Adelphi has to Fly - Lucy Ward

Track list:

1. The Fairy Boy
2. Alice In The Bacon Box
3. Maids When You're Young
4. Death (Rock Me To Sleep)
5. The Unfortunate Lass
6. Julia
7. The Two Sisters
8. Adelphi
9. F For Love
10. A Stitch In Time
11. Bricks & Love

Running time: 46 minutes
Released: 2011

So this is a recent purchase but not a new disc. It sneaks in the midst of the Ben Folds-a-thon (although its hard to really see it as that given the slow progress in getting through it) by virtue of being an A. I decided to pick this up recently because I needed a make-weight on an order to qualify for free shipping and I had picked up and seen promise in Silent Flame - which I bought following one of the Folk Awards albums on which she was showcased.

I am acutely aware that I have not made it to these pages for a long time - over 2 weeks now. Things have been busy between evening plans and the stresses of buying a new car. That all done with for the time being, maybe I will return to a more consistent posting schedule... but enough excuses, time to get listening!

I have been through this a few times on the commute (prior to the car change) so it is not a blind listen of a new purchase. However it is probably the first time I will hear it clearly, with no banging exhaust to cover it up. The Fairy Boy has a very soft backing that I don't think I had picked up previously, for example - a few sparse piano notes, a lightly droning string or organ of some kind, the latter so faint I really can't tell what it is. I like the song more like this - on a quiet evening at the end of a busy day. The additional structure works nicely to support Ward's voice, which has real potential even if it does not always deliver. There are hints of Kate Rusby in her tones and that is an apt comparison for the second track, which has a gentle roll to it that could be a Rusby song. Not so accomplished in performance, not trained and reinforced through years of grooving as Rusby though, but a decent showing which again, restored by the lack of growling engine noise, is much better than my first impressions.

This third song I don't like much. It has been a bit of an earworm for me in the last fortnight, most annoyingly so as it is one of those songs which employs too much nonsense in place of proper lyrics. I also don't much like the subject matter of what lyrics there are. It's a bloody catchy tune, but the charm is completely lost by the words that go with it. It also dominates my mental impression of the album so much that the next track feels unfamiliar, not heard before, even though I don't think I skipped a one over three journeys.

Death is a dark subject for a song given the subtitle implies lullaby. It isn't of course, a lullaby I mean. Actually its a pretty nice piece - there is an edge to it, a tone that sets it apart from the fare that has been before. The darkness is all in the guitar; the vocal performance does not carry such the same menace or, to be honest, interest. Ward was, I think, very young when this was released, and I think the lack of consistency is probably more a factor of inexperience than anything else. Yet at times her delivery is very mature, studied and impressive.

I am getting goosebumps listening to The Unfortunate Lass, though this is the side effect of bare arms on an evening where the warmth is starting to fade more than a reaction to the song. It is a slow number, a maudlin one, but it is a strong performance, even as the empty arrangement gives her plenty of chance to mess things up. The next piece tells a story that on the face of it tells of a young same-sex relationship, but maybe I am assuming the gender of the teller based on that of the singer (and writer, since this is a Ward original). If so, its a significant subject to take on, and personally I don't think that the song does it justice in a couple of ways. First I think there are some weaknesses in the structure of the writing and secondly I feel the performance is lacking. Where Ward can be strident, bold, here there is a fallibility in the voice which might be appropriate and "in character" for the song, but actually takes away from the experience to my ear.

Two Sisters is a more immediately enjoyable piece. The staccato playing here creates a crucible that sets Ward's singing on fire, the timbres of her voice really gelling with it in the early part of the track. It wavers a bit as the song progresses though, her voice flying higher and losing a bit of the connection with the arrangement and the dark subject matter. There is some really nice build/drop off in the playing here though, despite most of it amounting to repetition of the same loop it sets a fantastic tone. I think this is probably the best track on the album.

In to the last few now, and the song from which the album takes its title is about as uninteresting as anything here - it wanders all over the place, especially in the vocal, whilst the dominant strains of the playing are just... dull. Some of the writing is stretching it, too; it really surprises me that this prompted the title, but still. F for Love is deeply cynical, a darker view of the world than even I can normally conjure - and yet it is paired with a really light, soft-touch piano. It is an odd contrast and one that does not really work for me. I just glanced at the track lengths in WMP and I am surprised that most of the songs top 4 minutes in length because actually none of them really feel like they have that much to them in terms of heft and weight of lyric. I don't mean that as a criticism of the writing (there are points I might make there if I were reviewing), but as an observation that the pieces fly by quicker than expected.

A Stitch In Time is... ugh. A domestic violence story, it's not nice to start with and then answers violence with violence. It has a good outcome for those involved though, somehow. It is also a cappella and not great. At times Ward sounds like she's stuffed up with a cold. It is a memorable track but not a pleasant one.

We close with a more musical tune, but another one that feels light, empty. Missing something. I can see it being a pretty (if sad) song when watched live but on record it gives the impression that things don't quite line up. And just like that it is over and the room falls silent save for my laptop fan.

Two weeks, one post. Must do better. As for the album, there is more to it than I thought, but a lot of tracks, too, that feel weak. It is pretty obviously a debut, more raw and flawed than Single Flame I think. Identifying what to keep and what to chuck now, it may get gutted but not because everything that goes is bad, more that its weaker than similar stuff I have. Still, definitely some keepers too.

The Best Imitation of Myself (Disc 1) - Ben Folds

Track list:

1. Brick (Radio Mix) - Ben Folds Five
2. Annie Waits
3. Philosophy - Ben Folds Five
4. Underground - Ben Folds Five
5. Landed (Strings Version)
6. One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces - Ben Folds Five
7. Don't Change Your Plans - Ben Folds Five
8. The Luckiest
9. Smoke
10. Rockin' the Suburbs
11. Kate - Ben Folds Five
12. Gracie
13. Still Fighting It
14. You Don't Know Me
15. There's Always Someone Cooler Than You
16. Still
17. From Above
18. House - Ben Folds Five

Running time: 74 minutes
Released: 2011

I needn't have worried about overdosing on Ben Folds (Five) as it turned out. Not only have three new purchases sneaked into the gap and extended the distance since I listened to the last little glut, but that is now already a month ago because I have been so unusually busy as to not get down to listening much in the interim. Now, though, we have the three discs of Folds' retrospective, packed with items from the breadth of his career, some phases stronger than others. I forget how they were organised but I think this first disc was the best of, the second disc was live recordings and the third was rarities. There will be some duplicates to cull here but that wont be everything. The disc is notably the only place I have two tracks in particular: the duet with Regina Spektor, You Don't Know Me, and House, which preceded the reformation of Ben Folds Five for The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind and got my psyched for that release. Man, if the album had been even a patch on House it would have been great... alas.

We open with the version of Brick that anyone familiar with Ben Folds Five will know. As much as I love the song, this is not a patch on the solo version on Ben Folds Live and I have this on Whatever and Ever Amen so this one, with the (Radio Mix) tacked on, will go. One might ask why I bought this retrospective given that I own the vast majority of Folds' output and yeah... that's a good question with a couple of answers:

1. Rarities and live performances: There are many items on discs 2 and 3 that I did not have before I got this, and even on this disc there are versions of Landed and Smoke that I don't have anywhere else in addition to the Spektor duet and House mentioned before.

2. I use CDs in the car; I am, for a variety of reasons, still wedded to a physical format and a triple album that takes up the space of one? I'm all over that for the commute.

This disc wanders all over Folds' career. Rather than charting a course from early to late, it jumps around with the second song being the opener from Folds' first solo record, Rocking the Suburbs. I was at uni when that album came out, I remember a friend of mine picking it up on release and we listened to it round at his place. I remember he was pretty scathing about this track, but I always rather iked it. I dunno whether that is because, like a lot of Ben's work, the lyrics touch me on a sensitive nerve or whether I am just more able to enjoy the much more commercially flat composition or what. Anyway, I still rather like it now.

I have somehow managed to make it 3 listens in as many days. OK, so one was only 5 songs, but both Friday's and today's are over an hour long - and with the sundries that come with writing these things up, that equates to 90 minutes plus of attention to squeeze out of a schedule that hasn't permitted much lately. Thankfully this is a quiet weekend, not much going on bar buying a new toy and doing some basic garden care.

Having swooped forward, we drop back to the debut of Ben Folds Five for the next two songs and, to this point, everything I am hearing is getting digitally dropped after I am done. That said, the couplet of Philosophy and Underground - age-old as they are now - are appreciated. The best music stays vital, and whilst these songs have definitely aged (or perhaps it is fairer to say that the recording techniques have aged) and have nothing like the richness you might expect to hear in a modern arrangement and mastering, I suspect their themes and subjects are just as relevant to the youth of today (not that I know any).

We fly forward in time to Songs for Silverman next. Landed is a pastiche of an Elton John song, or at least I think I recall Folds saying so. I love it though. I leant hard on this in dark times past... and I feel like I've written this all before. Yup; this was on Ben Folds Five Live. This particular version has a lush string backing (hence Strings Version, duh!); to be honest I am not entirely sure what it adds because I never hear anything other than the vocal, clinging to the lyric. OK, that's hyperbole - the extra structure does change the dynamic a little - just enough for me to hold onto this.

Five of the first seven here are Ben Folds Five recordings, with only 2 more in the other 11 tracks. It makes me wonder how and why the track list was compiled as it was here, but only in passing as I am not that much of a raging Folds nerd (not quite). Of those 7, only Don't Change Your Plans is from their third (and last pre-split) album. I think it is under-represented in the retrospective as a whole, which is a shame because it was a very mature record, a band at the peak of their powers - with a more sombre and grown up tone. I love this song though, it speaks to a wanderlust I do not feel, and a sense of rootedness that I can relate to but have nothing tangible to attach to. If that sentence makes no sense to you, you are probably smarter than I.

Few songwriters can make me feel so viscerally lonely and vulnerable as Ben Folds, and The Luckiest is right up there with the songs that do. Less so now - I am older, wiser, just as single but far less self-defined by it, but whilst I was young, socially awkward and contemplating long term loneliness this love song sparked a terrible envy, even as I recognised the geeky beauty of it. Now I just think its a nice song, and think "wouldn't it be nice to share it" but then move on quickly. The next track doesn't help with that - Smoke is a bastard of a track, horrible break up agony couched in a lovely melody but the bitterness glares through that at you. This is a BFF track but performed instead by Ben and an orchestral backing. Here the orchestra really does add something - there is a sense of depth to the song that is absent from its original form. Assuming my memory of it is right that is much more stark and here the strings enhance the sorrow, overriding the bitterness a little.

It is a very dramatic change of tone to have the next track as Rocking the Suburbs - a self-deprecating comedy song with (deliberately?) crappy programming and other modern stuff and nonsense that somehow became not just a title track for an album but actually a reasonable track in its own right despite this, and screamed invective in the middle. I think this comes down to the writer's natural knack for catchy, and it helps that even though it is a comedic approach it is purely self-focused. We Brits like humble folks, so self-deprecation always plays well with us - much more so than standing big and proud shouting "look at me I'm great" - even if we think the person is great.

Ah Kate. This was, I am sure, the song that got me into Ben Folds Five as a teenager. I have vague memories of stupidly shuffling around the living room to this breezy number, taping it off the radio and so forth. I am not sure it holds up as well as most of their output, perhaps because it is more inextricably linked with being young and I am no longer that. It is still a pleasant tune though - Folds only started failing to deliver those with Way to Normal really, and even then there are some decent songs to balance out the dross. It is hard to really pick favourites though, in a way that I don't find with other artists. King Creosote and Thea Gilmore are two more artists that have touched me deeply at various points, but there I am easily able to point to favourite songs. With Ben Folds it is more dependent on my own mood as to which of his numbers I prefer. Incidentally Gilmore just released Ghosts & Graffiti which features KC on one track; that's a pairing I was stoked for initially, then less so when I realised which track (it is, again, kinda a retrospective) - its an aside from this post, but I am closing in on the point where I stop following Thea Gilmore as the last few releases have been drifting away from my musically, alas. At one point a Gilmore/Folds collaboration was my dream duet.

Back on track, after a version of Still Fighting It that I think might be different from the album version (have to check that and remove one later if not, I guess) its time for You Don't Know Me. This is just geeky joy for me. Ben Folds and Regina Spektor on the same record, personalities bumping off each other and sparking a really natural-feeling interplay. The quirky staccato structure really works for this too, bouncing around nicely. It makes for an incredibly catchy number, and there is also something intimate about Spektor's delivery in places, almost whispered. Perfect pairings like this can often be disappointing when they occur - see the previous paragraph! - but this one really works for me, and makes me wish there was more.

Still is the one track on this disc that I am not really familiar with, whilst I do apparently have another copy of it the name means nothing. However it is familiar when it starts, a haunting solo piano, a slow number. Strings are added later, creating more of a sad and wistful air which is quickly whisked away by the opening of From Above. This is high tempo, from Folds' collaboration with author Nick Hornby of About a Boy/High Fidelity etc. fame. Hornby is a big Folds fan and cited one of Ben Folds Fives numbers in 31 Songs, which I have read, though I cannot recall which song it was off the top of my head. At some point he connected with Ben, and ended up penning an album's worth of songs which Folds then arranged and recorded. The resulting LP - Lonely Avenue - is pretty good. From Above is not the best song from it (that is Picture Window in my book) but it is an enjoyable romp.

We arrive at House. This is a really strong song. The chorus is Ben Folds Five at their absolute best, emotion, structure melody, and power. When they really get into it they produce a whole heap of sound. It feels much less impactful listening now that when I first heard the song in 2011 and it hammered in to me - but I think that is to do with my speaker, the relative volume and no longer having the excitement of a potential Five reformation. Hearing this new recording back then was a promise of awesomeness - one that ultimately I feel the band did not deliver on. Now I listen to it and it is just a pretty decent song; it has lost something intangible, something I brought to it.

So what's left after this runthrough? Landed, Smoke, Still Fighting It, You Don't Know Me, Still and House. 6 of 18; I've checked Still and Still Fighting It against the other versions I have and they are different (Still is 5 minutes shorter here for a start!) so will stay.

Best Bit EP - Beth Orton

Track list:

1. Best Bit
2. Skimming Stones
3. Dolphins
4. Lean On Me
5. Touch Me With Your Love

Running time: 24 minutes
Released: 1997

Staying in 1997 for what I think is a little gem. I loved Beth Orton's debut LP Trailer Park, still do to a degree, and I love the voice of the late Terry Callier, who guests on two of these songs (one being a tune of his). I base the gem comment on just 3 of the 5 tracks. Of the other two, one is from Trailer Park and I cannot remember the differences in the versions, and the other I recall nothing. It should be a short, sweet reconnection.

The plucked hook of the title track is one of those that sit with me long term, and there is something wonderfully affirmative about the song. The tempo is positive, the vocal intuitive, the themes catchy and these things coalesce into a very pleasant and ultimately accessible piece. I find myself nodding along and tapping a foot until the latter stages. It is hardly a groundbreaking song, but its structure is pretty well managed. Late in the run there is a whispering over the top of it and the vocal degrades to non-lyrical notes, but the flow of the song remains so it is somewhat excusable. It isn't an approach that always works out well, but it is one that Orton used a fair amount, and it opens Skimming Stones too.

As this second track gets moving it does rekindle some kind of memory of it, but one that seems to be limited to the vocal lines and the structure behind the verses. The musical structure of the song was lost to my mind - and listening to it now, I think that's because there is not much there worth remembering. In places it supports the vocal well but when left to stand alone it is decidedly underwhelming - over reliant on simple and unengaging snippets rather than building a nice layered tune. As the song departs - overlong at just under 6 minutes - the best bits of the EP come in.

Dolphins - of which I heard the original only recently on the soundtrack to the film Calvary (its great, highly recommend) - is a gentle arrangement, and a sublime duet. Orton's voice - with a slight tight strain to it - contrasts wonderfully with Callier's warm croon, and both are offset by the arrangement, a sort of constant and comfortable crucible in which their words can burn bright.

After the dolphins depart we have a cover of one of my favourite Callier songs. Lean On Me is just a wonderful, wonderful song. Or rather it is a fantastic chorus supported by a really pleasant tune, decent verses and one of my favourite vocal performances in all of music. Yes, the song perhaps is a little over-reliant on repeating "Lean on me" as a lyric if you are being picky, but I defy anyone to has an ounce of soul to listen to that chorus the way Callier's voice carries it and not smile a little. OK, there will be some sourpusses out there who wont get it, but that is there problem, not mine.

Just like that we arrive at the final track, a re-imagining of a song from Trailer Park. The original was all dark, backed by a lot of electronica. Here we are much brighter, Orton supported only by her guitar line. It actually makes for a pretty good contrast with the album track (at least as I can think back to it without playing it). I think I prefer this version, there is more positivity, more hope and optimism, a stronger performance enabled by the lack of anything to obscure it. I was not expecting this at all, and am really pleasantly surprised. Not only is the vocal clearer and brighter but the guitar melody, which I think is unchanged from the original release is much firmer, confident and forms a bigger part of the piece. The overzealous strumming that form the close feels a little too put on, unnecessary given the tone of what had gone before, but then again it also ushers in the silence that is the end of this listen.

I am in two minds about whether to ditch Skimming Stone; whilst I like the vocal the arrangement leaves me cold, and it is long for what it is. Writing that out, convinces me that it really ought to go. There is no question that the other 4 tracks are keepers; as I said up front, this is a little gem - just like the lettuces I bought this morning.

Bentley Rhythm Ace - Bentley Rhythm Ace

Track list:

1. Let There Be Flutes
2. Midlander (There Can Only Be One...)
3. Why Is A Frog Too..?
4. Mind That Gap
5. Run On The Spot
6. Bentleys Gonna Sort You Out!
7. Ragtopskodacarchase
8. Whoosh
9. Who Put The Bom In The Bom Bom Diddleye Bom
10. Spacehopper
11. Return Of The Hardcore Jumble Carbootechnodisco Roadshow

Running time: 67 minutes
Released: 1997

The last post was two decades ago, this is almost so. Big Beat was the only dance music movement I recall ever having any affection for, and even then it was pretty much limited to Bentley Rhythm Ace's eponymous first offering. I remember hearing Bentley's Gonna Sort You Out! on the radio and instantly loving it. I think, though - what I loved vs. what I didn't was a fine balance. I recall a fondness for Midlander too but the rest? Not so sure. Lets see.

The first thing you hear is a weird voice saying "We've found Bentley's control tapes" and then odd laughter - part of the vocal sample that introduces Let There Be Flutes. It doesn't really need the intro. The tune itself... well the flute loop is floaty, the drums and sounds beneath it are incessant. Yet the whole thing is pretty flat sounding and has none of the vibrancy that I remember, nor the sheer impact that Big Beat brings to mind. The tune becomes more compelling around 3 minutes when the top end drops out to be replaced by a more worrisome sound - less pleasant, but more meaty, and degrades again when the ill-grounded flutes return.

There is a hint of some of the sound patterns to come on later tracks here though, and the latter stages of the track again contain moments where the melody disappears and variation is added to the structure instead. These moments are the high points, but alas too much of the track feels incredibly formulaic and uninspired on this listen. The next track will be interesting - if Midlander has lost its appeal then it is me changing. As I type, it switches. Nope - this opening is still really strong. It's hard to describe this sound, klaxons blaring, drums rumbling, no real melody just a differently dominant loop at different points, but they all blend so well, at least they do whilst what could be called the main theme is still evident.

Approaching 3 minutes in that slides away, replaced by an urgent repeating loop and faster tempo... this is weak now, but as the klaxon sounds to shift phase again the layers and depth return in a pleasing manner. The last thing this makes me want to do is dance, and it has no tune so why the hell does it appeal so much? The rumble continues for just shy of 7 minutes, most of it never touching the brilliance of the opening but doing enough to stay within good graces.

A cuckoo clock announces the change of track and I realise that I could not have placed this in a million years. A boring repetitive sound then takes over; I could see this as the base for something, and the hope is it will build, but so far it hasn't, and on its own it is dull. I am relieved to finally manage to do a midweek post after what seems like an eternity - too much of a busy social life for a change that I haven't had the chance to get to the keyboard. It's nice to be busy, but sometimes a guy needs some downtime, y'know? Somewhere in that pontification the track has evolved, and what I hear now is a bit more interesting, tin-can like percussion interspersed with guitar loops or something like it are interesting for a bit, but then it descends into random nonsense again - structure with nothing to fill it out.

Mind That Gap starts with a more urgent main loop, backed up with what must be sampled videogame sound effects (I swear I should know what, too but it eludes me). This is basically just percussion until some synthy interspersions appear. It's alright but the urgency which was attractive for the first 30-60 seconds is a bit old after 120. I have to say that so far I am disappointed. Number one on the hit list of things that I dislike is the fact that for a style known as Big Beat, the beats feel anything but big. Perhaps things have just moved on, and expectations for 2015 are different? It could also be one where my little portable speaker - a stalwart of many trips and years - is just not up to representing this sound well. Too bad. The track has continued in the background to my thoughts. I am supposed to be listening, not tuning things out to type. The problem is this is so far producing very little to listen to.

The bass that opens Run on the Spot is a bit more promising, and this track even opens out with something approaching a tune (albeit comprised of more loops) that sits well with the various sounds cobbled together to structure the run. I like it a lot more than anything else so far, bar the first 30 seconds of Midlander (still epic), as it feels much more complete and well rounded. The high point of this listen is surely coming next though.

The loopy sounds that start Bentley's Gonna Sort You out immediately take me back, but its the addition of the top end that makes me feel 17 again for a second or two. There is something weirdly soothing about the synthesis of this track it's almost like 2000s downbeat electronica but with a bit more bite to it; when the sampled vocal states "I love it", I can only nod my head in agreement. Magic stays magic, even over 2 decades of sporadic (at best) attention. The incessant repetition of the main horn sound could get to you, I guess, especially when the best crafted bits of the backing vanish temporarily, but the best thing about this track is that it knows when to end. It happens rather suddenly but its just before you get annoyed and leaves you feeling high. Only to be sucked down by the droning patterns that begin the next track.

There is a lovely dirty, dark air to Ragtopskodacarchase, laced with engine sounds it speaks to the tension of a chase nicely and could quite happily be racing game backing music, though it is relatively low tempo for that. I included this on the "soundtrack" to accompany my first blog, the summary of an IRC-based freeform cyberpunk/dystopian future RPG I did with a couple of friends in Sweden. Good times. Half way through, the track loses its impetus, the atmosphere bleeds out a bit and it turns into a rather bland drum track - drum'n'bass without the bass to make it interesting. It rescues itself when the theme returns, the oppression brought back to give the sound some real meaning. On balance this piece is worth keeping as 75% of its length is pretty damn good - it's just a shame about that bland 2 minute insert around midway. The end is brought about by the bright start to Whoosh, a pleasantly onomatopoeic word to use as a title.
 
Unfortunately the tune doesn't live up to that potential as one of the less creative uses of samples and programming on the album is presented instead. So much so, that at 2.30 it feels like it has already been going for ever, and there are another 3 and a half minutes to go!  The second half of the track is an improvement (a vast improvement actually), and the later use of the opening sample is bang on, but I have already been lost buy the uninspired opening - such a shame. Firefox locked up for a bit there and I lost the chance to add any more thoughts for fear of overwriting something already captured and then suddenly we are approaching the back end. The shortest track on the record is perhaps the most engaging - there is an awful lot going on in Who Put the Bom in the Bom Bom Diddley Bom and whilst it will never challenge Bentley's Gonna Sort You Out for the mantle of my favourite BRA track it is one of the few definite keepers from this listen.

Yeah, I am trimming the majority of this; the strength of the beats, the construction of the tunes... most have been a letdown in part if not in full; keep the highs, ditch the lows. Probably means that 6 or 7 of 11 will go. Spacehopper starts well enough and manages to surprise me by staying interesting - a twangy sound repeated in patterns being an oddly effective lure for the drum loops, horns and other pieces shuffled into place around it. It's not easy listening, but none of this album was ever going to be that and there is enough craft put into the variations for this one that it doesn't have time to sop and get boring. Then we're on to the lead out; Return of the Hardcore Jumble Carbootechnodisco Roadshow as a title recalls to mind the fact BRA took to the stage with decks/equipment fitted inside the shell of an old car - or at least that is the image in my head. It may be wholly concocted by me as my Google-fu is failing to turn up concrete proof. As a closer, this is poor - it should have come sooner as it contains much more interest than much of what preceded it. There is more purpose in the percussion, more roundedness to the layering of the samples and sounds, its a plain better tune than some.

I have been encouraged by this end though - it leaves me with a more positive overall view of the album than I was expecting to come away with, even if I still feel sure that the beats were lacking.

Bashed Out - This is the Kit

Track list:

1. Misunderstanding
2. Silver John
3. Spores All Settling
4. Magic Spell
5. Bashed Out
6. All In Cahoots
7. Nits
8. Vitamins
9. We Are In
10. Cold and Got Colder

Running time: 37 minutes
Released: 2015

Another new release sneaking in, this one I only found out about this week, though it has been out just over a month. I cannot recall where I first heard This is the Kit, but I gather they are championed on BBC 6 Music these days (I don't listen to the radio; I've got too much here that I fail to listen to as it is!).

It has, again, been a week since I got down to one of these posts, and I should have been doing Bentley Rhythm Ace, but that is over an hour long and I am not sure I have enough time to squeeze that in. This, at sub 40-minutes, is more palatable. It is also a completely virgin listen - I didn't hear any of it as I ripped the CD.

Soft guitar and light percussion open us up, I cannot quite place who this sounds like, but it might have echoes of Sigur Rós in some of the sliding structural change. When the vocal joins in it is a bit odd initially - something about the timbre and the timing of it joining jolted me a bit - but settles quickly. A soft voice, to join the soft and fluffy soundscape. There is not that much going on here, but what there is builds a nice warm safe space. It is very nice without having much heft. Misunderstanding is also the longest track on the disc - I expect things to change as we move to shorter snappier pieces.

Change it does, as Silver John has more purpose, more thrust. Less nurdling, more driving. Not exactly strident, and still trading on the same warm enclosed sound, this song nevertheless has a pace and direction that was lacking in the gentle build and maintain of the first track. I think it is thoroughly unobjectionable, without commanding any real attention. Ah, but as that track ends and the banjo comes in to carry the main melody of Spores All Settling, this... this is infectiously good. A gentle canter picked through the strings, twanging pleasantly against another warm background and a vocal that comes across with intimacy. Yeah, this reminds me of the sound that had me pick this record up once I did find out about it. The voice recording feels like it is deliberately "surrounding" the listener, I find this very effective even as I listen through a single portable speaker attached to a laptop.

Yeah, OK. I am already happy with the purchase, and can imagine this album really growing on me if I give it some more time (it heads to the car tomorrow). Magic Spell may be nonsense lyrically but there is a similar welcoming tone, soft backing with some fine strumming, thrumming playing to create a murmur of constant presence and that busy sound is great; it affects me in the same way that louder, rockier tracks do - grabbing me and pulling me into the groove - hearing the song after it has finished, but in this case without actually damaging eardrums in the process!

The title track is less appealing, stripped back from the lush warmth of earlier songs, this has a cold starkness to it and the echo-like harmony on some of the vocal is a mile away from the intimate engagement of earlier. There is less pace, too - not that any of the tunes have had much. Far from being bad, it is just a change that I think makes it weaker that what came before. Thankfully All In Cahoots brings back a warmer and more engaging vocal, a warmer (again! Word of the day - wishful thinking about the weather?) rub from the arrangement. Yes, I think it could perhaps be argued that there is a lot of similarity in the pieces making up this album so far and those similarities could be thrown at it as a criticism, but - and I don't know if this is evidence of my mood just now - I find that consistency, that coherence is actually a boon. It feels more like an album and less like a collection of songs that happened to be released together and there is something pleasingly old fashioned about that these days.

Nits has just ended, Vitamins commences. This is stripped back again but not colder in the way Bashed Out was. No, this starts light, more distant than most of the other tracks, but the same reassurance comes through from the main melody, and when the arrangement kicks up a notch or two in places there is definitely a pulse like a little squeeze of joy and colour being injected into a monochrome image. The best points of the track though, I think, are contained within Kate Sables' vocal, slight tremors, delivery suited marvellously to the arrangement. The moments in this track which are just musical are lacking compared to those where the song is in flight.

We Are In starts rather lacklustre, the voice not quite functioning as well in the context of what it has to work with here - just a very floaty, ambient backing. It picks up a bit when the arrangement improves but the song is as close to a non-event as the album has been. Thankfully it is a one off as the final track is more driven again, a compellingly simple guitar, and the same channelled, cultivated aural glow - sound behaving like a gas, coming out of the speaker and expanding to fill the vessel of my living room, cloaking it in a pleasant atmosphere.

This has been a wonderful find, an early shout for album of the year for 2015 - though I will couch that in caution as a) I have hardly listened to some of the 2015 purchases I have made yet (and many will not show up here this year, for sure) and b) there is still more than half the year to go. I do, however, think it might be quite hard to beat the feeling of contentment that came with this disc though. Bashed Out is anything but; very classy.

The Bends - Radiohead

Track list:

1. Planet Telex
2. The Bends
3. High And Dry
4. Fake Plastic Trees
5. Bones
6. (Nice Dream)
7. Just
8. My Iron Lung
9. Bullet Proof ... I Wish I Was
10. Black Star
11. Sulk
12. Street Spirit (Fade Out)

Running time: 48 minutes
Released: 1995

A classic now. 20 years old. I caught High and Dry on shuffle on my MP3 player whilst travelling to (or from) Greece and I remember thinking then that the song holds up well, so I suspect the same is true of the album as a whole. Time to find out.

I haven't tagged this as a favourite because, to be honest, I have hardly listened to any of these tracks in a very long time, that chance play above aside, but as soon as I hit play I am reminded that whilst I am always searching for new stuff, or cycling through other artists, there is something here. This is Radiohead at their most accessible, many might say best (personally I am torn on which release I prefer). Yorke's voice, the helicopter-blade like whirr, the rumble... Planet Telex brings everything back. 20 years, eh?

The truth is that I did not immediately get Radiohead, it took the osmosis of hearing my brother's copy of this album from his room next door a lot for the quality to sink in and have me go get my own. I want to say it was the melody of High and Dry that sucked me in, but it could have been the edginess of Just; I don't remember that clearly. The title track is all nasal whine, harder guitars than I remember. It really is a long time since I listened to this. Somehow Radiohead are a group that have never made it into the pile of discs I carry round in the car. Maybe I thought I had moved on, but that's just crazy talk... you don't move on from enduring quality.

It is a bit of a struggle to think what to write on this listen though. What can I say about this disc, these tracks, that hasn't been said before and better by others? High and Dry started just now and its given me goosebumps. Again. Something about this track strikes close to home even now - whilst two decades have passed, I retain some of the same vulnerabilities that I did as a teenager. They are perhaps not on display as much, and more adroitly handled as an adult but some triggers can bring them back and music has always been very good at poking holes in any facade that I might try to put up. The best strikes at you emotionally and I feel some of those strikes very acutely. Nostalgia this ain't - there is no fondness looking back on some of the memories that these tunes stir. Fake Plastic Trees is forever associated with one of the biggest emotional "bangs" that I have ever experienced, a difficult day with an explosive conclusion, pouring rain and an inner turmoil that took me a goodly long time to get over. Its funny to think that this morning, before I sat down to do this, I was trying to remember which track that was and couldn't, yet as soon as it starts playing...

Yeah, I have a lot wrapped up in this one, but its all history - maybe that explains some of why I do not listen to it much anymore though I have certainly never consciously avoided it. Looking back now is weird - for as much as it brings back strong impressions, emotions and feelings I am detached from them, in a better place despite the flaws I share with my younger self.

Ah, Bones. I couldn't hear this track in my head from reading the title - but now its constant rumble is ringing in my ears it is welcome. I like tracks like this that snarl and roll. I never got into all-out noisy thrashing of metal, grunge or any of those harder, rockier movements but crafted loudness like this retains a feral appeal. I think this track appeals to the same part of me that loves the noisier end of Mogwai's output, for instance. For tunes like this, if your ears aren't still hearing the track 5 minutes after it finished then what's the point? I never had much time for (Nice Dream) and had pretty much forgotten the course of the song, which is better than I remembered.

That intro - just so immediately, viscerally, appealing; combine with the self-deprecating/insulting lyric and mix. Just is still a heady cocktail of thoughts, but listening now I hear the composition of the second verse for what feels like the first time. The chorus, the bridge, these sections are the takeaways. The blandness of the accompaniment to that second verse has always been excused by the power of the rest of the track, so intoxicating. Less so this time through, it is not as strong a song as I recalled.

That is not something I would say for My Iron Lung - this song I think has got better with age. Of all the tracks on The Bends this best hints at where the band were going and where they came from all at once - the early career in microcosm. I don't have enough of the reviewers chops to explain why in a way that would convince anyone who did not already hold the opinion, but there is something about the contrasts, the wailing intro, the down and dirty midsection, that give me that impression.

Now this will be more interesting for me; I pretty much always passed on Bulletproof so I come to this track colder. I suspect that 20 years on I will like this more than I used to. The hooks underlying the chorus appeal more now - weird comparison time, they remind me of Microdisney's twee-but-angry 80s constructions. I don't think its a great song, but yes - more time for it now that I did have. I can't write more on that though because it's past and gone, and Black Star is pumping out. This was, I think, my favourite track when this album was contemporary. The chorus is constructed in a way that really appeals, tight, constrained and angsty, whilst the verses are more of a plaintive, open sound. I like the contrast, I have always liked contrasts like this in my music and whilst this is not the most stark of differences, it points to an element that I can trace through much of my collection (one high point being The Phantom Band track Folk Song Oblivion from Checkmate Savage where happy-clappy choruses accompany dark, brooding menace in the verses).

Sulk, how I used to live up to your name. Used as a crutch much? Sure, but no more. This time through I am just enjoying the swell, the pulse of the melody, more than the lyric or the harsher guitar in the midsection. I think this may be Yorke's finest vocal performance on the album, personally. And just like that we are leading out. Well, fading out - the loopy guitar on Street Spirit is an all time classic to the point that if I asked you to recall the song how much of the rest of the arrangement would you be able to describe? Not much, I would imagine - certainly I couldn't. I am hearing things now that I really did not recognise from memory at all. Some of the top end, the structure of the percussion, backing strings. I almost wish Yorke wasn't singing over it, and just as I think that, he isn't because the disc is done.

That's something else worth noting - these songs are all, to a one, in that sub 5 minutes "radio friendly" length bracket. None overstay their welcome and the time has flown by as a result. Not really enough time to write much about any of them as they played, and certainly no time to be bored. The album definitely holds up, though I am surprised that Just is the song that does so the least for me, perhaps because I have since found other tunes that scratch that itch better. My takeaway from this? I am not sure really, but it has left me with the nagging feeling that I should not be so quick to discount some of my older physical discs from doing duty on the commute.

Postscript: after publishing this post I was checking other #Radiohead tagged posts on G+ and found a link to this, which is funny enough that I have to share:

Bending the Dark - The Imagined Village

Track list:

1. The Captain’s Apprentice
2. New York Trader
3. Wintersinging
4. The Guvna
5. Sick Old Man
6. Nest
7. Fisherman
8. Get Kalsi
9. Washing Song
10. Bending the Dark

Running time: 55 minutes
Released: 2012

The Imagined Village. I liked their first album a lot but then soured on them a bit. I have, however, stumbled across a very positive BBC Music review of this album in the process of preparing for this post so perhaps it is a good thing to be revisiting this again. To not influence any reading of this piece, I leave the link to the end.

I have been a bit quiet here of late - nothing for over a week. I may be back from my holidays but I have been tied up one way or another - busy evenings, a weekend with the niece and nephew, tiredness and, significantly, the cricket commentaries coming from the West Indies where England are playing. These have filled up the evenings when I have been around, and I can't listen to two things at once. I have other things on the go that I haven't got to in my evenings, too - for example i am now 2 sessions behind writing up my Albion game. I was going to address that yesterday until I got caught in an accident tailback (two, actually) and it took almost 3 hours to get home from work, normally 40 minutes away, and so I was not in a mood conducive to writing.

Enough grumbling, I have just about managed to find a window for this within 2 weeks of the last post so lets dive in. The opening is an unaccompanied female voice, Jacqui Oates, that I recognise as one of The Winterset backing Rachel Unthank on The Bairns; we then get percussion and eventually a top end joining in. When the vocal returns it is, instead, Eliza Carthy. This is one of the things that attracted me to The Imagined Village - the range of musicians involved. This line up is different from that on their debut; there is overlap but some have gone, some have arrived.

Of course Carthy's vocal is also a different track to Oates' and so, I presume, was the top end. I just missed the transition... rustiness showing immediately. It makes more sense this way, mind. New York Trader is quite a rich number, blending a lot of different influences - another plus from The Imagined Village concept and range of contributers - compared to the sparseness of the short opener.

Two and a bit tracks in now, and I am again reminded about how thin the lines between genre can be, and in places you may not expect. Here on Wintersinging the percussion is persistent and incessant in a manner not unlike something you might hear in a club, weighted by the bass of Ali Friend of Clayhill and more pertinently Red Snapper, who I have seen (on video alas) doing Drum 'n' Bass live with an upright bass. The difference is in the composition of the top end - what instruments are involved - and, crucially I think, the relative volumes of the parts. I really like this track, both as an example of the fragility of genre as a concept and more simply as a piece of music. I am already much better disposed to this album than I was expecting to be before reading up on it.

The Guvna is a disappointment as a follow up - I think it misses something from not having any vocal. I recall this track being called out in the BBC piece but I read that nearer 3 weeks ago and cannot recall why. I still worry that it is influencing my opinion, but the track is simply lacking engagement. It's not unpleasant or anything, just... bland? Thankfully a singer is reintroduced for the next track, which includes Raggle Taggle Gypsy, which I am more familiar with from The Waterboys. This track again features Friend's distinctive twangy bass, with which I am very familiar, the notes he leaves phrases on, the structures of his hooks here, could come straight from a Red Snapper record, which is a fine thing as far as I am concerned.

Tonal shift. A softer song, less bassy, percussion relegated to supporting role rather than dominant structure, and back to Oates as vocalist, albeit sharing some duties with Carthy and a male voice - which one of the candidates I can't pin down by ear. Nest is alright, but I am immediately drawn in to the dark tone of the following track, a sleazy but enticing schmooze with a rich arrangement that pairs really well with Carthy's signing. This feels less folk, more noir despite being titled Fisherman. I love it.

Its not as if I have been completely music free in the weeks intervening between this and posting Beat the Champ - but it feels good to give time to some music again, even as I simultaneously distract myself by typing and glancing every now and again at the silent snooker on the TV. I have not managed to immerse myself in listening to anything else in the interim. Even in yesterdays snore-fest of a drive home there was no music, TMS kept me entertained instead as the cricket is back on, and forms one reason why I am forcing myself to do this listen mid-morning, else it could be another half week before I get to anything.

I have found the more percussive numbers, the grungier less folky numbers more interesting on this disc but I do appreciate the wandering styles, and Washing Song being predominantly stripped back to Carthy, a keyboard and fiddle is a strong counter to some of the earlier sounds. As I head into the last track I can honestly say I have really enjoyed this listen, but I am concerned it might all be destroyed by stupid silence given the 12 minute length of the title track. Hopefully its actually all music all the way - seems quite likely with the way the piece has started - a sort of rolling amalgam of the various styles of the individual contributors, rather than a coherently directed effort. As I type that it drops into sparse wandering, which would be dull except it brings to mind summer days. When it starts to build again I find it less interesting, a return to the busy but flat sound that The Guvna brought.

I hear in there a melody that I recognised, but could not place. Checking liner notes, it references The Cuckoo's Nest which immediately makes sense. That phase passes and we enter some serious drumming. To be honest I find this a shambles. The best songs on this album were tightly crafted works, using the different influences and contributors but pulling in one direction. This closer is undirected which means that whilst different aspects of it are quite decent the overall impression is not strong.

So, a disappointing close, but overall a very worthwhile album with a few tracks I enjoyed immensely. That title track goes. The other disappointing ones... I think I need another time through, or perhaps to listen to them isolated from the pieces that were so much better.

The BBC review I mentioned is here, by the way.