny, electronic edge to proceedings for much of the piece which means it is hard to see it as anything but an accompaniment to some gameplay that I am not currently engaged in. It must be from towards the end of the game - the bits I did today - because it is also spacey and reminiscent of some of the FTL soundtrack by Ben Prunty in places. In all honesty this track is probably my least favourite. We get a breather for the first 30 seconds of From Wharf to Wilds before synthetic horns blast in and the percussive edge is restored. It is a short piece though and it is not long before an end theme kicks in. One of the most annoying things about the game was unskippable credits at the end, so I have listened to this piece in full just a couple of hours ago. I did not notice that it was a duet then though, so I clearly wasn't paying much attention! When both voices are active the song is much better - singing different lines at the same time produces a nice haunting effect and brings out the best in Korb's composition.

Final track is a gravelly voiced song; reminds me of Mark Lanegan - just to tag another artist on this post for no apparent reason - but I guess it's actually the guy who voiced the narrator through the game. I rather like the effect and the bluesy guitar that accompanies it. Pretty good closing track this, ending on a really positive note.

Ordinarily I would cull some tracks at this point, for some I felt were rather weak when stripped of their original context. However soundtracks are soundtracks and sometimes best left intact. Re-use is a consideration here, and with that in mind I will be keeping all of it. My gut says Transistor was a better soundtrack, but this surely is not bad at all.

Bending New Corners - Erik Truffaz

Track list:

1. Sweet Mercy
2. Arroyo
3. More
4. Less
5. Siegfried
6. Bending New Corners
7. Betty
8. Minaret
9. Friendly Fire
10. And

Running time: 61 minutes
Released: 1999

I picked this up after discussions on an internet forum with a French jazz-lover; I think I had to order it, and the other album of Truffaz's that I bought at the same time, from Amazon.fr because it wasn't listed on the UK site. Oddly WMP had it listed as 2003 but in looking up the album details for the image and caption I find that is actually earlier than that, so change made! I remember that Truffaz is a trumpeter but not much more and I have not really paid any attention to his music in years so I am a little unsure of what I will find here.

I like the snappy titling - no pretentiously long-winded track names here - but do they gel with the music they refer to? Time to see.

We open with bass and drums before some electronic sounds and Truffaz's trumpet join in. This is late night sounds at mid-afternoon when until just now it has been a blazingly good day, blue skies and warming sun. Ah, shopping in suburban Athens this morning. I remember this a bit now - English vocals delivered as a low-key rap. Along with the intro this exhibits why I think genre-typing music is a fools game; jazz can be a sibling to almost anything on the spectrum. In truth, I am not certain the trumpet adds much to Sweet Mercy, and given it is Truffaz's name on the disc that's a disappointment. I rather like its lounging mood though.

Pace is picked up a bit as the track shifts, and the sound and the title of the second tune makes me think of Miles Davis and Sketches of Spain. I guess, to their chagrin, most jazz trumpeters get compared to Davis in some way. I haven't listened to Spain in a long time (I do have it) so I am not really in a position to compare the tracks; it probably sounds nothing like this in any way, but I am reminded of it all the same. There is some funky underlay on this track, which is a better overall integration of the quartet and far more appropriate for a nice southern European day. I am doing this listen on the penultimate day of my holiday in the lazy afternoon; it seemed right somehow - though really I should be conjuring up some nice images of rural England and Wales to use in my Albion game whilst snoozing on a chair outside. I might do that next!

No, I think there is something Davis-like about the playing here even if I cannot pin it to a specific track or album. Something about the smoothness of the notes kindling thoughts of Kind of Blue, perhaps? Not sure, but the moment is passed and More has a muted strangle over a very sparse arrangement, kinda creepy but in an interesting way. The structure relies more on the drums and its interplay with a more subtle bass, very light with minimal, quiet and considered placement around that from the trumpet and electronics. I like this a lot after the rather odd opening; there are still undertones of oddity around the core, mystic edges, like mist rising from marshy grass, obscuring something behind (nope - used that already!) but the piece as a whole overrides that with a late night drive vibe - lighted strips, top down. From More to Less; will it live up to its name? More felt pretty light and sparse in places so Less would have to be more if this really is going to have less to it... I know, that sentence makes no sense.

This really is a light drum and bass track for its first minute and more - I love stuff on that blurred boundary, with trumpet in place of husky vocals and a volume more befitting comfort than throwing shapes. Comfort is what I find a lot of jazz to be about - not taxing to listen to, great backing for just about any activity. I can never understand those myriad people who simply dismiss jazz as if it is all incomprehensible improvisation with no structure or organisation. It's just music and there is good and bad examples everywhere however you like to categorise your music. Keys have taken on a little more work now, and as a result we get a relaxing stroll of a piece. Again the trumpet is oddly quiet, sidelined, for a lot of the number. So far it has felt more of a group effort than a star with backing.

The title track brings back the rap, with a bit more pace and intent this time, the percussion driving it along, and everything else carried along with it. This is nice soft and warm background music and there is a really strong temptation to treat it as such - divert my attention to other things I mean, rather than keeping score here. Partly that is not having much immediately come to mind that I haven't said already, partly it is the natural wandering of a mind over the period of an hour or so and only a small part of it is genuinely influenced by the music itself if I am honest. Sun is back out now, and I kinda want to escape to enjoy it... but leaving things half done will get me nowhere.

Oh, that's a nice switch. A gentle horn-led ramble now, keys backing it up and the drums and bass, which have dominated many of the tracks are distinctly relegated to support on this occasion. The track, Betty, evokes memories and images of the past, an effect which is doubtless stronger because of its placement after several tracks that owe more to 90s electronica than to the previous 5 decades of jazz history. It is a short piece though, and soon replaced by a haunting trumpet opening Minaret, evoking a call to prayer perhaps. Stylistically this is less Miles Davis and more Nils Petter Molvær - to name another trumpeter that I am familiar with. The track - I would say tune, but there is not much of one, is built around this muted wail and a strong drum backing, an interesting pattern which at one point (and maybe more to come) is broken up by musicality breaking through. It's weird... I am not sure how I feel about the track, 6 minutes long and not very tuneful yet somehow compelling and able to maintain interest for the whole length.

Another switch up with Friendly Fire also harking back to more traditional structures. Call-response between the trumpet and keys, backed by the percussion and bass, and with a few words sprinkled in. It is a bit kitsch given everything else - not nearly as well executed as Betty - and I am rather relieved when it ends and And starts. The final track echoes Minaret with its haunting wail of an opening from Truffaz's instrument, then drums and bass kick in. This is a 10 minute effort so I hope that they bring the interest to keep it moving....

Uh-oh. Just as I type that around the 2.15 mark there's a "bong" sound (part of the recording) and it all goes quiet. Stupid dead air outro time? Seems likely as by 3.15 it is still silent. Sigh - and it was all going so well.

The sound comes back around the 5 minute mark, Trumpet calling plaintively, lost and alone until some key-chords join the call. It is a little shivery alone in the dark type moment - or it would be if it weren't so bright out, and I couldn't hear the sounds of my dad playing Civ IV in the other room. This secret track is a bit of a mess; it has now developed some life, but the rhythm is reminiscent of a bad 80s disco and the structures and tones around it aren't much better.

It is a really disappointing end to what had been a pleasantly good album to that point, if one where I am not sure you would identify the trumpeter as the band leader from the work did you not know it going in.

Ben Folds Live - Ben Folds

Track list:

1. One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces
2. Zak And Sara
3. Silver Street
4. Best Imitation of Myself
5. Not The Same
6. Jane
7. One Down
8. Fred Jones Part 2
9. Brick
10. Narcolepsy
11. Army
12. The Last Polka
13. Tiny Dancer
14. Rock This Bitch
15. Philosophy
16. The Luckiest
17. Emaline

Running time: 71 minutes
Released: 2002

Three in a row; this is probably the best of the three, too. Whilst a trio of Ben Folds (Five) albums in a row is a bit like overkill I cannot be blamed for their album nomenclature issues! Thankfully I have had a few days away from the laptop so it is not quite so repetitive from that perspective.

This album contains songs from the first 3 Ben Folds Five albums as well as some from Folds' first solo effort, Rocking the Suburbs and a couple of oddities. After a brief intro spiel from an announcer Folds launches into things full tilt... it sounds less energetic on this listen than I recall from memory though, which is a disappointment that I will get over.

I am back from the holiday within a holiday, but not yet from the holiday itself. 4 days of travelling around the Peloponnese in the back of a car has my spine all shook up and my body still warming: alas we were not fortunate with the weather after the first day: lots of wind, a little rain, and temperatures more akin to Middlesbrough than the Mediterranean. Ah well; it's Good Friday today and a lazy day of whatever.

Zak and Sara is a little bit of a left field choice for live performance - its not one of his stronger songs, and yet... Stripped of anything except his piano the composition and performance are more easily appreciated than they were on the original recording. Folds' all-action playing style lends itself well to essentially covering the percussion as well as the melody and the rolling rumble of his lower hand is such that you really don't miss it. Next up is Silver Street; this an oddity - a quick Google relates it to a British Asian radio soap of the same name (as a final closer on the termination of the series) but not much about where the song came from. I have always rather liked its whimsy, melancholy and sense of inevitable decline.

I wrote a little about Best Imitation of Myself last time out, and may return to it again because it's the title of Ben Folds' retrospective, a triple-disc album looming on the horizon for these pages, so skipping over it here brings us to Not the Same - context-giving intro and backing choir and all. It has never been a particular favourite of mine. The use of the choir is pretty good and I rather like some of the top hand work in the verses but the constant of the bass chords leave me a little cold. I think I still prefer this over the version on Rocking the Suburbs though. The long outro of choir-backing sets a more relaxed mood, which is maintained by the next track. Jane was always one of my favourites from The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner and its subdued tone and pleasant piano keep it a favourite.

I could have sworn that One Down had an intro chatter giving the context to this throwaway number, but I guess I must be conflating my memory of seeing Folds do it live with the recording on this live album. Talk of quotas, target numbers and wanting out of a contractual arrangement spring to mind - themes strongly echoed by the lyrics. Maybe my brain made up the contextual introduction on its own - the material is all there to lead to that conclusion...

This middle section is really rather maudlin in tone - Fred Jones is sad, Brick is beautiful but heartbreaking, One Down is redolent of being trapped. The occasional audience scream or squeal or applause can be heard during Jones pt 2, and it is completely out of tone for the song they are squealing to. I can only guess that it is related to the appearance of the guest musician but it rather breaks the mood. The intro to Brick starts, stops for Ben to explain the really obvious context, then recommences. This is probably my favourite recording of the song. Melody wandering, repeating in loops as a muted vocal and light bass structure fill in. It is thoroughly touching - very easy to identify with the decisions being made and the toll that can take. The lack of bass and drums allows the piano to fill all the space, and lends weight to the pauses between notes, transitions from chorus to bridge to verse to chorus gain gravitas from the room the notes have.

Outside as it concludes I can hear cats wailing in the wind - not a very pleasant accompaniment. That piles on top of the fact I was woken at 3.30am by a house alarm going off somewhere in the neighbourhood. It can be noisy in this area alright. Looking out the window I find that actually the cats are right outside; two of them facing off... and then they are gone, taking their noise elsewhere as Folds is playing Narcolepsy and my mind has wandered too far from it. The other piece of noteworthy news today is that Richie Benaud has passed away, probably the single most important figure in me somehow turning about from hating cricket to watching or listening avidly and I am torn between concentrating fully on this music which I have listened too regularly for more than a decade and reading tributes. Folds is now training his horn section for Army - an audience participation routine that I have been a part of and one that works where many fall flat.

Army is a rollicking tune, keys never quiet as the bustle and bluster push it through until the point the human-powered "horn section" kick in. Simple chords are added back to them and the audience fade out again for the next verse, before shouting back a line in answer. There is a puerile end to the song where Folds swaps "your mommy" for "the army" but its not enough to spoil the effect, and then he launches into The Last Polka, fingers already warmed up for the key-bashing busy number that in some ways most typifies a Folds performance and just for a second makes me think back to that sheet music and how I might like to be able to play with such verve. Then we are into knock-off Elton territory again with the cover of Tiny Dancer; I have seen video somewhere (did this disc have a bonus DVD? I don't remember) of Folds performing in oversized specs to complete the image. The comparisons have, I guess, dogged him for most of his career. I cannot claim to be familiar enough with Elton John's performances or songs to add to commentary of the similarity or otherwise, but I always liked this particular track (i.e. as Folds does it on this disc) and have maybe heard the original once - and that after I heard this. There is something in the playing here, the strength of the emphasized notes that really hits home.

Oddity, aside, waste of time that I cannot bring myself to get rid of, then into the lead out proper with yet another version of Philosophy - this one containing Misirlou in the outro - and probably my definitive version of the song. Piano only, energy coursing through it, and ended by transitioning into something else. There is percussion achieved (at a guess) by slapping the piano case and strumming the piano strings by hand (I think there must also be a second set of hands involved here but maybe I am underestimating our performer) before settling back into melody and leading out loudly.

I said on Ben Folds Five Live that I thought this was a set of tracks recorded in different halls and then mashed together; on listening I am not so sure I wasn't referencing this incorrectly, thinking instead of the live disc of Imitation. There is a consistency between tracks with carryover of applause etc. that gives me pause, not that that couldn't have been achieved through the mastering. I do not have the hard copy to hand (being on holiday) so I cannot check this, and will surely forget to when I get home. I do not fear such mistakes anyway, happy to recognise the possibility and leave it sitting here. This waffle stops me concentrating too much on the lyrics of The Luckiest which, when heard, tend to make me cringe and feel lonelier than ever. The same can be said of Emaline - a song I did not really like too much on Naked Baby Photos but loved on the second disc of Messner (I didn't get the second disc on my copy of that album, but a friend did...). The live performance adds a lot, and the extra time to round off the rough edges from what was pre-BFF material have left what, for me, is a diamond of a song - beautiful melody and sentiment.

And so now I can move on to someone other than Folds for a short while, this album completed and left entirely intact despite Rock This Bitch really deserving to be let go. It won't be long until Ben (and friends) resurface though, with just 5 things to go before Best Imitation of Myself will make it 6 out of 11 posts dedicated to Mr Folds. A lot of variety in the interim though, with jazz, folk, seminal indie rock and big beat to fit in. One of those 4 is an easy guess but the others are less obvious.

Ben Folds Five - Ben Folds Five

Track list:

1. Jackson Cannery
2. Philosophy
3. Julianne
4. Where's Summer B.?
5. Alice Childress
6. Underground
7. Sports & Wine
8. Uncle Walter
9. Best Imitation of Myself
10. Video
11. The Last Polka
12. Boxing

Running time: 46 minutes
Released: 1995

It was 20 years ago; that's a long time. I still love some of these tracks or at least I think I do. Others I was never that hot on. My entry in to Ben Folds Five was the one album I didn't list from Ben Folds Five Live, Whatever and Ever Amen (and if I remember to link that in 10 years or whatever when I finally reach W, good on me!), and I came to this one probably a few years late. It is rawer and often less interesting than what followed but it still packs that Folds emotional gut-punch in places. I actually have the sheet music for this somewhere - or I did, once upon a time. I tried learning Boxing - I think, it may have been Philosophy - but didn't have the knack.

We open with Jackson Cannery. This recording has immediate energy with the piano chords - an energy diluted by something in the opening of the live album.  At the same time this feels stripped back - not sure how it can be though! - more space left for each of the parts, perhaps by smoothing levels. The bass bridge is particularly clear here, not smothered by piano or distortion, and the top end of Ben's keyboard is much clearer. The outro melody is probably the best bit of the song, mind.

Philosophy takes over. This has always been one of my favourites, one where I relate to the narrative - not of the opening verse reference to male genitalia but the sense of having a grounding force that the outside world may not see or comprehend. I think I prefer the version to come on the next album I'll listen to where it is just Ben and his piano but the essence of the song is the same. Nice piano melody, bit around it, identifiable theme to the lyrics and an energetic denouement that can seem like a bit of a mess. Things get messier though; I never liked Julianne - much more boring musically, much less relatable lyrics - yup, less relatable than a song that references a penis; who drags trash up and down roads anyway?! Add in the simulated (or genuine?) crashing sounds behind it and... ugh. The thing is, I think this version might be better than the one on Naked Baby Photos.

Where's Summer B.? I don't know, but I think this and Alice Childress, which follows, are possibly the most under-rated Folds tracks. I like the wistful questioning tone in the former, and the lament of the latter. The harmonied "aa-aa-aaa-aa"s and "ooo-ooo"s over the piano give it depth that scat doesn't normally manage and the slightly syncopated rhythm, clarity of notes from the keys and the simple melody all combine nicely into a whole that works. I am writing on a lazy Sunday afternoon; Easter Sunday back home but where I am that's next week. I am constantly distracted by movement outside a window in my peripheral vision and I keep looking over to catch glances as my step-mother passes, gardening. After a few days with more planned, today is brief respite before heading out on a 4 day road-trip south - hoping for sun. I digress to not get my emotions hooked up on the sadness of Alice but it doesn't work... the melody, lyrics and, crucially, the pauses catch me off guard and the verse about getting mugged and left with nothing is delivered in a way that I have always felt acutely despite that not really being the darkest part of the song.

It isn't this version of Underground with the effective heckle, but this is its pure form. The intro is a bit off in tone on record, but once the piano kicks in and the song falls into its pattern it is simple and effective. It closes the first half of the album; I find myself aware that basically I prefer BFF when they veer closest to Folds' solo performances, strong on the piano, drums creating structure by definitely subservient to the keys and the bass sparse. Its the old piano bias again.

Two less popular tracks now, the first of which is really a nothing song about (I guess) college jocks which, well... it just there and feels pretty devoid of meaning past uni age (and not being American probably doesn't help). The second, about a rambling and rumbustious elder relative - I'm sure we all know the stereotype - is better in this form than the live rendition in the previous post, but it is still not great. I like that you can almost hear Folds' spit some lines, creating the effect - intentionally I guess, but maybe not - of one of the qualities the song rails against, but that is about all I can say for it other than with its passing we're in to a pretty strong final third.

Best Imitation of Myself - like Philosophy - always struck a chord with me. Presenting something other than myself to the outside world is something that I feel I do a lot, though in the opposite way to the character described in the song. There he puts on a gregarious, flamboyant entertainer perspective to cover quietness; me the quietness wins out and as a result I can sometimes simply shy into corners and not present me at all. Though that quietness is a true face, it presents as the whole face incorrectly. Enough self-debasement though, I have a Video to listen to. It is another tune where the piano has a lot of space to do its stuff, and so predictably I like it a lot. Having learned as a boy and fallen out with the keyboard as a teenager, Folds really made me want to play again - hence acquiring the sheet music - presenting the piano in a way I had not heard it before. I will not pick it up again; I lack the perseverance as well as the talent but I think I will always favour piano music as a result. The versatility is one angle of that - moving from sweet melodies to noisy bassy structure in the blink of an eye, equally at home drawn out with space, or ratcheting up the tempo something chronic and cramming notes in like there is no tomorrow.

This disc ends with Boxing, a track with a story behind it. It's a track that had a lot of personal significance to me too back when I was an undergraduate, 4-5 years after it was released. I can't stand the sport of boxing myself, but you don't need to to empathise with the point of view espoused and there are a couple of lines in particular that always stuck with me as someone prone to introversion and blue moods. The song remains a firm favourite now, though the lines do not quite punch with the same weight.

As mentioned above, I did not get into Ben Folds Five with their debut. However had I heard this before Whatever and Ever Amen then I am sure the latter would have been a release-day purchase for me. Whilst Julianne and Sports & Wine are terrible, and Uncle Walter is take-or-leave, these early songs spoke to the younger me a lot. Time has passed, I have changed, but whilst the messages I take from this material have morphed my appreciation of it has not.

Ben Folds Five Live - Ben Folds Five

Track list:

1. Jackson Cannery   
2. Erase Me   
3. Selfless, Cold And Composed   
4. Uncle Walter   
5. Landed   
6. Sky High   
7. One Chord Blues/Billie's Bounce   
8. Do It Anyway/Overture-Heaven on Their Minds   
9. Brick   
10. Draw A Crowd   
11. Narcolepsy   
12. Underground   
13. Tom and Mary   
14. One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces   
15. Song for the Dumped

Running time: 73 minutes
Released: 2013

I remember being sad when Ben Folds Five split after The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner. I remember being wowed by House when it appeared on Folds' retrospective The Best Imitation of Myself and happy about the prospect of a reunion. The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind happened and was underwhelming, but I still bought this album when it appeared. I am not sure I ever paid it much attention, though - I have the older albums and Folds' solo material that serve me well.

This starts a run of discs of these guys and their frontman - their eponymous debut is (for some weird reason) listed after the live album, and followed by Ben Folds Live which, like this, is unfortunately not one show captured, but tracks pulled from different performances all over the place. As you might expect from the lists (later links?) above I am familiar with the majority of these tracks from prior recordings. I am surprised, a little, to see Landed appear here but then...

I am writing this in the early evening after a successful and fun day, first shopping then lounging on a beach front drinking retsina and eating too much. I couldn't come straight back and start writing after that, though so I had to watch people pretending to be Japanese first. This seems a touch like an afterthought to that, but at 73 minutes it won't be by the time I reach the end. Jackson Cannery lacks something compared to the other 2 versions I have; I think  Naked Baby Photos does it best. When Erase me starts, I wonder if that lack is a result of how it was recorded from the show as this also sounds a little flat. My memories of seeing this trio live are of a vivid, vivacious, raucous performance, characterised by Folds standing upon the lid of his piano encouraging a student crowd to sing along with a song I cannot quite recall for the image. That was the best part of 20 years ago now... this right here and now does not leave me cold, but neither is it particularly floating my boat. There are better songs to come though, so hopefully better performances too.

Ah, that's more like it. The piano melody on Selfless, Cold and Composed always acted as a lightning rod for my goosebumps and it does again here. It's a chillingly good song - typical of the Folds writing that wormed its way into the head of my nerdy teen self and somehow never left. Anger, sadness, regret... it has always felt like Ben Folds - along with a couple others before and since - had a direct line to my emotions and could stir them on demand. This version has typical artefacts of live performance and, to be honest, they do weaken the song for me. Some of the time it approaches discordant, other times it just sounds a mess - but then their style of play lends itself to that. I never thought Ben was the best of musicians, just up there with the best songwriters of his generation.

Uncle Walter, like Jackson Cannery, goes back to their debut - due next on my list - and was a song that I never gelled with but grew to appreciate all the same. Here the "But he's not"  spat out with such vehemence that I latched on to in the album version is simply delivered with no feeling and the song is very bland as a result, the outro being the highlight. Here the guys really go for it and that's nice and all, but it's too late. I really hope the performances pick up.

Landed was a song that I latched onto during a bad break-up; it will always have a place in my heart even though somewhere (I forget where) I saw Folds describe it as a phoned in Elton John impersonation - though not in so many words. This was not a Five song but by that point Ben was back to piano, bass and drums so it may as well have been. This delivery is softer than the song is on Songs for Silverman and I think it is the first track that I truly appreciate the versioning of, though I think it weakens in the last verse and chorus. We then enter a triplet of tunes I do not recognise by name. I like the first of them though. Sky High is more laid back than most of Ben Folds Five's output. It is apparently from The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind but neither the name nor the tune are familiar. The next two are more leave than take - pulled in from other places; the first contains some mildly diverting improvisation but is just muddled as a whole and the second derives from Lloyd-Webber (amongst others) which does not predispose me to liking it. I do recognise Do It Anyway when it plays but that does not save it. I am still waiting for a wholesale improvement in the standard of performance.

Goosebumps again; yes it is Brick. Not convinced by the heavy bass here - levels seem wrong, detracting from the melody rather than supporting and building it. It improves in the chorus though. Harrowing subject for a song but the amount of love for this track suggests that the timbre is about right. Serious enough to tackle the subject, but light enough to build a genuinely nice piece of music out of. The lines addressing loneliness touch a nerve and are instantly identifiable-with, even for those of us who have (thankfully) never been through such things, at least in the context here.

One last track from Sound... then 5 more older tracks to go, including a 9 minute version of Narcolepsy which must have something else on the end of it. Unfortunately the Sound track is the one that stuck in my mind as puerile and unbefitting of guys their age - the chorus of Draw a Crowd referring to lewd graffiti. It is no better live and, I think, exemplifies why they probably shouldn't have reformed. Folds - like Regina Spektor, who I compared to him - has always been liable to waver into weirdness and come up with bad material and this typifies the worst excesses. House was the great side of the Five recording together again and Sky High was enjoyable, but Draw a Crowd is probably more emblematic of the reformation output.

Narcolepsy is a hard track to really like. Its structure involves a nice melody being overridden by some very noisy play. It has always worked but it is not immediately appealing. A lot of what redeems it is in the vocal, an oddity for Folds since it has generally been the writing and the energetic playing that made his appeal. The outro/extension starts just after 5 minutes and does not, on the face of it, have anything immediately recognisable appended to it. I was half-expecting Misirlou or Dr Pyser. Instead it seems to be some light jazzy improvisation which I can imagine lapping up had I been in the audience, but on record I have actual jazz musicians using this arrangement of instruments to do it better.

People shouting "Who the fuck are you?" from the crowd in the first lines of Underground is old hat now. It was pretty funny the first time I heard it but a reprise 15+ years later is not clever, mate. Ah well, once the song gets going it's a very serviceable delivery but I cannot shake the feeling that I do not need another one - I have something like 4 different recordings of this track and whilst there are subtle differences it's not that much of a favourite. I cannot remember off the top of my head which version had the original (to me) shout recorded - Naked Baby Photos, I think - but that's the one I'll end up keeping because in that context it's still funny; the recording captures Folds sniggering in response, which makes it.

Getting near to the end of things now and really the majority of the album has been a huge disappointment. I am sceptical about the furious achondroplastic and the serenade for dropped lovers saving it as these songs are second nature and would really need something special to improve on them. To be fair, they really go for 200 Solemn Faces but the recording again has it feeling like it has less life than the original album version or Folds' solo rendition on Ben Folds Live (no Five). The opening to Song for the Dumped is also amped up and this actually might be a keeper because it's got all the energy but a very different sound - edgier bass bringing it a touch of new life. It is slightly strange hearing this song from a band collectively nearing their 50s though, and the use of the B-term is slightly cringeworthy for me now.

It ends in a really annoying manner though - Folds clearly asking the audience if they want one more, but this is the last track on the compiled live disc and the transition from that to silence as it ends is jarring. All in all I am not sold on this selection. I have happy memories of seeing both Ben Folds Five and Folds alone with his piano and I'll take my real, if fading, memories over this hodgepodge of performances. It's a shame, though not unexpected; I had hoped I might find a few stunningly good renditions. Instead I find regurgitated rations, generally not to the level of the other recordings I have to hand.

Belshazzar's Feast Live! The Whiting's On The Wall - Belshazzar's Feast

Track list:

1. Intro
2. Die Deutsches Washfrau
3. Wild Rover
4. Intro
5. Beethoven's Piano (Accordion) Concerto for Oboe
6. Home Lad, Home
7. Intro
8. Sussex Cotillion/Italian Concerto
9. Intro
10. Boda/Mrs. Love's Waltz
11. Intro
12. If I Was a Blackbird
13. Gerald Road Mazurkas
14. Thresherman
15. Intro
16. Playford's Christmas Ball
17. Intro
18. One Cold Morning
19. Intro
20. Rondo a La Turkey

Running time: 61 minutes
Released: 2014

So after one subset of Bellowhead comes another. Well, in part. This time it is (one of) Paul Sartin's side project(s). 20 tracks, or rather 12 and 8 introductions, make up this disc.

I am not quite sure why I went for it; I do have another Belshazzar's Feast album but I never really listened to it. However Sartin always struck me as an interesting musician with a good stage manner and there is something almost cabaret-like about the chatter that Belshazzar's members get up to between numbers so I think that must have been the draw.

This starts with the first of the many intros, which immediately launches into their quirky stage humour... "There's something I need to do" followed by the sound of a flushing toilet in a clear nod to it being recorded for sale, before launching into a twee Germanic number. I am writing this on the first day of a holiday, from warmer and sunnier climes than I am used to and at what my system clock says is pre-9am, though it is later than that. I am in Greece with family on a break that should allow me a fair bit of downtime - so naturally one of my first acts is to listen to a very, very English duo. For all that they play a mixture of folk, chamber and classical pieces from all over the mannerisms are rooted in England for sure.

"Go and touch up Beethoven" - another one of those phrases you think you'll never hear. The second intro is "make me smile" funny by dint of Sartin's conversational style. The intro ends up exactly half as long as the piece that it introduces and thoroughly overshadowing it. I have often said to the friend that I go to Bellowhead gigs with that I find they are at their best when Paul Sartin ditches the fiddles for his oboe. This piece is doing all it can to undermine that. Obviously that is a function of the tune as much as anything else, though... and a smile is brought to my face when it morphs in to the theme from Postman Pat and then a couple of other things that I feel I should recognise but don't. It saves the piece.

It is this kind of wandering whimsy that I like about Belshazzar's feast, they are not taking things too seriously and Easter eggs are scattered through a performance. I suspect they would be very entertaining in person even if the majority of the tunes leave little impression by themselves. Sartin wanders between fiddle, oboe and song while his partner, Paul Hutchinson accompanies on accordion and they switch between tunes mid-flow with genuine aplomb. Before I even notice half the disc has flown by amidst their stagecraft and eccentricity.

I really don't find a lot of the tunes musically interesting, and yet I find the overall impression quite spellbinding because no tune lasts too long, or if it does last it morphs and is sure to pop up with some commonly known tune, a touchpoint of recognition, so you feel like you want to listen with at least half an ear even in the bits where the tune is not currently enticing. Just now, for example, they broke into a chorus of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" (tune only) then into "Oh I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside" in the space of a minute and there is no hint from the track titles that these treats will be popping up. "Treats?" I ask myself... yes treats. They are fully in line with the gentle humour laced throughout.

Final five to go, two of them intros. Audience engagement - encouragement to sing - has been a feature here, with various degrees of success; it's hard to sing along if you don't know what's going on or what will happen next even if you are intimately familiar with a particular snippet. I get the feeling that there is some physical comedy going on from time to time that reflects in the recording as audience laughs alone. That actually works against the recording in at least one case, because the listener feels excluded, isolated from that moment. Still, there are enough moments that you are connected to that this doesn't matter too much.

Overall, this is an oddity. An enjoyable one, but an oddity all the same. I do not feel compelled to remove any of the tracks but neither do I expect to sit down and listen to it again on record. I would, however, go see them if I could find willing company and they were playing a suitable location.