30/08/2015

Big Box of John Lee Hooker (Disc 4) - John Lee Hooker

Track list:

1. She Was in Chicago
2. Goin' On Highway 51
3. I Love You Honey
4. Boogie Woogie
5. Boogie Chillen No. 2
6. Drifting from Door to Door
7. Every Night
8. Must I Wait Till Your Man Is Gone
9.Whistlin' and Moanin' Blues
10. I Can See You When You're Weak
11. Late Last Night
12. I Wanna Walk
13. The Numbers
14. Slim's Stomp
15. Sunny Land
16. Never Satisfied
17. I Can't Believe
18. If You Need My Lovin' Baby
19. Little Boy Blues
20. You've Taken My Woman
21. Tease Me Baby
22. Crawlin' Back Spider
23. No Friend Around

Running time: 66 minutes
Released: 2013
This one starts a little different, if only a bit muted in tone and grubbier in sound from the guitar. We are immediately in to the same style of hook that has annoyed me on the previous three discs of this set - and there are two more hours of Hooker still to come after this which compounds my feelings of discontent. Hopefully it is not representative, but I think I have heard enough by now to think it probably is.

It has been a week since I made time for the last listen. I had wanted to fit this in during the working week, as I didn't have many social evenings lined up last week. In the event though, work took over and robbed me of the energy or will to concentrate for a solid stretch to deliver a post on a disc that runs over an hour.

Goin' On Highway 51 is a little more interesting as a starting point, a tinnier guitar used more sparingly means that although there are patterns similar to that one form of riff that has annoyed me so, they aren't so constant and the structure of the piece gives you more of a rest from it. I still don't like it enough to keep but its not painful in the way the repetition was becoming elsewhere. When I Love You Honey turns out to be a piano-driven melody in addition to the foundation provided by the guitar, I feel a bit more positive again.

As I said before, long week. Working into the evenings, and 100 miles an hour during the time spent in the office. Then yesterday I nipped over to Bristol to see a couple of old friends for the day and it too turned into a long one as I didn't get home until 2am. Better than a longer drive in worse conditions this morning though!

Boogie Woogie has none of the brightness or constant gentle roll that I would expect from the title. Not because it isn't there, but because I feel that the guitar cannot provide it, much as Hooker tries. Or rather, it can but if it does then there is nothing else going on, and that just seems to me to be no way to build a track. I have said on prior discs that the tunes are better when there is more of a band in play and that is really the nub of the issue here. As good as John Lee Hooker might be at playing blues guitar, limiting the pieces to just the guitar and some rudimentary tapping percussion really shows up the over-reliance on a couple of specific patterns and forms.

Thinking about this more,  it is the rhythms specifically that repeat and that is what I find myself objecting to. The fact that is effected by hammering the same note several times in a pattern that shifts little between tracks is an annoyance but if the rhythms were more different piece to piece it would not hammer into my skull like a red hot nail each time. Having said that, it does definitely make me appreciate the tracks that don't use the same trick more. Every Night being a good example.

As I say that though track 8 starts. This has both a backing band and a less annoying rhythm but it fails to enthrall on any level. In part this is because the recording is awful, the crackle here doesn't add warmth or a sense of place, it simply obliterates the keyboard part and distorts the rest too. I then get a shock as track 9 puts John Lee Hooker up with Andrew Bird as a user of whistling - albeit only briefly. I saw that the song was titled Whistlin' and Moaning Blues but I did not expect whistles to actually be employed. Unfortunately the track is a bit dull, underwhelming.

That is less true of the song that follows. Whilst it is slow, it hangs together well, and does not fall into the traps that I have come to be wary of around Hooker's songs. I Can See You When You're Weak is a nice inclusion here, warming my view towards the current task, and I like it enough that it puts a positive spin on what comes next. Late Last Night does rely on a very similar rhythm as a lot of those tracks I have bemoaned thus far but crucially it manages to put more into the guitar part so that rather than rote repetition there is a bit more craft and guile about it and I come away happy with it. Shockingly I then find myself keeping three in a row as the next track is a decent, if short, ditty too.

Numbers takes us back into don't want to be here territory though, and highlights another point about the repetition that speaks to why it bugs me so much - it's not just with the rhythm and the playing. These songs often have a very very similar vocal pattern too and overlaying two components with so little variance makes it feel much more like the same tune with different words each time, and after 70 plus tracks of JLH that is simply getting a bit too much for me now. Part of me is hoping to get a second listen in today, but if that is going to happen then it will definitely be playing with the order of things because I can't take 2 solid hours of blues from the same man in 24 hours!

The current track is called "Never Satisfied" and I feel like that applies to me listening to this late, great legend's work. Even when it is interesting I feel like it is tainted by the limitations of when it is not. I suppose, really, that I am not really evaluating this in the best way. I am complaining about similarities in the music and "same song, different words" in a context where I cannot really concentrate and take in the quality or otherwise of those words. Having said that, I do not consider it likely that I would listen in depth to the words of these songs in future even were I to keep them and it bears mentioning that if one aspect of what you are listening to is not very enjoyable (to put it mildly) then it is likely to detract from the overall experience. Thus whilst I am definitely not being fair to Hooker's songwriting ability, I feel happy with the decisions that I am making on the basis of his composition.

It is always a pleasant surprise when these listens where most of the disc douses my interest throw up little gems of surprise. You've Taken My Woman snaps me out of the self justification with a really fun little number, again full band to add the uplift it seems Hooker needs to go from interminable to enjoyable. There are still tracks to go at this point, but this really is the highlight, and probably the best point to consider this post closed. For all my cynicism there really is some genius here.

23/08/2015

Big Box of John Lee Hooker (Disc 3) - John Lee Hooker

Track list:

1. See See Baby
2. I'm So Excited
3. Real Gone Gal
4. Good Business
5. Morning Blues
6. You've Got Another Man
7. Cotton Pickin' Blues
8. I'm Going Away
9. I'm So Worried Baby
10. Graveyard Blues
11. I'm in the Mood
12. No Shoes
13. Nightmare Blues
14. Let Your Daddy Ride
15. Moaning Blues
16. Decoration Day Blues
17. Solid Sender
18. Heart Trouble Blues
19. Welfare Blues
20. Unfriendly Woman
21. Notoriety Woman
22. Thinking Blues
23. Don't You Remember Me

Running time: 69 minutes
Released: 2013
All of these discs start the same! Yeah, that's a bit flippant, but in doing the setup for this series of posts all in one go the opening chords are remarkably similar.

So I predicted it would be the weekend before I got in another listen and I was right. Not only that it is the end of the weekend. Sunday night. Back to work tomorrow and all that. It has been a crazy week. Today, though, has been good; got just enough done to be satisfied with, had some fun and a good meal and now have managed (more accurately decided) to find time for this listen.

See See Baby does start with a riff remarkably similar to that which begins disc 2. That riff forms 90% of the tune and it is rather boring, hence the extended intro. I'm So Excited has a little more depth of sound and strikes a better chord with me. Hooker's voice is clearer, fuller, here and that also adds something to the mix that elevates it a little. I think, again, this has a more traditional wider Blues structure and somehow adherence to this kind of format is more pleasing to me than the specific substructures he often uses. Who knows, I'm just typing out of my backside.

It's too hot for this time of night - funny how heat is always more oppressive after dark - and I am hoping that concentrating on these tunes will take my mind of both that and the ridiculous level of noise coming from my neighbour's place. Real Gone Gal is back to sparse and crackly but there is an immediacy to it, a faster whip, that keeps it appealing, right up to the point it ends as abruptly as.

Yes, bad joke!

Huh, I just found a monkey nut husk containing 3 nuts. I've seen the single pods before but not a trio before now. That little anecdote is probably about as interesting as Good Business which is like Real Gone Girl with all the good bits sucked out and replaced with plod. I find the range of our performer's vocal interesting in the sense that range is not something that I associate with the archetypal John Lee Hooker that I held in my mind before tackling these listens. I wonder if, as he got older, he only played the most successful tunes (quite a natural reaction if so, in some ways) and so some of these tracks where he is more articulate or displaying more vocal muscle went by the wayside. We're in a run, three in a row now, of tunes that I find ponderous, slow and repetitive. Each has had some element of greater interest embedded within it, be it a nice vocal, an interesting bit of noodling or whatever, but overall fall into that stereotypical limited pattern that has turned me off before and, frankly, with 6 discs of this there are songs in this collection that have those elements without the downsides.

Cotton Pickin' Blues breaks the chain a little - the tune is very different - but not by being something I want to keep. Here the recording is awful, the keyboard (or keyboards, I suspect) are recording at very different volumes to everything else around them and the distant effect is not engaging me on this occasion. Thankfully I'm Going Away brings interest back and, more than anything else, reinforces my impression that I prefer Hooker when he raises the tempo and injects a little more into his hooks and riffs. Maybe, as someone once said about me, I don't appreciate the Blues really - just some facsimile of them. It is a view I took umbrage with at the time but it has grown on me in the years since. I like my downbeat, depressing music - I turn to sad stuff when I am down, not lively things to get me out of a hole - but Blues does not feature in my choice of wallowing companions. I wonder what determines whether a tune will work for me in those circumstances; pretty much everything I turn to has more depth of sound than this. Incidentally I am not surprised when I find myself marking Graveyard Blues for removal to the song burial zone that is my recycle bin.

I'm In the Mood is the first song that I recognise as appearing for a second time (it featured on disc 1). There is nothing about this particular recording that makes me feel that I need to hang on to it, unlike the last time I heard it. No Shoes is nice, though; whilst slow it again exhibits a more vocally ambitious Hooker, warbling up and down, a nice vulnerability in the voice to go with the slow, but relatively rich sound. Pity about a skip in the recording near the end, but you can't have everything, eh?

Yeeaaaah! No. Sorry, that does not work for me. The wailed affirmative in Nightmare Blues is coupled with a return to a very low effort riff and, despite the fact there is a bit of a lick to this in pace compared to some of the songs in the Big Box I find myself switching off to this one. I am facing the prospect of traveling into London for the first time in a couple of years next week, on the day a tube strike starts, to boot - just my luck; finally get to travel for work and it's not anywhere interesting and on a day which might mean a horrible squash getting home too. Ah well, shouldn't grumble - should be interesting to be elsewhere for the day, and if I do get delayed, at least the next day is a work from home job. Alas the travel probably means no roleplaying this week. Whilst that is no bad thing in some ways - I have not had enough time to contemplate what happens next in Out Amongst the Ruins - it is also a blow to lose my regular social outlet. Still, seeing old uni friends next weekend so its not like everything is barren. I digress because we have hit another dry section where not much happening in the music is worth a mention at all. I was about to comment that at least next door have quietened down but then the laughter that pierces my walls worse than any lawnmower kicked up again. Oh well.

My monkey nuts are almost gone... sigh. Still peckish - those things are moreish. There is something primal, satisfying about cracking the husks open, shelling them, removing the coating and getting at the nut inside. Even if they do make a terrible mess!

What I cannot tell is whether Hooker is literally reusing the exact hook or riff between songs here or whether it is just the supporting structure of it that is repeated. I suspect a mix of the two depending on the tracks you compare but there is a pattern that I am very sick of by now and it keeps rearing its head - as in Heart Trouble Blues. It has been six tracks already since the last one I plan to keep, and the seventh is soon heading for the can too as the another variation - and here it is clearly a variation, showing me up! - on the same annoying riff appears. I am trying to evaluate whether it would be so unwelcome if I was hearing it in just one tune instead of many and in all honesty I think my answer is  yes. It just does nothing for me, repetitive for repetition's sake and it is there in place of any other instrumentation (just some tapping for rhythm) which highlights the over-reliance.

Ah! Finally something more interesting, complete with mouth organ, recording fuzz and more life in general. Pity it is on a song called Unfriendly Woman; the name makes me roll my eyes but the sounds make me tap my foot. Notoriety Woman does not make with the foot tapping but alas does keep the eye rolling going, not least from that same structure again. I admire anyone who can go on stage unsupported and perform to a crowd, but at the same time... sometimes getting support in is just better for everyone. From where I sit that sums up JLH to a T.

The summation may be past, but I still have two tracks to hear before I am free of him for tonight. I don't think I have much more left to add though, and unless the final track on the disc is a change up, neither does Hooker. It isn't, and he doesn't, so we close there, with me having butchered my holdings of all but 5 of the 23 tracks.

17/08/2015

Big Box of John Lee Hooker (Disc 2) - John Lee Hooker

Track list:

1. Sally Mae
2. Hobo Blues
3. Poor Joe
4. Maudie
5. Landing Blues
6. Huckle Up Baby
7. She Ain't Good for Nothin'
8. The Road Is So Rough
9. Hoogie Boogie
10. Love Blues
11. I Had a Dream
12. I'm Gonna Kill That Woman
13. Whiskey and Wimmen
14. Forgive Me
15. Dusty Road
16. 609 Boogie
17. Queen Bee
18. Union Station Blues
19. Questionnaire Blues
20. My Baby's Got Somethin'
21. It's My Own Fault
22. Louise
23. How Can You Do It

Running time: 68 minutes
Released: 2013
Part 2 of the Hooker marathon, and no blow.

Crappy joke out of the way, on with the show. Sally Mae is sung in a way that does not sound like John Lee Hooker to me. There were hints at variation on the first disc, and this song reminds me of some amalgam of bluesmen rather than any particular individual. Something in the communication of the lyrics is lighter, more open than I would have expected. The recording is also quite clear - no crackle, which I would expect to be there (on evidence of disc 1) for very early stuff.

Hobo Blues follows a similar pattern, the voice perhaps a shade back towards the familiar, before the imperfect recordings show up - there is a hiss and wheeze about Poor Joe, a sense that the guitar is perhaps slightly out of tune; the latter is likely an illusion created by the former. All three of these first few tracks are failing to set my ears on fire. I am off work today - planned leave to recover from the 500 mile round trip at the weekend for which I was behind the wheel - and it has taken me until gone 17.00 to get around to doing anything productive. Well, aside from shopping that is. 

I am hoping that, as with disc 1, the breezy nature of the disc with short songs coming thick and fast, will override my apathy and inure against the boredom of the long player. That might require some more interesting tracks though. Maudie is the first to show promise but it ends too soon, fading out whilst it seems to continue on. Unsatisfying; as is the number following it. Despite a nice muting distance between the voice and its support and the recording - giving an impression of 50's radio - the song itself makes me feel more like sleep.

Whilst not being productive, I have played through episode 2 of Life is Strange and hot damn that has one great scene that justifies the season purchase price on its own. Could any of the tracks here do similar for this disc (if not the whole set)? 

Huckle Up Baby and She Ain't Good for Nothin' appear to share a very similar approach to the guitar and structuring the support for the words, albeit at very different tempos. They are a strange pair to put back-to-back like this as the similarities are so strong. In a random link, it reminds me of two tracks from disc 1 of the Microdisney anthology Daunt Square to Elsewhere (Michael Murphy and Love Your Enemies) which also evoke very similar patterns in two consecutive tracks. Similarity like that is the last thing I need when I am still failing to fully engage with a listen, so I am glad when the next tune in sequence is more distinct. The Road is So Rough is also the first track on this collection that has me thinking I will hold on to it. Not sure what works here - the slightly deeper sound (a bit of additional support?), the positive bias because of the change-up, or something else? 

It doesn't really matter but it seems to have been a watershed. The intro to Hoogie Boogie already sounds better for following on and despite the fact the pattern of play feels like it was employed earlier on the disc it maintains that freshness. High tempo, low volume guitar, the air is as much formed by the tapping or clapping as by the guitar and very distant voice that occasionally mumbles something. Yet as quickly as the interest zipped in, it rushes out with the arrival of Love Blues which returns to a plodding approach which sounds a little stale. Hooker's vocal here is warm, though and again has a timbre that I would not associate with him. It is not enough to save the song for me but there we go.

Most of the journey back yesterday was taken up with discussion of music tastes, favourites and sharing influences - it probably accounted for two thirds of the total on the road time, discovering interesting touch-points and much-expected divergences. After two tracks of engagement, I find myself again diverging from the contents of this disc. I find too many of the tracks over-repetitive, a fault which becomes less excusable when that repetition is in evidence between tracks as well as within them. This sort of sameness was bound to be a problem for me at some point over the Big Box and I am not surprised to run into it here.

Of course, no sooner have I mentioned that, than a track that steps away from the themes that have repeated comes on. Whiskey and Wimmin seems to be more a classic 12-bar structure to my untrained ear, or at least identifies easily with that form of the Blues. This constitutes a bit of a change-up for Hooker though, and it is a welcome little insertion. The problem is again the fact it seems to end mid-stream, fading out whilst continuing unheard as the next song plays. Worse, it is a one-song interlude as Forgive Me immediately returns to as good as the exact same pattern to the guitar as was present on the tracks preceding W&W. As soon as I hear the little riff I switch off out of the over-familiarity born from boredom rather than knowledge.

These tracks generally come across better when there is more obvious band support. Dusty Road is a case in point, as the clear presence of drums and some form of treble (the fuzzy recording and the background noise of a washing cycle finishing up prevent any attempt at identification) immediately elevate the track. It is gone before it begins, but I am fine with that, and welcome its brief and bright burn along with the fact the follow up has a better tempo. The recording really is terrible for clarity, but the buzz and crackle and enforced softness on certain elements give a sense of place and context to 609 Boogie that I rather like. There is also a familiarity to the scale-based keyboards here that gives me a nostalgia for when I used to learn.

After a couple of enjoyable tracks we return to the predictable and over-used hook structure. It is not the same hook each time - there are differences in the precise notation from track to track - but the overall form is the same. Burst of playing, tapping out a rhythm, emphasised downbeat. I lack the words to really describe the nature of these things but I am positive that most would know what I mean if they heard these particular tracks back-to-back, side to side like I am - even if they appreciated the result more.

I suspect that this response of mine hits, again, upon an oft-mentioned limitation of the format I am using: lack of lyrical focus. I suspect that what differentiates Blues songs like these are the images they conjure lyrically, layering different stories over a common base to create pieces that feel more different than they do from a solely musical standpoint. There isn't a lot to be done about that. Listening without typing and writing up afterwards wouldn't work and wouldn't set what I am doing out from reviews. I would lose any real specificity that way, not to mention take twice as long over posts. I do wonder, though, what difference actually being able to interpret and comment on words might make. Alas - as came up in the car-based discussion when it turned to music to work to - it is difficult to concentrate on more than one stream of words at once.

In some ways the most interesting thing about these last two discs in combination has been the impact of the different recordings - massive differences from track to track really throwing up some discussion points. On Its My Own Fault for instance there is a really striking echo effect that hits the vocal in particular, and the guitar a little, but the keys are untouched. They are also really distant and quiet in comparison, and it is hard to know whether the soft sound is intentional, or whether they just messed up the vocal takes or what. I rather like the result, not because it is a pleasant contrast to hear, but because it is so very different to the flawless leveling of more modern music.

Either the end of this disc is much better than the start, or I have adjusted to the Blues and am being more forgiving now. The final 4 tracks are all engaging and enjoyable in different ways and as the listen winds up I am feeling far more positive about it than I was at half way. Yes, I am jettisoning over half these tracks, but retaining a nucleus of short bluesy numbers that might crop up in my future listening plans too. I am one third through the Big Box now and unlikely to manage another listen until the weekend, so I should make it half way through without breaking the order at least.

13/08/2015

Big Box of John Lee Hooker (Disc 1) - John Lee Hooker

Track list:

1. Dimples
2. Sometime
3. No Mortgage On My Soul
4. Boogie Chillen
5. I'm in the Mood
6. Road Trouble
7. Black Man Blues
8. Mambo Chillum
9. Low Down Midnite Boogie
10. John L's House Rent Boogie
11. Walkin' the Boogie
12. Crawling King Snake
13. I'm a Stranger
14. Highway Blues
15. Catfish
16. I'll Know Tonight
17. Whistle Done Blown
18. Burning Hell
19. Tupelo
20. Playin' the Races
21. Devil's Jump
22. One More Time
23. Boogie Now

Running time: 68 minutes
Released: 2013
So now we come to a real test, a 6 disc box set. Six discs of one man. John Lee Hooker. I said before, on The Best of Friends, that I wasn't sure why I had so much of Hooker's stuff - well it's just this box and that one album but... 6 discs, not one with fewer than 22 tracks. That's a lot all right and I seriously doubt that I will do them all back to back in order without going insane or dropping my post frequency through the floor, and I only just got back above ground as it is. 

The real answer for why I have this? The price. It was dirt cheap considering the amount of content, and there are bound to be some good ones in here to make it worthwhile. I just have to put the work in to find them!

It starts with a satisfyingly grainy rendition of Dimples - clearly much closer to the original recording. The plodding nature of the play is unfortunate - it could do with a bit more pzazz or snap about it - but the tone of the audio evokes the era in which the song was first cut, which is rather pleasing. It's also happily short.

Oh lord. Sometime has Hooker crooning. That is... unfortunate. On the one hand it is good to see that earlier in his career there was perhaps more variation than in the latter years (i.e. any time after I was born). On the other, I just don't find that either the singing style here, or the sparse melodic accompaniment - slightly off key at that - sits well. The verses are ditch-dull and the song just falls flat. I am relieved to hear a more recognisable Blues tilt to the follow up, including some keys that sound like they have been pounded far too hard for far too long prior to recording. This also has a plodding hook that fails to engage, but the low-fi piano has a real charm that makes the deficiencies of the guitar part more acceptable.

This really does feel like stepping back in time. Often older recordings are cleaned up when released in the modern era and it is really noticeable that these have not been treated that way. I think it really adds something. I don't want to say "an authenticity" because that's just up-one's-own-behind smug tosh. No, I think what it adds is a sense of the time that has passed since these tunes were laid down, and a warmth to the sound, a fuzzy edge that creates a different approach and appreciation. The recording of I'm in the Mood (this first disc seems to have all the tracks whose titles I recognise) is particularly strong, the flattening of the sounds that I guess is a recording artefact makes the song sound earthy, a grounding that the re-recorded version lacked.

The crackle on Road Trouble though goes too far. This song is almost hidden there is so much disturbance in the opening bars. Here it is a big shame and not a plus point; I think I would like this track, with its heavy leaning on a keyboard, were it recorded without the fuzz, but alas it fails to inspire with that aura disturbing the composition. Despite that, thus far this listen has flown, a benefit of short tracks; each is built and gone in a blink. There is one really bum note in Black Man Blues - a sung note that the crackles and pops transform into an ear-busting awfulness. It comes up often as Hooker gives us prolonged "Yeah"s. Its a shame because elsewhere on this track the guitar line is a bit more interesting than many of his pieces, breaking up the standard structure with embellishments that would maintain interest but for the allergy of my cochlea to reverb-afflicted affirmation.

The introduction of the mouth organ and a little more pace to the hooks that typify Hooker's basis enliven what would otherwise be a dull track before we return to what, by modern standards, feels like a horribly formulaic and (for the first half at least) largely instrumental piece. The main problem is that much of the structure is so soft it isn't there, and the strumming you can hear is so repetitive it could hypnotise. Hooker mutters bits and pieces over the second half, I can't make out much of it. This feels like a low point, so I digress. Off to Cornwall for a long weekend of friends and gaming tomorrow morning, and I am squeezing this in tonight in lieu of paying more attention to packing. I will likely not manage any over the weekend and it would be good to try to maintain a bit more pace about these posts. The project has been going a year now and, I won't lie, I am less well advanced that I might have expected. Through until about January I kept up a reasonable pace but 2015 has not seen the same level of application as I managed last year. I need to do better if I am going to keep it running for the duration!

Ah, something that pricks up my ears. There is a different tone to Walkin' the Boogie. An echo or something on the vocal recording is really effective. It may be a recording artefact but it works and there is a thinness to the guitar sound, a tinniness, snatched sound that sets the tune apart. There definitely are gold nuggets to be found amidst the mass, but as soon as it appears it recedes, replaced by a very conservative number. Crawling King Snake just has no life to it and - I admit this seems a very odd thing to say given the age of the recording - no originality. Structurally formulaic, it bores me; easily the worst number on the disc to date. I like the tone of the guitar on the follow-up, but the warmth and depth of the tone are undersold by the slow, methodical nature of the piece and it feels like it lasts a lifetime even though it is under 3 minutes.

These tunes could, I suggest, have done with a bit more in terms of arrangement. Many of them are just Hooker and his trusty guitar which perhaps limited his playing - requiring repetitive hooks to generate the blues structure, and restricting the freedom to introduce more interesting sounds. For me the tunes are more interesting when there is a little more going on. Whilst there is undeniably magic in the rawness of the Blues in pure form I find myself wanting a little more than that. Occasionally he delivers, generally by embracing tempo; simply cramming more notes in and around those required for the basic form lifts the output a notch. Other times there is more of a band in play and this helps.

Overall I find this very hit and miss. The hits are loosely compelling, the misses predictable and déjà entendu. Despite that I find the time slipping by pleasantly and - admittedly to my own surprise - I am not resenting the depth or length of the disc at all. Perhaps that is the benefit of engaging with it at the end of a long and busy day on the eve of a short break.

There is a bit more of a funky lick to Burning Hell, the harmonica bringing a lot of the love. It feels a touch more vital than recent tracks, more energy and urgency. As a change of pace it was much needed, breaking up a run of tunes that were all blending together from similarity. This one, in a rare statement from me, seems to end too early. It could have had a lot more life with another minute to play with. Really like it, though. Tupelo follows and having kept the recording from The Best of Friends, I don't need this one too.

Into the last stretch now, and we go round the formulaic Blues merry-go-round again. I suppose my biggest problem here is not that the song is bad, but that there are so many versions of what is basically the same song. That is going to sound horribly uninformed of me, isn't it? The point, though, is that one strict formulaic Blues track has real feeling and purpose. Several of them in quick succession just has similarity. Variation is important - and present here aplenty. However it occurs around a core of tracks that fall into the same repetitive category, which is why I find myself marking comfortably more than half of the tracks on this album for the recycle bin. There are enough numbers here that I have set aside to keep though. These tracks have somehow stood out from the others, avoided the pitfalls that an art form so reliant on standards can fall into so easily.

Blues is a wonderful and evocative medium at its best, but I am of the opinion that it is so easy to stray from that and that in this field the misstep from masterpiece to make-weight is a small one. When concentrated together like this, the criteria for judging that fall are harsh and fully two thirds of this disc are to be jettisoned. That said, if the attrition rate is similar over the other 5 discs in the Big Box, then I will still have a fair stash of Hooker tunes in the bag at the end of it - albeit just a drop in the ocean of his prolific output.

10/08/2015

The Big Black and the Blue - First Aid Kit

Track list:

1. In the Morning
2. Hard Believer
3. Sailor Song
4. Waltz for Richard
5. Heavy Storm
6. Ghost Town
7. Josefin
8. A Window Opens
9. Winter Is All Over You
10. I Met Up With the King
11. Wills of the River

Running time: 38 minutes
Released: 2010
I cannot remember where I first heard about First Aid Kit, but something around the promotion of The Lion's Roar caught my interest and I picked that album up and liked it a lot. The two voices mesh nicely, the sounds supporting them are generally interesting. So eventually I picked up this earlier release too and whilst none of the tracks listed instinctively bring recollection I am hoping this will be a good one.

We start with a typical strummed guitar and then the vocal harmony that typifies First Aid Kit joins in. It sounds nothing like my mind's eye stereotype of Swedish folk. There is a yearning there that conjures images of big sky America more than trees and lakes. It also reverbs enough that my little speaker can't cope and I have to dial down the volume a lot - I didn't even have it that loud, it just seems to be the result of the two sisters (I think?) combining.

Hah - I find myself making the same mistake I have castigated others for in the past, and not for the first time. Perils of real time stream of thought typing I guess; some small amount of post-listen editing goes into these but not an awful lot. Hard Believer is a more melodic song, still playing on the harmonies - it will be a theme, since it is what sets this pair apart - and slower, more sombre, and still redolent of country in many ways (says I with no knowledge of real country music).

Musically there is nothing boundary-shoving here but the stylised vocals, accents and harmony really make First Aid Kit unique. Fast or slow, melancholy or bright, simple or more complex it all comes back to the singing. Some of their tunes are quite catchy but put less compelling vocals over them and they would be nothing of real interest, just diversionary. With the singing voices the two young women apply, however... much better. They must be aware that it is their selling point, because the compositions in places are so thin as to not exist, and often there is nothing more than a lightly played guitar to back them up. I don't think I have ever heard a harmony like it, there is compliment but also clash - the latter in a controlled way that enhances, rather than as a detraction. It almost sounds like one or other of them are out of tune deliberately, as they sing in different ranges and stress slightly different syllables. It is mesmerising and enchanting.

Ghost Town introduces some form of organ or accordion to give a mournful edge, and the first verse is sung solo. It sounds lonely after five tracks of paired delivery. Even here though the vocal strengths and interest the pair generate is strong. There is a fragility, a wavering quality to the intonation that enraptures my ear and draws me along with the sad story eve whilst not really processing the words. I think I have mentioned before on these pages that absorbing lyrics whilst typing my own letters is nigh on impossible dual processing for my brain and I miss a lot. I have the same problem if trying to read whilst listening to podcasts, and it's a really annoying deficiency for life in the modern world.

I am somewhat glad that the next track is more upbeat, the vocal much more positive and warm, the backing simple but bright and spangly. Its a simplicity, and repetition that is wearying and in other contexts I would be decrying Josefin for its staidness. Were it not for harmony, harmony that this time has additional support beyond just the pair of stars. That missing lyrics thing? I get the impression it is a big deal here, but maybe I am inferring profoundness where none exists as a direct result of the gravity and weight that the vocal has on all of these pieces.

In truth, I think perhaps the full album gets a bit much, too reliant on the same trick. However good a trick that may be, over-reliance on a single point can get stale. I don't recall The Lion's Roar having the same problem, so maybe this is a reflection of a debut - there is less craft in the music, less variation and therefore more similarity between songs. I don't want to undersell this though, just because my ear is craving something else - the quality is present throughout and any one of these tracks would brighten up a shuffle.

As I say that, I run into the first one that isn't stellar. Winter is All Over You just lacks whatever it is that makes them magic, particularly as it draws to a close. It seems churlish to complain when the spark soon returns and when there is such an obvious gift here. I would seriously recommend this to anyone who adores interesting vocals.

Just like that I arrive at the end, Wills of the River. This has been a short one, short and sweet for the most part. It is a pity that there isn't more interest in the composition, but that said the tone, pace and content is varied so even if they are a little over-playing a very simple accompaniment there is at least some form of differetiation from track to track. Having said that, adding too much without forethought could seriously detract from their greatest strength. I guess they walk a fine line and if so, then it is hardly a surprise that they step the "wrong" side of that in places. Overall though? I like this a lot. I would like it more broken up with something meatier, but I think this album might have come a little early for that.

09/08/2015

Beyond the Blue Horizon - George Benson

Track list:

1. So What
2. The Gentle Rain
3. All Clear
4. Ode To A Kudu
5. Somewhere In The East
6. All Clear (Alternate Take)
7. Ode To A Kudu (Alternate Take)
8. Somewhere In The East (Alternate Take)

Running time: 54 minutes
Released: 1971
What to say about this one? Well, it was part of the big box of 25 classic jazz albums that already spawned one of the first few posts on these pages.

For some reason I have long laboured under the misconception that George Benson played Matt 'Guitar' Murphy in The Blues Brothers (soundtrack listen here) but, true to form with the other band members in that film, that was... Matt Murphy. I don't, therefore, have any real frame of reference for Benson, so the introduction on this boils down to: almost an hour long in runtime, but actually only half that because of the repetition. First impressions, therefore, aren't that positive. Lets see what actual exposure makes of it.

We start, surprisingly with a bass/drums combo that reminds me of something specific that is on the tips of my fingers but not coming to mind; doh! Look at the track name. I was expecting it to be all straight in with the guitar lead. That takes a bit longer to show up, and arguably is secondary to the structure and even the melody provided by some form of organ for the first couple of minutes.  Frankly this is a really poor rendition of So What, but then anything would be. Miles Davis' piece is a masterwork; Benson's interpretation is a mugging. The majesty of the piece simply goes missing without the understatement of the original arrangement. The soft, perfectly timed interjections. None of that is present here and whilst the strains of the tune come through here and there the overall effect is more muddled and seems to prioritise the wrong things at the wrong time. The classic call/response is murdered by moving it to a fast pinging guitar and a harsh organ blast and the rest just fails to ignite. When if fades out after 9 minutes I am still shaking my head as to how that can happen.

We move onto the only other track that is on this album once. The Gentle Rain is also 9 minutes long, quite possibly also a cover, but at least is not a destruction of something I am familiar with. Its light twangy guitar and faux-tropical rhythms are pretty much a perfect encapsulation of a certain type of cheese and at least this feels like it fits together right. The guitar really is the star here, everything else fitting around it. Alas the mediocre swing and stereotyped approach wear thin before the track is half done, the constancy of the bongos boring its way into my brain in most unwelcome fashion. At least a keyboard comes along to rival the primacy of the guitar but it is all in the same vein and I think this sort of thing was out of style when it first arrived. I wonder to what extent this will be typical of the three repeated tracks; I suspect quite a large one.

I would go so far as to suggest that tracks like this are probably part of the reason that jazz was seriously uncool by the time I was born (the other part being the bonkers interpretation that all jazz is completely improvised atonal sonic mess). Its just so... uninspiring.

All Clear is a little brighter in sound but still unmistakably from the same school. There are no bongos (thank heavens!) and the percussion is less bad cruise movie music as a result, but in their place we have a cheese-laden organ part and some weird applications of strings or other backing sounds. I think these are employed with a similar effect - if not in mind, then in achievement. The whole desert island poolside cocktail bar image, crappy fake floral necklaces and bad Hawaiian shirts. I cannot take this seriously at all, and cannot enjoy it. The guitar is the epitome of playing with itself; and I have to listen to this track again?

I am seriously tempted to stop the listen before the retreads occur, but that would be against the spirit of the exercise; curse my sense of propriety, but who knows, maybe the alternate takes are genius.

Ode to a Kudu at least has the good sense to be short. It is a much softer number, more like a background hum to a quiet clinch, when the rest of the world ceases to matter for a few moments and almost fades out. Not that I would remember what that actually feels like. This track is bearable though and has a cadence that is remarkably pleasant given everything that I have typed in this post to date. Then it is past.

Oh no, the bongos are back evoking less of the east and more of Africa. A squirty, skew-whiff guitar is layered on top. It is a really odd combination that simply doesn't work. I think the worst offenders on these tracks are, in no sort of order, the bongo, the harshness of the organ sound, and the unnaturally bright sparkly air to the guitar. It's all too... clean and shiny. It just re-enforces that non-stick music for hallways, hangouts and elevators feel. There is nothing with any edge to get caught on. No roughness to rub up against - it all just slides right off, all sounding similar and leaving me feeling as though it only exists to fill time.

Time - today has been an odd one. Family time, solo time, time-rewinding magical girl time (Life is Strange starts... interestingly. Not sold on it story-wise yet as it reinforces a lot of my distaste for American High School stories, but characterisation has been improving and the central conceit is interesting enough). Now I feel like my life is on repeat as the alternate takes begin. I think All Clear is less objectionable second time around, but I still sense this is music for people who don't like music. I think I got that phrase from a friend who is no more who used it more pejoratively than is my intent here. I simply mean that it is so bland that there can be no objection, and so it must be perfect for soundtracking fondue parties with bad porn mustaches and flared suits. A child of its time, but perhaps out of step even then.

Yes, I'm talking out of my behind here, but crafting ridiculously stereotyped images of the reception of this disc in the 70s beats actually trying to describe the same things over again as reprises emerge from my speakers. To be fair, I think the alternate takes are better than the originals, significantly so. Almost listenably so. I may even like the redone Ode to a Kudu despite the extra minute added to its length. The guitar is still too spangly and self-congratulating but the subtleties of the percussion and strings in the background are handled really nicely and they draw my ear away from the central theme enough to appreciate the track.

The same cannot be said for Somewhere in the East. If anything the guitar feels more out of place here than before and, unforgivably, the track now pushes towards 10 minutes. Repeated organ chords join the hand-drums in providing elements that build up to my annoyance and everything that was wrong with the initial take of this track seems recaptured here in the only way that could move it from so plain it is bland to just plain bad. It is safe to say I am relieved as the piece finally reaches the (ghastly) conclusion it builds towards and the disc ends. Not a good one, this.

06/08/2015

Beware - Bonnie 'Prince' Billy

Track list:

1. Beware Your Only Friend
2. You Can't Hurt Me Now
3. My Life's Work
4. Death Final
5. Heart's Arms
6. You Don't Love Me
7. You Are Lost
8. I Won't Ask Again
9. I Don't Belong To Anyone
10. There Is Something I Have To Say
11. I Am Goodbye
12. Without Work, You Have Nothing
13. Afraid Ain't Me

Running time: 45 minutes
Released: 2009
I have a couple of albums from Bonnie 'Prince' Billy. I am not sure what drove me to pick them up or what I made of them when I did, but it is probably connected to a brief yearning for Americana. This is more discovery than anything else, then, for I cannot have listened to many of these tracks very often.

It opens with a really appealing guitar, a fairly simple loop but it immediately taps into my buoyant morning mood. I get older today and am not working, a lazy day of listening to the cricket and writing up my last RPG session ahead of me and I am squeezing this in first thing. The song uses a harmony nicely, the combination of sounds, voices and words is slightly messy but in a compelling way that invites listening, rather than the cacophonous sense that was evident on The Beta Band. It is a much stronger, brasher start than I was expecting, as my preconception was that Bonnie 'Prince' Billy was all fairly stripped back.

More like You Can't Hurt Me Now, in fact. A somewhat trembling voice, and a sparse construction echoing the wide open spaces and big sky landscapes that typify Americana. I could imagine this refrain drifting over ranch-land in the days of the frontier. It could be soundtrack to set the scene for a game of Dogs in the Vineyard. Hard to say where my appreciation for this drifting, stylised sound came from. I am pretty sure that my first conscious exposure to "modern" Americana was Willard Grant Conspiracy but I have no clue how I stumbled across them. Anyhow, from there LastFM came into play and threw me up some other suggestions. Actually, thinking about it, I might have that the wrong way around; it may have been LastFM throwing up suggestions based on Grand Drive.

That's not important anyway. What is more important is that like an idiot I forgot to switch WMP off shuffle so actually the listen has not been in running order, aside Beware Your Only Friend. Bugger. I don't have time to reset and restart, so I am going to have to continue. I am relatively sure that a) I will still only get each track once (repeat is not on) and b) that I am unlikely to dislike anything here enough to want it out, and even if I do I can respond to that immediate dislike.

What gives me that feeling? Well for a start I am in a good mood and approaching the listen in relaxed fashion which helps, but more pertinently everything I have heard thus far - about a third through by time - has been interesting. There is a discordance in some of it, but it is very controlled and deliberate, adding an edge but held in check to make it an interesting one - this applies most consistently to the vocal harmonies between Will Oldham (the man behind the moniker) and his backing singers, but I think I hear some in the jangling guitar vs. the structural strings too.

OK, so shuffle is no good. I have a repeat. It has occurred to me that I can use LastFM to work out what I have and haven't heard though. That second paragraph refers to Without Work, You Have Nothing, by the by - though it is fair to say You Can't Hurt Me Now also conforms to the preconceptions I had of the artist now that I am directing this playthrough. The only piece that does not, perhaps, is the xylophone, which feels out of place amongst the gently swaying countrified plod. Plod - its not a positive word really is it? I think it fits here - the pace is slow to warrant it - but without the dragging, uninteresting connotations. Somehow it plods positively.

My Life's Work seems to hybrid the brasher sounds, largely delivered by the lead guitar with the general pleasantry and reservations of the album as a whole. It forms a compelling track of ups and downs, and then throws a curveball by introducing a mouth organ or other blown instrument in the more orchestrated sections - an element that has been missing to this point, or at least had passed me by. I am finding that I prefer the songs that have a bit more depth of sound to them - contrasting the typical trappings of Americana with a richer, louder centre - but still enjoying the more standard fare.

Its funny, I have a feeling that on a general library-wide shuffle then if I was at the keys I probably wouldn't let any of these tracks get started before hitting the skip. I am beginning to suspect that is a massive mistake. There is something here for any mood. As you might expect, the sparser tracks would suit quieter moods better, but there is some proper joy here too. You Don't Love Me brings a trumpet in for another new sound and this really works for me - I have been a sucker for a well used trumpet since forever.

Two tracks left to go. I am still enjoying the music, but with an eye on the clock I am willing it to end before it reasonably can as I want to get the radio on and bring up TMS. I am forgoing the first 5 minutes of build up to the 4th Ashes test for this - no play, you understand. I wouldn't have countenanced that. I Won't Ask Again is very different from the rest of the songs here. Many of the structures are similar but the overall effect has a completely different tone, in a way that I wish I could articulate, but find myself failing to.

I skip to the end now, the last track being the only one unplayed following the shuffle mix-up. It again has a different tone, a bit darker without being oppressive in the verse, bright in the chorus. A flute or similar soaring over the general tumult. It is a different sort of big sky music - this is not drifting out over open plains but appealing to the heavens in a concentrated burst and would not be out of place on a film soundtrack somehow. I think Afraid Ain't Me is probably my second favourite track here after the opener which really set the tone for this listen by breaking my expectations first up.

I'm happy about this one, finally validating a purchase of several years back. I doubt I will run out and buy more of Oldham's work - unless I am similarly impressed by Lie Down in the Light - but it is a nice little nugget to have on the shelf.

02/08/2015

The Beta Band - The Beta Band

Track list:

1. The Beta Band Rap
2. It's Not Too Beautiful
3. Simple Boy
4. Round The Bend
5. Dance O'er The Border
6. Broken Up a Ding Dong
7. Number 15
8. Smiling
9. The Hard One
10. The Cow's Wrong

Running time: 62 minutes
Released: 1999
The Betas are interesting in that of the four albums I own two are absolute favourites, and two I never listen to. At all. This disc is in the latter category and I struggle to recognise more than the name of any track here. I wonder what I will make of it when forced to pay some attention, instead of being able to skip to something from The Three EPs or Heroes to Zeroes instead.

It opens with a pretty awful cacophony, dull hook, no harmony in the attempted harmonisation. The Beta Band Rap gets better when that all dies down and a more pleasant loop and beat replace the background. The overall impression still isn't great, and the track is more an almalgamation of different mini-tunes than a coherent whole. It is fair to say I do not like this opening and I can only hope that it gets better.

It's Not Too Beautiful is an immediate improvement. A more considered rhythm sets the pattern. Whilst I suspect it will get old over the 8 minute duration, it starts as fairly catchy. The biggest initial improvement is in the vocal, Steve Mason's delivery really working. Alas, the track goes to pot as it apes a Bond theme in structure and leaves me with the feeling that smashing tracks together might be an unwelcome thread through this disc. The more enjoyable structure returns after the experiment filters out, but alas it might be back as a chorus, since it contained the title as a lyric. The track just does not have enough to it to justify its duration and frankly I am bored of it long before it finishes. Technically it doesn't even finish, as I somehow manage to go back to a previous playlist, interrupting this listen momentarily before I skip to Simple Boy.

This track is stripped back some. Vocal and beats with minimal support; it should not work but it manages to by cleaving to something else: brevity. Mason's voice is another one that really works for me, whether on the Beta Band work or his own. His delivery appeals to a degree that allows me to forgive a lot. Alas, so far it is asking too much to forgive most of these tracks. I am stunned at how bad this is when held up against Dry the Rain, Needles in My Eye, Assessment etc. - tracks that pre- and post-date this rubbish. 

Its not that there aren't nice bits and pieces in here. Some of the hooks are very classic Betas and the vocals are generally a beacon of hope in the darkness, but the lack of vision and the impression that someone basically stuck a recording mic on a session of them pissing about during downtime then released it as a produced album is impossible to escape. In that regard it reminds me of the Ben Folds Five track For Those of Y'all Who Wear Fanny Packs from Naked Baby Photos. None of that would be so bad if it wasn't a whole hour in length. I am finding this uncomfortable, I don't like writing so persistently negatively about a group that I am very fond of.

Alas I am struggling to find anything positive in what I am hearing to address that tonal problem. I am seriously considering pausing the playback and breaking this up because it is so uninspired. Fingers crossed that there is something a bit brighter unearthed soon.

As I type that, Broken Up a Ding Dong starts (some confusion as to whether this should be a one-word title, but LastFM says no so it isn't here; source disc was no help at all due to crappy fonts). This tune is a little better. Handclap percussion and funky hooks remind my oddly of Rodrigo y Gabriela which is a pleasant change. Alas I find that it repeats a little too long, and when I say a little, I find myself wishing it stopped at half distance because the hook wore thin and there isn't enough interest brought in to keep the good vibe going. It does change up a little bit in the second half, but ends up sounding like the recording of a carnival crowd, steel drums and whistles to the fore. Ultimately it is another weak track. I have only liked one so far, and that is the 2 minutes of the 62 total runtime. Oh dear.

Another reasonable pattern establishes itself early in Number 15. Alas the album conforms to its own larger pattern of letting it run too long. Thankfully though there is a bit more mitigation here in the form of the chimes and other background sounds - screaming monkeys?! - that are thrown into the mix. Whilst not all of these sounds are nice they do manage to break up the repetition to an extent. Not enough for me to want to keep the track, mind, but it is an improvement of some of what came before in this aspect.

Three tracks to go, I must be nearly home... no, lengthwise I'm about 60% through. Smiling is 8 minutes and uses a vocal sample I am sure I have heard elsewhere... one of the tracks on The Three EPs perhaps? Or maybe its just the style that is very similar and it is a newly recorded chant. This track is less of an offender than many of its predecessors in terms of being annoying. Whilst the munchkin-like aspect to the vocal might grate a little, and the structure is very similar to earlier tracks, this one seems to offend less with its repetition of patterns that are frankly not as interesting as they might be. I don't know if this is because there is a touch more musicality in the crafting of the loops, a bit more depth or what. I am not saying I like the song, but I dislike it less than what has come before, even with its length - I have reached the 6 minute mark and whilst it could do with finishing, it is not overstaying its welcome in the way Broken Up a Ding Dong did so egregiously.

The Hard One is the longest single track on the album at 10 minutes and change. It is, or at least starts, softer than what has been before. Less reliant on percussion. I very much doubt it will last its distance without doing something to annoy me at this point, but it is much more promising than I was expecting before it started. Spacey piano was just getting going when it is replaced with the clip-clop of a return to the reliance on percussive instruments (not surprising given how many of the group were drummers I guess!) in an unwelcome intrusion. The interest lasted about 2 minutes. The whole thing virtually fades out on 4 minutes 30 and rebuilds from nothing. The key loop it starts with could have led to something interesting but it simply repeats for too long and loses interest while some bassy rumbles join, these too fading out in favour of something else. This is just incoherent again, which is more or less exactly what I expected the track to be. Awful. Just as I type that word, the soft piano comes back and the track returns to something like the opening that I rather liked. Alas, but for the 5 minutes in the middle this tune would be redeemable. Oh well.

We end with The Cow's Wrong, which I really hope is a surrealist reference to an animal opinion (quite possibly so given the off-the-wall nature of this disc) rather than a misogynistic declaration. Lyrics refer to cows in fields first, so I hope that answers that one, but it's not conclusive. I am actually finding it hard to follow the lyrics as I try to discern the conclusive answer - the effects applied to Mason's voice combined with the supporting structure make certain words hard to pull out. The song is just dull mind, so I don't feel like I am missing out on much,

As it winds down, I am left to reflect on the waste of an hour. I am stunned by how bad this disc is, especially coming on the heels of the Three EPs. Yeah, there are a couple of really bad tracks on that collection, but there are also several great ones. Here there is one pretty decent 2 minute experiment and an hour of utter tripe. At least they came back from this. Heroes to Zeroes is awesome, so I am hoping that Hot Shots II is not this bad.

01/08/2015

The Best of Van Morrison - Van Morrison

Track list:

1. Bright Side Of The Road
2. Gloria
3. Moondance
4. Baby Please Don't Go
5. Have I Told You Lately
6. Brown Eyed Girl
7. Sweet Thing
8. Warm Love
9. Wonderful Remark
10. Jackie Wilson Said (I'm In Heaven When You Smile)
11. Full Force Gale
12. And It Stoned Me
13. Here Comes The Night
14. Domino
15. Did Ye Get Healed
16. Wild Night
17. Cleaning Windows
18. Whenever God Shines His Light
19. Queen Of The Slipstream
20. Dweller On The Threshold

Running time: 76 minutes
Released: 1990
So when I mentioned Van Morrison on my Best of Friends listen, it probably sounded like I wasn't keen. In fact the two tracks he appears on are two that I kept from that disc, amidst cutting half of the tunes from my collection. There are plenty of ways to damn this guy with faint praise but whilst his style is perhaps a little samey from piece to piece he pulls off that laid back atmosphere so darn well. I like and respect that, even whilst I am not overly familiar with too many tacks in specific. A few of these - Gloria, Baby Please Don't Go and Here Comes the Night are credited as Them, so predate Morrison's split from that band.

My largest complaint going into this listen is becoming as repetitive as some of the formulas used by those I have listened to recently: the length. 76 minutes plus change for the write up is a lot of "switched on" mental time to find these days.

Bright Side of the Road lives up to its name, a bright and breezy track with a head-noddy impulsion it is exactly what would would expect and opens a nice easy listen, before we're dumped into Gloria. This song is obviously well known and classic - but I would never have known that it had anything to do with Van Morrison and I will probably forget the link within 10 minutes of finishing this entry. The style is so completely different from his solo material, much rockier, edgier, livelier. Bright Side... was just that, but it didn't have the energy and zest that Gloria brings. Its a shame it is quite so short.

Moondance is... odd. Morrison's voice here is obviously younger than I am used to - there is less of a growl to it and it loses a lot of desirable character for that. The song itself is jazzy/bluesy easy listening and I am not that enamoured, especially not of the flute or whatever light woodwind provides the whistling treble. It's all so cheesy and unnecessary for me. We are landed in blues-land again with a cover of Baby Please Don't Go which has a really good roll to it and a dirty grungy element to the sound quality which adds to rather than detracts from the qualities of the song; this one I like a lot.

The tempo and mood change completely as that song closes and we enter the realm that I most associate with Van Morrison, easy listening ballads delivered with a distinctive and mature voice. I could take or leave the musical accompaniment, but the vocal characteristics that define Have I Told You Lately are the reason that I have this best of. I have never been inclined to go out and acquire the individual records Morrison has made over his career, but I really fell for his delivery when I heard Philospher's Stone on the Wonder Boys soundtrack. I had been aware of him before that, but never exposed to a song in a way as to really pick up on his ability.

It is safe to say I like distinctive voices. I prefer when people sing in their own voice rather than a put on generic "Americanised" accent which seemed to happen a lot when I was younger (and perhaps still does to a degree in music that gets a lot of mainstream radio play; I wouldn't know). I also have a fondness for gravelly voiced individuals. Van Morrison ticks both of these boxes so I am prepared to overlook some of the compositions which are functional rather than interesting in their own right most of the time. Case in point - Sweet Thing has a constant thrum going and very little variance throughout, it functions purely as a base over which the vocal can sit. Actually in this instance I think the volume is a little too loud on the main hooks and it manages to dull the song.

Oh now that does not work for me at all. Warm Love sounds like Morrison is singing with a throat infection - not the fact its scratchier, but the opening verses sound like a strangle. Its a strained edge that again takes away from the natural characteristics of his voice that appeal to me. Thankfully the strain disappears in the chorus but the damage is done and even the fact the backing picks up a little more interest as the song goes on cannot save my impression of the track.

Wonderful Remark starts, well, unremarkably, but there is an injection of interest after about 70 seconds or so along with the chorus, the horn section just lifting a track which was flat to that point. There is a lot to like about the chorus, which is just as well really because there is not much else of interest about the song. At least the most interesting thing about the song is part of the song, unlike with Jackie Wilson Said, where the most interesting thing about it is the classic Top of the Pops blunder that involved putting up a picture of darts player Jocky Wilson when a cover of this tune was performed by Dexy's Midnight Runners. The song passes me by whilst I confirm that it was the cover and not Morrison himself performing beneath the wrong image.

Gale is not a word you often expect to find in song titles, it doesn't much conjure an image conducive to musical accompaniment. This song works based again on the interest supplied by the horns. I am starting to see a pattern here with the repetitive nature of the compositions though. Each song is different - I have no problem with overall lack of differentiation here - but within each track there is precious little variation, and over-reliance on patterns played over and over.  Thankfully when our artist is on form you don't notice it so much because the essential nature of his vocal grasps your full attention, but on the weaker tracks or where there is a few seconds with no lyric it niggles at my appreciation.

The final Them track is less interesting that the prior two. It has the same jangly guitar and brighter, quicker nature in places, but it lacks something intangible needed to elevate it. Frankly I don't think I will listen to Here Comes the Night again, and I am OK with that. By immediate contrast Domino is more brass-based and when the horns blare up it is close to the best thing on this playlist.

Pure cheese! Did Ye Get Healed is so muzak it hurts. Not just the floaty easy listening style tune, but with the backing vocals of shrillness invoked it smacks of elevator or bad telephone hold music. That gets even worse with the sax solo on 2 minutes or so. I just cannot take this song at all seriously, and it has to go. The last quarter of the disc begins better - a more vital hook, a slightly muted sound and vocal forced out with slightly clipped pace, the sound builds and expands. This is genuinely enjoyable for more than just Van Morrison's central performance. A very odd decision on the 3 minute mark though - introducing some new horrible sound to what had to that point been great. It means the lead out of the track is almost a write-off, even though the imposition doesn't last long.

I can't see the title Cleaning Windows without thinking of George Formby, this in turn means that I cannot take the song seriously. Which is a shame because for all that the subject matter is dreary, the hook and character of the chorus is really catchy - not something I would chose to listen to often, but a nice change up in a shuffle or good background music. Now that is a hook I wouldn't have placed here. The opening refrain of Whenever God Shines His Light is immediately familiar but never in a million years could I have paired it with its artist or the song that it opens. It is a comfy little loop though and essential enough that it is easy to forgive the cheesier elements added as the tune continues. That said, the song should stop more than a minute before it does because the meat of it is over, and the lead out is several repetitions too long.

There is a much more melodic hook in Queen of the Slipstream and it is nice to hear the primary structural element in the upper register for a change, and for it to drop out and then reappear later. This strikes me as a more crafted composition than many of the tracks preceding it... right up until the halfway mark where there is just too much going on at once for this sort of gently plodding song (and I mean that in an endearing kind of way). The latter half then again just lasts too long again, making the end a blessing.

The final track, Dweller on the Threshold is a familiar one, bits and pieces of which are really nice (I love the soft trumpets), some of which is really dull (the beat) but which overall sums up the overall thrust of Van Morrison's music quite nicely. Over-reliant on a stunning vocal to create most of the interest, prone to lapsing into repetitive blandness in the rhythm section and liable to include little bits of joy amongst the brass. A light cull is all this receives then, 5 tracks binned, thrice that retained. I may trim back further in future as I am already losing the definition for some of those songs I did not call out by name above; I wonder how damning that is?