The Complete Anthology (Disc 1) - Stump

Track list:
  
1. Tupperware Stripper
2. Our Fathers
3. Kitchen Table
4. Buffalo
5. Everything In Its Place
6. Bit Part Actor
7. Orgasm Way
8. Ice The Levant
9. Grab Hands
10. 50-0-55   
11. Big End

Running time: 35 minutes
Released: 2007

Complete random insert now. Back when I was getting into Microdisney via Cathal Coughlan's solo work, Stump were recommended to me by some algorithm somewhere (I don't recall whether it was a shop or a music site). I fell for the trap, bought the recently released Complete Anthology and then... thought it was odd and ignored it. Was that a good move?

By the by, this is apparently a concatenation of two releases, Quirk Out and Mud on a Colon.

The first sounds are hardly tuneful, and the early voice sounds more like a lead in to a budget 60's sci-fi tune than a pop song... my first musical point of reference is early Pink Floyd. There are some quite funky sounds buried in this track, in and amongst the rubble of the rest, but it is hard to see myself ever choosing to listen to Tupperware Stripper again. Amusing title, though, and the drive of the rhythm is a positive that hints there may be something salvageable in the anthology as a whole. We shall see!

This listen is my New Year's Eve; I've never been a fan of this night of the year and a safe, low key solo pursuit is just the ticket... even if the content I am consuming is not immediately lovable. I like Our Fathers a lot more than the first number though - there is a more definite tune here, whilst preserving some of the interest and quirkiness. The ending is a little but anti-climactic though, and the cutover to the next track is jarring. It jumps into precisely the kind of experimental noise-pop that I was expecting from my brief experiences of Stump when ripping the CDs... and it's not a culture I buy into, though that said I think the vocals that clearly don't fit standard lines and structures provide interest and creativity; it's the music around that which lets it down.

I am more parochial about my music these days for practical reasons. I have too much, I've never liked radio and the ways that I expanded my horizons in the past are less effective now - the lists of new releases on big online stores are dominated by re-releases and multiple different formats of mainstream items which I have no interest in, so I don't get to discover. I'd like to think I would be open to new artists, new sounds etc. - certainly I've been pleasantly surprised by some of the less familiar works I have listened to - but I don't go out of my way to find them. I also just... don't get to gigs anymore. No idea what is on, where, and no-one to go with if I were make for live music retreating out of my life.

I guess it is a question of priorities to some degree, but I do think it's got harder to sort wheat from chaff because there is now so much more... and the latter has always dominated in scale.

Anyhow - meaningless digression aside, if you overlook the questionable lyrics and suppress the suspicion that they're being weird for the sake of being weird, Stump had some talent in there. There is experimentation and there is cacophony, but there are also funky structures, rhythms and good pace. Nothing can save the horrible noise of Bit Part Actor though... it's just awful. It marks the end of the first EP; the latter 5 tracks are the second.

No song I have heard so far this evening has been entirely likable, but equally not everything has been a write off. For all the noise and weirdness in the construction of the sound, I think the most dubious element of the tracks is the lyrical content. The other parts wax and wane in quality, but the lyrics are just sheer nonsense throughout, and "adult" in that particularly juvenile way more often than I am comfortable with. I find it odd that I bring that up here, but for once I actually feel able to track the words to some degree... perhaps the lack of traditional tune structures throws a little more focus on the script?

Experimentation can be a good thing, but by its nature it is hit and miss. On this disc I feel the balance is more miss than hit. For every cool hook and each sweet sound there are two or three unpalatable items - crap words, walls of tuneless sound, incoherent track structure and so on. On the plus side, the tracks have been short and the whole disc is less than 40 minutes so it's not like it's eaten too much of my life. I find that I am keeping about half of it, much more than I thought I would, because enough of the tracks contained little positives to warrant another listen. By rights I should nuke it all, really, but sometimes that spirit of experimentation is welcome, and for when it is, there is Stump.

Compendium - The Second Hand Marching Band

Track list:
   
1. Mad Sense
2. Lies
3. A Dance to Half Death
4. Don't!
5. Not Yet
6. We Walk in the Room
7. BonBon
8. Grit and Determination
9. My Gift is Waiting
10. Next Year
11. Bottle of Anger/Lies (BBC Scotland Radio Session)
12. A Hurricane, a Thunderstorm (BBC Radio Scotland Session)
13. Love is a Fragile Thing (Sleazy version)
14. Learn to Love (2007 demo)
15. Bypass (2007 demo)
16. Transformers (2007 demo)
17. Dawn Raid (2009 demo with Benni Hemm Hemm)
18. Alexander and Angela (2009 demo)

Running time: 69 minutes
Released: 2010

I've written about how I came across The Second Hand Marching Band before. This has the look of a best-of and retrospective, including tracks I have elsewhere, but that's alright by me. Twee Scottish low-fidelity amateur charm is OK in my book.

It is a suitably low key starter for 10. Mad Sense's slow tempo, a lone voice, adding another. It's disarmingly charming. Yes, I was biasing myself towards this before I started, but there really is something comforting about the simplicity here. That said, I am happier for the bigger sound and a bit more life in Lies as that takes over, its intro more than half its length before the vocal joins. 

I can't help but feel, though, that I should stop this listen after three tracks, because A Dance to Half Death is undoubtedly the summit. I have loved this track since the first time I heard it. There's some fragility in the voice that endears, whilst the main theme, the twiddling tunes behind the vocal and the pace all strike emotional chords (pun intended) in me.  There is a rawness to it all, a heart laid bare, a pleading appeal. In some ways the song is amateurish, the voice almost fades away in places and it sounds like only an indie-effort could... a little rough around the edges. Yet the earnestness, the genuine intent and belief of the performers and the tones of their strings stir feelings in me, a sort of comfortable loneliness and longing. It is, I think, a masterpiece, albeit one most people will never hear or appreciate.

The sense that everything is slightly off-key can't be as easily brushed off on the more bombastic Don't!, and here the effect of everyone playing and singing together has more of a cacophony about it, and then we hit the first of the tracks on this album that I don't recognise. Not Yet jettisons the noise for a stripped back sound, a female main vocal, it reminds me more of Strike the Colours' less pop-y pieces in places with the intricate little strumming loops, though overall the similarities aren't that great. It builds nicely and I find myself enjoying it a lot.

Of course, my liking this should not be any surprise; The Second Hand Marching Band shares (shared?) some overlap in membership with eagleowl, a lot of their tunes exhibit that very clearly, and eagleowl are the best band no-one ever heard of and the group that I keep going back to when being alone all the time tips over into loneliness. The downside of that is that hearing those sounds when I wasn't feeling lonely (like just now) can tip me over into the very loneliness that I use these sounds to escape. Today is a calm day of not much between two days of hosting people for board games and in the aftermath of family Christmas. The quiet and peace are - or were - welcome, especially as I don't really feel like I have been off work for a week yet!

The album loses its way a bit in the middle. All pace slips from the tunes, and they strip back too far to be interesting. They retain a gentle charm, but it is a detached one, rather than an intimately engaging one.

The combination of Bottle of Anger/Lies brings back the energy. Yes, it is in part a repeat, and I could have sworn it was something I had elsewhere, and a quick search suggests that I axed it! Huh. Context matters - here this combo really worked to bring back something that was lacking as the mid-section drifted. There I found the raucousness abrasive. Odd. I am still not that enamoured of A Hurricane, A Thunderstorm though and I may axe that again (especially as I have other versions).

It amuses me that there is a sleazy version of, well, anything that would be advertised as such, but that is where we are with Love is a Fragile Thing... I can't hear anything immediately worthy of that term, so I guess it is a bit tongue in cheek (or I am tone-deaf). Then we are into a bunch of demos to finish off the offerings.

Learn to Love starts these off with the same trembling vocals that endeared A Dance to Half Death to me. Here there is less to back that up, but it is still plenty pleasant. Actually it may end up being these demos are the real reason to have this album... the search for where I had Bottle of Anger/Lies before laid open how Compendium is less a greatest hits and more the collected works. The first 10 tracks come from two EPs, 11 and 12 from the BBC sessions linked above. Happily thus far they are well worth having. The recording is a little harsher, louder, than perhaps would be ideal but the tone of the songs is right.

My attention wandered, and I find myself suddenly at the end of Transformers without consciously processing the bits in between - nice soft guitars, low key vocal and not a lot to do with the track name as far as I can tell...

Two to go, then; 10 more minutes.

I find my words are gone. My drive to type MIA. Suffice to say I really like Dawn Raid even though I cannot find the lines to explain why. The closing track I am less keen on. Musically its more of the same and OK, but the lyrics are mean-spirited in places. Not a good finish.

Comments of the Inner Chorus - Tunng

Track list:

1. Hanged
2. Woodcat
3. The Wind Up Bird
4. Red and Green
5. Stories
6. Jenny Again
7. Man in the Box
8. Jay Down
9. It's Because... We've Got Hair
10. Sweet William
11. Engine Room

Running time: 42 minutes
Released: 2006

As much as I like Tunng, my favour has always fallen on Good Arrows and And Then We Saw Land. outside of those two albums I haven't listened nearly as much. I suspect that's probably a mistake and I hope this listen will back that up and convince me I should give them more time. We shall see.

Post-Christmas haze. First day back home alone without the family around. Blessed quiet, and space for a listen, albeit competing with the sound of the washing machine in the kitchen. Can't have everything. Hanged starts with precarious found sounds, wandering light beeps and rustling percussion. There is a structure to it though, and it begins to coalesce into something more... then abruptly ends with a vocal sample. An idiosyncratic start, very Tunng, very good for setting the tone. Then we get into a picked guitar loop to start Woodcat, and Sam Genders' soft whispered vocal.

My two favourite Tunng albums sit either side of Genders' split from the band, but I love his vocal style. It's comforting, familiar, understated. It is like a little aural cushion to fall back on to. It wouldn't fit with the bolder sounds of And Then We Saw Land, but Genders-era Tunng were lower key, and labeled with the horrible portmanteau "Folktronica." I can see where the genre-labelers were coming from but really... It's not folk, and it's not electronica. It's not really even between the two, though it is hard to argue against it containing elements of the latter. Tunes are almost incidental as the intriguing array of found sounds and samples predominates over the instrumentation in terms of how the tracks are built and structured. For a man who wasn't keen on being the centre of attention, Genders situates his vocal very much at the fore of these pieces, too - though I don't think anyone could call the lyrics visionary, or insightful.

There is a nice emphasis on structural elements to these tracks, the counterpoint to the relative lack of melody. On Red and Green, for example the tune comes from the variation in the vocal to begin with, whilst the rhythm is prominent, up front and all squeaks and beeps - yet somehow without any harshness to them, and not out of place either. The higher pitch beeps used to form the beats has a tinge of birdsong to it, despite clearly being electric rather than organic. In some respects this is a strange album. It's harder to get into than the more tuneful works that followed but quietly rewarding once you get past the rather odd first impression.

Their tunes are quite hooky, too. As in they all have some little quirk your ear can latch onto and have your brain replicate again and again. I suspect I might be hearing the main loop of Man in the Box for the rest of the day.

Huh. I just noticed that the track list I pulled had 13 tracks for the album, but I only have 11. I wonder if I am missing a couple of bonus numbers? It could also be to do with some hidden tracks in the final number as its 8 minute run time is a little suspicious.

In some ways these songs are all vignettes at heart, a core idea. The group then layer little explorations and theories expanding around that core to build neat little baubles. This listen feels more like wandering through a gallery of things than it does sitting down to appreciate a composition. The Science Museum made into music. A hundred different little things to peer at and move on. It's quite a special feeling, but not really one that this project sets out to capture. I mention that because my attention is wandering... less so from appreciating the sounds presented to me, rather from being able to formulate coherent notes to tie it all together.  The little intricacies and aural oddities that crop up here and there, the somewhat off-kilter sounds, they all pull thought away from typing.

Ah, the final number, Engine Room, is the one track I really recognise from its opening notes. A really strong guitar hook, with a nice roll to it over an ominously tight picked center. It moves away from that core as it goes but its a very strong opening. By the time it becomes a space-y metallic fade out I am not quite sure where the time went. That is about the 4.20 mark, so there are some hidden track shenanigans here, but thankfully there is next to no silence (so it escapes the tag). I am not so enamoured of the postscript though... it's perfectly fine, but no more - and frankly the majority of this album is so much more than merely fine that this waffling final few moments is a complete anti-climax.

I really liked this one; I am not surprised by that, but it has made me think that I should expand the range of Tunng albums that make it to the commute-box.

Comfort of Strangers - Beth Orton

Track list:

1. Worms
2. Countenance
3. Heartland Truckstop
4. Rectify
5. Comfort Of Strangers
6. Shadow Of A Doubt
7. Conceived
8. Absinthe
9. A Place Aside
10. Safe In Your Arms
11. Shopping Trolley
12. Feral Children
13. Heart Of Soul
14. Pieces Of Sky

Running time: 44 minutes
Released: 2006

I have a strange musical loyalty gene or something, because I keep buying records from artists long after I stop actively enjoying their current releases. I think this is such an example. I loved early Beth Orton... Trailer Park, Best Bit and Central Reservation all. Then was much less enamoured of Daybreaker, yet I bought this album at launch. I also picked up last year's release, Kidsticks, though nothing in the decade between this and that and I can't recall actively listening to it at all. Time to reappraise this one.

In truth I remember little. Worms actually starts things off in a promising manner. Simple backing supporting a song that thrives on its vocal. It's such a simple composition that it really works, all the melody comes from Orton's voice. The song is nonsense, but like most of this disc (14 in 44 mins) it is also short so it doesn't have time to instill any feeling of distaste at the oddities. If this is a sense of things to come then I might actually enjoy this album. I don't have that many shorter songs really, and this type of punchiness - there, formed and gone - is actually a nice thing. Brevity can be welcome.

It is the Saturday before Christmas and I have surprised myself by basically being ready. Yesterday was massively productive and the family commitments only begin on the day itself so I have a couple of days to relax before it hits. On the record, things are breezy and warm, its not really speaking to me the way that Orton did on Trailer Park but it's not bad either. Pleasant background music I guess. Not maintaining a constant rhythm on this project doesn't help with approaching this sort of thing with any consistency. I'm sure that in the past I have binned tunes that were simply "fine" or "nice" like this. I could here, too, but I am not really feeling that decisive today.

It's true that the music is not giving me much to write about, but that is as likely to be because the tracks are gone before relevant and coherent thoughts are formed. None of the numbers on this album go over 4.30 in length and many are sub-3 minutes. I've reached the title track already and it feels like I have barely started. This song is the first that makes me feel actively indisposed to it. The vocal sounds a little flighty and a bit more broken, and the sparse backing is more fiddly and offputting than supportive. Compared to Worms, which has a similar high level structure, the execution is off.

I find that the goodwill I felt a mere 2 tracks ago fading, the unwillingness to call this bland and cull is suddenly replaced by the opposite urge. I cannot quite place why.

The general tone of this record is I guess a gentle warmth, it feels a little self-indulgent, self-congratulatory for a nice life. A little comfort bubble, but one that I feel I am outside looking in on, cynically so. That's me being the cynic. I find myself disengaged, distant and unable to find a thread to follow in these tunes. There is a lushness to the sound, and I find that doesn't play well with Orton's voice for me. This is probably ossification of taste, an indication of how I loved earlier material that I am more familiar with. My impression - whether accurate or not - is that the first couple of records were a bit rawer, a bit more visceral, and this one is overdone. 

That said, I rather like the tune on Safe In Your Arms, the longest runner on the album. It has a nicely tilting simple back-and-forth guitar lead and while the arrangement is still a little on the warm and fuzzy side of things, the sounds all rounded off, no hard edges, the tune has more room to grow. The piano deployed here adds something where elsewhere on the album I felt it superfluous. Tellingly, the point at which it feels it might be getting too much is also the point it chooses to close. A good decision, and a gem amidst the pile of stones.

I think the skepticism in my intro is justified by my experience of listening through. There are brief moments here and there when the music within swells and gives joy, but the overwhelming senses I take away from this is apathy and disengagement. Songs that disappoint may contain some nice ideas but then fail to deliver on them - Heart of Soul is a good example of this, where I rather like the approach to the chorus, and the way it breaks the structure from the verses, but I find the vocal does not work for me.

In closing, whilst very little of the album is actively bad, by the same token very little of it has me enthused. I wouldn't complain if someone put this on, but I wouldn't choose to do so myself. Damning with faint praise is damning most of these tunes to the recycle bin.

Come Up With Me - Thea Gilmore

Track list:

1. Come Up With Me

Running time: 3 minutes
Released: 2008

This was a Liejacker-era single or promo or such, and in my library at least shares the album's cover art. One song, not sure when or where I picked it up, but Gilmore remains one of my all-time favourites (and her latest The Counterweight is her best for years). I think I can hear this tune in my head, but how does it go really?

It's gentle folk-rock intro, layers one guitar on to another. The song is fine, I guess, but it's hardly Gilmore's best work. Her voice is good here, and the tone is brighter than a lot of how I hear Liejacker in my head, so that's good, but ultimately this is filler. I think I can live without this one, however much I may like some of her other work.

Come On Die Young - Mogwai

Track list:

1. Punk Rock:
2. Cody
3. Helps Both Ways
4. Year 2000 Non-Compliant Cardia
5. Kappa
6. Waltz for Aidan
7. May Nothing But Happiness Come Through Your Door
8. Oh! How the Dogs Stack Up
9. Ex-Cowboy
10. Chocky
11. Christmas Steps
12. Punk Rock/ Puff Daddy/ Antichrist

Running time: 67 minutes
Released: 1999

As much as I love Mogwai, I've never really got on with CODY as an album. It has always been down the pecking order for me. Probably because I came to the group late, and picked this up by going backwards not forwards. Still, now it's time to listen properly.

Punk Rock: isn't, but the synergy of the voice with the gentle wandering guitar is better than it has any right to be. The louder moments of the sampled voice track (TV show interview I guess) are less effective, crowd noise is not particularly engaging. It is snowing outside, I have not been sleeping well the past week or so and I have been overly social in that time, too - only one weekday evening and today, Sunday afternoon, to myself. I need that alone time to recharge, and hopefully the next hour or so can contribute to that.

I suspect I will enjoy the listen more than I anticipated when I wrote the intro (a long time back given the sparse postings and need to fill in As and Bs that I bought), and come away with a new appreciation for this record, but still - 67 minutes is a marathon, not a sprint. The listen is putting off consideration of how to handle a complex scenario in the RPG I am running, the washing up and various other things I don't really feel like doing right away, so the gentle meandering of the title track is a rather apt form of procrastination. I am actually pretty familiar with track Cody from the live album Special Moves, which I listened to a lot whilst driving in the couple of years after it came out.

Thus far the tone of the disc is subdued, placid, with a tempo to match. It's really rather relaxing, a long way from the quiet/loud dichotomy or the wall of guitar noise that crops up in many Mogwai offerings. The most interesting factor so far has been the use of American TV soundbites. One actually spans two tracks, linking Helps Both Ways to Year 2000 Non-Compliant Cardia. This latest tune has the most body of anything so far, but is still in keeping with the easy overall tone.Not having ready up on the album, I don't know if this continues throughout, whether it was a deliberate choice by the band to mellow out, or whether the longer tunes coming up in the second half are more immediately recognisible as Mogwai.

To be fair, I'd like to think that if I heard any of these tunes in isolation without knowing them I would still be able to guess the creators because its not a million miles from their signature either.

I am enjoying this little oasis of calm. I am half way through per the track list, but a lot less than that in truth. The back half contains 4 tracks over 8 minutes and 2 at around the two-minute mark, whereas the first half was made up, generally, of standard radio song length pieces. The first of those long tunes does not shake up the formula, the easy-paced, light melodies. It does introduce some more strident strumming, but still within a slow paced formula. At this point the form is starting to wear a little thin for me in some respects. Whilst I appreciate the overall tone I am increasingly finding my mind is wandering because it is all a little too samey. Then Oh! How the Dogs Stack Up comes in with a weird old voice sample and and being completely out of place - old-timey, slightly off-key piano, and a sort of screeching background. I think that tune has to go.

Three epics back to back now.

For some reason when I see the track title Ex-Cowboy, the cattlemen of the American west is not the first thing that comes to mind. I think instead of Football, and Bloodbowl, of Dallas and Darkside. Perhaps it is an affectation, sport on the brain, influenced perhaps by the silenced snooker on my TV right now? I really like the main riff here though I find myself semi-tuned out because the pattern is set, and the track does not seem to have enough of a crescendo. Of course, it arrives as I am typing that last sentence, a sort of helicopter-blade swirl of sound applied over the top of the same riff at the same pace and amplitude. A screech, a scream, an objection to something.

A nod to earlier, the static the tune ends with is used as a bridge between tracks, and Chocky kicks off with a lot of dissonant sound humming and buzzing around, obscuring a gentle piano intro. I find this to be unwelcome. One tune fades, another rises, and then the fuzz clears and we actually have a piece of music with a discernible structure. A pretty good one at that. There are hints of sounds here that remind me of other songs, snatches of other groups - positive associations. The one that I can't shake that pops up again and again through the track is Red Snapper... I don't recall the track title(s) for the songs I am thinking of though, so I can't explain the reference. Maybe They're Hanging Me Tonight? It's a very different piece, different style tone and everything, but there are echoes here and there, similar sounds used in similarly punctuating ways.

There is a sort of restrained but naked threat in the sound of the first crescendo in Christmas Steps, a sound that had me springing forward in interest and excitement. This is the first really aggressive passage of the album and I like the bolder, brasher sound. The contrast is too late in arriving for me to consider CODY a great album, but this at least provides a great moment. The energy disappears from the track thereafter and it feels like the wind-down lasts too long, but then from a certain perspective the whole record is one c.70 minute come-down with a brief lively moment near the back-end.

Awake but Always Dreaming - Hannah Peel

Track list:

1. All That Matters
2. Standing on the Roof of the World
3. Hope Lasts
4. Tenderly
5. Don't Take It out on Me
6. Invisible City
7. Octavia
8. Awake but Always Dreaming
9. Conversations
10. Foreverest
11. Cars in the Garden

Running time: 48 minutes
Released: 2016

So I had a random shuffle on. Started with some Red Snapper, but quickly ended up in Singer-Songwriter land, through Lisa Knapp and Alessi's Ark. This last one made me think it had been a while since Alessi's last album, and I searched to find that she'd released one 2 days ago. Coincidence. Cue an instant purchase, download and play (spoiler: it's good!). From there I got sucked on to LastFM and exploring similar artists. Seeing a bunch of people I like a lot in that list I took a punt on Hannah Peel who also showed up and sounded interesting. So here I am, much later on.. and with that long rambling intro, lets see how the promise plays out.

We open with some very spangly electronic notes, then add an ethereal voice.  I can both see why the genre tag on this says "Dance & DJ" and why that tag is utterly wrong. There are bits in and amongst it - chiefly the voice and the tone of it - which make it clear why Peel was put up as similar to Alessi's Ark, but the overall style and direction are quite different. Not bad, just different.

I am happier with the opening of the second track. This is more like what I was after when I bought this album... then I realise my mistake. And old and common one relating to not removing shuffle. Start again. The actual second track is and interesting one. Slow, sparse, measured. It could be an epic soundtrack, the gravitas from the pacing really needs a visual. The vocal is a bit disappointing, but the atmosphere created on the tune is one I like a lot, one that is then shattered by the change in track as we head back towards the sound we opened up with.

This flip-flopping I suppose gives me something to moan about... but actually I don't want to moan. I rather like the flow. Hope Lasts is a good example of something that I would run a mile from on the radio, but in context here, I find myself really enjoying its cheesy synths and brighter tone. As we head into December things that bring brightness and warmth are well received. The short days, miserable skies and chilly temperatures all sap at my will to live. Little things like the right tone of music can make a big difference to how I feel in the depths of winter. The right tone isn't always light and bright - dark, cold and distant can sometimes be what I need - but right now? Yeah, light and bright please. It's like sometimes you're really wanting familiarity, and other times really interested in exploring new stuff; same deal.

So far this new stuff is working quite nicely - though I am not under any misconceptions that it will become an instant favourite or anything like that. There are some glaring flaws for a start, most notably the lyrics tending to the samey and repetitive, but there are some very nice sounds to sit behind them and the package averages out in the positive.

Invisible City is the track it shuffled to after the opener. I really like the keys on this, and the stately pace. The vocal drips honey, a luscious warmth even in its detachment. The tone is enveloping, a blanket against the outside world. Best track yet - and one I can genuinely see myself loving after a couple more listens.

As I find myself attuning to Peel's style, it grows on me. I like how she mixes up her sounds a lot, how the various bits and pieces fit together, and how she clearly cannot be labeled as mono-dimensional. There are tracks here that skip around several different styles, sounds that come from all over the place, and yet... they sound whole and as though they belong. Sometimes however the cadence of the piece is not quite right. The title track seems to have far too much empty space in it, too much track length to run out, meaning much of it is plodding, too sparse. Through it she is building up the layers of sound but for my money not really doing enough with them and it all feels quite staid, which given the variety of sounds is quite a feat in itself.

When Hannah Peel brings out the piano keys though, there is a nice satisfying resonance to them. She doesn't over-elaborate, using simple and amply-spaced notes to give a solid foundation. This is not complex note-wrangling, but it is really nice craftsmanship (even if the layers on top of the keys sometimes let down). She seems to use the piano structurally, thus creating tunes you think you could play, a deceptive and effective bluff, because the piano alone tells you nothing of the track as a whole.


The second really long track on the album starts much more promisingly, but loses its way about half way through its almost 9 minute duration. But you know what? I really like this album, despite the obvious weak spots.

 

It closes with an odd duet, charmingly odd. Overall, it's a winner.

Alterum - Julie Fowlis

Track list:
   
1. A Phiuthrag 's a Phiuthar
2. Camariñas
3. Fear a' Bhrochain / Dòmhnall Binn
4. Dh'èirich Mi Moch, b' Fheàrr Nach Do Dh'èirich
5. Go Your Way
6. Dh'èirich Mi Moch Madainn Cheòthar
7. Windward Away
8. Thèid Mi Do Loch Àlainn
9. Òran an Ròin
10. An Aghaidh Fàilte Na Mòr-Thìr
11. Cearcall Mun Ghealaich

Running time: 45 minutes
Released: 2017

New release time. First listen. All the usual caveats.

I wrote that line a long time back, when this dropped through my door and got elevated to next in line. As seems to be customary these days, I have to preface this post with excuses for not having been productive on the project front - a combination of illness, tiredness, a busy life and, if I am honest, prioritizing other things over listens. I'm going to try to squeeze in two this Thanksgiving... whilst I am in the UK I am taking these 2 days as holiday as all my US colleagues are out and I had days left to take this year.

Right, that done, on to it.

Julie Fowlis' voice is charming though I don't understand a word of her songs, the Scots Gaelic impenetrable to my ear. It comes across as a lyrical language, but then that could just be the context. After all, putting words to song is going to exhibit the more lyrical aspects of a language more often than not. The first tune is a gentle strummed core, backing strings and a lilting, swaying rhythm with natural swells and long held notes. Entirely pleasant, but nothing to get excited about.

I am not used to this - my back is complaining about my posture sat up and forward at the keys, hunched over slightly. Another little challenge I guess. The music on is now more stripped back, the lush backing of the swells from the opening number replaced with a more lonely string line. I found the first track more engaging somehow... more soothing. Here the duet worked but also it rather obscured Fowlis' tones, and I buy her music for two things: 

1. Upbeat folk tunes
2. Her wonderful voice

Thankfully both are in evidence on the third track, which has the tone and tempo of a dance tune and a clearly sung main vocal. There is sunshine through broken clouds in these sounds, images of mountains and islands and a cool but lovely summers evening's light. Yes, tunes like this are stereotypical, but they are so for a reason. Not all stereotypes are bad, and most are rooted in some level of reality - if exaggerated for effect. The jigs, reels, tunes and songs of the isles are a pretty well defined body of work, and to me, a soft southerner working in tech, with no aptitude for country living but an admiration for it (I spend many a Sunday evening with Countryfile, for some reason!), they paint an idyllic (and unrealistic) picture of the beauty of that kind of existence. 

Ah, now we get a number in English and whilst the singer's voice is clearly the same, some of the magic is lost. Yes, it's still a fantastic voice, warm and inviting, but the mystery of the foreign tongue is gone, and I find that it takes a little away from the experience. Why should that be? Well, I guess it's a form of "othering" the songs, but whereas that is usually used in a negative light, here the other is part of what appeals. A sense that this is not my music or heritage, but one I am lucky enough to have been exposed to. I dunno. I am so out of practice with these posts that I suspect the flow of thoughts that I find myself with now is 99% crap and 1% flim-flam. 

So far so good though. A couple of ups and downs but the disc is pretty much what I would have expected, what I wanted from it. I'd like a couple more of the pacier tunes where Fowlis is able to convey an impish sense of fun and joy but I suspect that is just me looking back to the point when I first came across her work with a sense of nostalgia and ossification. I have definitely noticed myself being less enchanted by new things of late, which is a saddening thought. Still, despite that I have still bought more than I have made posts in the last quarter so it's not all bad.

Overall the tone of this album seems to be more sombre, which is a bit of a disappointment, not because it isn't good, but because right now I could do with a bit of a lift. And as I typed that sentence the song that was playing turned from slow, mournful tones to quick, lively ones with a very light vocal. Doubt erased. Good stuff. 

The final track is another slow number but it has a couple of really nice touches. First the spoken (English) intro, and then the harmony between two female voices. A poem set to music to close us out. Overall, yes this is a question of more of the same. No, that is not (always) a bad thing. Change and evolution are welcome developments, but sometimes... Sometimes you want something comfortable and familiar - even whilst it is "othered".

Come From Heaven - Alpha

Track list:

1. My Things
2. Rain
3. Sometime Later
4. Delaney
5. Hazeldub
6. Slim
7. Come From Heaven
8. Back
9. Nyquil
10. Apple Orange
11. With
12. Firefly
13. Somewhere Not Here

Running time: 68 minutes
Released: 1997

I can't remember when I picked this up, but it was long, long after it was released, and solely on the basis of a Massive Attack connection. That said I do have some one-off tracks by Alpha scattered through my collection it seems so maybe they led me to the album. I recall being profoundly disappointed with it and don't think I am consciously able to identify any of these tracks, but now it is time to give it its fair shot.

It's straight in to its first loop, no intro. It's a fairly slow, long pattern and the top end of it is not the most interesting. I have a feeling that this listen could become a slog in at least a couple of ways already. To be fair one of those is not the fault of Alpha; that this is the first full weekend I'll have at home in 3 weeks; that I've spent most of the day thus far (and all of the last weekend at home) doing chores, that I've been ridiculously busy of late. But the fact this is downtempo stuff really doesn't help.

Downtempo isn't necessarily bad, far from it, but it does rather lead to a sleepy atmosphere, and when tired that has a knock-on effect. Paying attention for close to 70 minutes of this will test my wakefulness, regardless of what I think of the music. So far, so little. Second track, Rain, has a vocal that sounds pretty phoned in over a similarly bland loop as the opener. The repetitiveness of it is a major drawback - both in terms of my staying alert and in terms of how enjoyable the track is. The loop itself is too strong, too forceful, too central. The variations that really should be making and breaking these tracks are subservient to the structural pieces rather than the other way around. It's all a little turgid, a little stolid and a little guileless.

It probably also doesn't help that I think I am coming down with something... can't keep my throat clear, so I am on the whisky to try to burn whatever it is out. That kind of discomfort and grogginess doesn't make the glacial pace any more palatable though. Three tracks in and I am sorely tempted to write off the whole lot and be done with it. The third is the worst yet - a 7 minute long trudge with nothing of any interest. The vocal is uninspired, the backing seems to alternate between two long-held notes ad nauseam.  Yawn. I am struggling to find something positive to comment on to break up my negativity - I don't like to be too monotonously scathing - but not finding anything.

At least the 7 minute thing is over?

The soporific nature of these tunes is only matched by the sheer boredom of waiting for a couple of minutes every so often for the screen to catch up with my fingers as I type. For some reason Firefox is hanging with a worrying degree of regularity. I really should make the full-time jump to Chrome as FF seems to get worse every week by comparison.

Stopping early is against the spirit of the project. I really shouldn't do it... but I want to, so much, as this is pretty much the worst thing I have encountered to date in my listens. Not worst as in most offensive, not worst as in unlistenable, but worst in terms of simply having nothing to get even remotely interested or excited about. Hazeldub, playing now, is the least worst track so far but even this feels quite poorly stitched together.

A lot has happened since I did my last listen, at the end of a week when I got up a head of steam again. That was 20 days ago. Since then I've been to Moscow for a long week of meetings, and had weeks either side of that in which I have barely had room to breathe, certainly no chance of sitting down to really listen to anything. From that point of view I was dead keen to fit a listen in today. If only the album had been at all interesting. For the sake of not becoming even more of a broken record I am going to stop typing for a bit and really try to search for something to break the monotony of complaint. Fingers crossed, here goes...

There is a nice bit! A break in the pattern as Slim turns in, the vocal is set free a bit and the support goes nice and light. It's nothing special, but in the context of what is around it it's like a droplet of ambrosia.

I don't think I am mellowing to this disc, but at the same time it seems to have got less unpalatable in the last few minutes. I think this is to do with a couple of quieter tracks, background reduced, focus on vocal.  It's not enough of an improvement for me to want to keep any of the tunes yet but it is a noticeable step in the right direction. Here and there some more thoughtful, more impactful sounds are coming to the fore.  Just three tunes and 15 minutes still to go. Somehow I have broken the back of this listen... by largely switching off from one of the core conceits of this blog. I don't want this one to set a pattern.

Thing is, Come From Heaven is not bad in a way that is amusing, that can be joked or laughed about easily. Its bad because it's so mediocre, so middle-of-the-road, so dull and bland that there are simply not enough talking points. Even the improvements in the second half of the run time have been baby steps - from dull and boring to pleasant and boring. I am glad I stuck with it, happy to have had a little bit more life in the later tracks even if it is not enough for me to say any of them are worth holding on to.

The album ends with a slow, dreamy track, spoiled by its duration (7 minutes) and its context. It's a high point, not just because it signals the end, but alas the peak is too late, and too low.

Afterglow - Jon Boden

Track list:

1. Moths in the Gas Light
2. Afterglow
3. Bee Sting
4. Wrong Side of Town
5. Fires of Midnight
6. All the Stars are Coming Out Tonight
7. Dancing in the Ruin
8. Burning Streets
9. Yellow Lights
10. Aubade

Running time: 44 minutes
Released: 2017

New release time. Jon Boden's first solo release after the end of Bellowhead is a return to the apocalyptic visions of his previous effort, Songs From the Floodplain, which I loved. I am catching his tour next month (alas not at a full band show) but picked this based on a prompt from the mailing list. This is a first listen so not likely to represent a final opinion.

The first surprise is the lushness of the sound, it's filled in. The vocal doesn't necessarily have the space it needs to create the picture the album sleeve suggests, and the wind instruments in the bridge feel out of place. It is not immediately a winner, then, but I suspect it might grow on me.

Sunday afternoon, this my penultimate thing to do before the weekend (and my week off) is out. The other is a stack of ironing. Joy. It's been a productive week, but I don't really feel like I've had a break because of that. It's damned if you do, damned if you don't, because if I'd taken the full stop I needed then I'd have still been in a terrific mess and feeling bad about not having done anything. Oh well; tomorrow morning is sorting through a week's worth of unanswered mail and figuring out what changed whilst I was out. In light of that I could do with something a bit more immediately positive or energetic than this. Jon Boden is a fantastic performer, very charismatic on stage, but so far that charisma is lacking in the recording.  The title track is pedestrian, dull rhythm leading to a staid overall effect. I hope this is not representative.

The drudgery is brightened a bit by the light guitar work on Bee Sting, but there is still no sense of pace or rhythm in the piece, even when the drums come to the fore, it's more emphasising the stop of the flow rather than providing positive impetus. Sure, not everything needs to be quick, pacy, intense, but the sell on this album is meant to to be big screen, not back room. It isn't working on that score. The imagery not supported by the sound; the concept not realised as well as it was before.

Oh, this is a richer sound. Space is occupied, arrangements more intricate, Bellowhead band mates invited to play a part in building a busier tapestry, but that extra "stuff" is not employed as effectively as it could be. The sense of identity projected by Afterglow is more after-party... come down, soft and easy. I am not picking out the lyrics clearly whilst I am tapping away here, but I don't get the sense of a vivid and lively world from these tracks.  It feels all very... safe?

All the Stars are Coming Out Tonight injects a bit more of a rhythm but whilst this is a crescendo of sorts, it manifests with all the ambition of background noise. The tune is staid, predictable. So whilst we gain a bit of urgency and, towards the end of the track, some more distinctive delivery from Boden's vocal, that is in service to an uninspiring song.

I am better disposed to Dancing in the Ruin, but... from my point of view the same concept was carried off with more gravitas on Songs from the Floodplain's Dancing in the Factory, where the sense of ruin and life in a world amongst the ruins was conveyed far more effectively. So what appears to be the strongest song thus far is weaker than a previous offering. This tune then devolves into an out-of-place instrumental outro.

I might just be in the wrong mood for this. Burning Streets brings a sense of urgency and stridency to the party but I bounce off the arrangement pretty hard. This is the first time that the apocalyptic vision really feels like it belongs, but the song itself leaves me cold. This is followed by some tension... a slow, dangerous tension, rather than a knife-edge or action-pumping tension. Yellow Lights has the most compelling marriage of theme and execution on the album. I wish this was saying more than it is. Having said that, it is not a particularly enjoyable song musically speaking. The vocal is great, and the arrangement does support it, but it doesn't draw you in. It is more keeping you at arms' length, wary. Apt, perhaps, but not the best of selling points. That said, the track's 7 minutes slide by easily enough.

Suddenly we reach the end. Aubade has a more immediate relationship with the folk roots and past work of the performer, or so it seems to me. This track is approachable, familiar, and whilst not the strongest composition Jon Boden will ever pen it remembers to a) make his voice the star and b) deliver on basic principles. It ends up as possibly my favourite track on the album because it remembers to cover the key points first, though the closing with birdsong is a little... off. Overall I find myself very disappointed. The disappointment is keen, because I so loved his Floodplain dystopia, and I had high hopes for another similar vision. I will give it more of a chance to grow on me - a chance albums from other performers whose other work I admired less may not get - but I can't see this becoming a favourite.

Come Find Yourself - Fun Lovin' Criminals

Track list:

1. The Fun Lovin’ Criminal
2. Passive/Aggressive
3. The Grave and the Constant
4. Scooby Snacks
5. Smoke ’em
6. Bombin’ the L
7. I Can’t Get With That
8. King Of New York
9. We Have All the Time in the World
10. Bear Hug
11. Come Find Yourself
12. Crime and Punishment
13. Methadonia
14. I Can't Get With That (Schmoove Version)
15. Coney Island Girl

Running time: 44 minutes
Released: 2002

I'm going to love this... No, probably not. Another one of those "massive at the time" albums, and one that I doubt has aged well. I find myself without much in the way of words to form an intro so lets dive right in.

The twanginess of the opening riff is suprisingly fresh at 21. The vocal doesn't match it. Is that a Pulp reference in the lyrics? Can't be, can it? I'm stumped if not, what else would Disco 2000 refer to? Anyhow that's an oddity that I had never noticed before. I just rather wish that the delivery was a little more distinctive, because actually the rhythms and hook work.

In a funny way I think this may not be that different from Come Away With Me, in that it will end up as a mood piece more than anything. Songs that aren't necessarily all that, but which come together to set a consistent tone. I am already (less than 2 tracks in) surprised by how accurately I remembered the tunes, and how easily they slip back into my consciousness. Maybe it will hold up better than I expected (or perhaps it is front-loaded).

It vaguely amuses me that FLC frontman Huey Morgan is now a BBC DJ... how did that happen? I still don't listen to the radio (TMS aside; best thing evar!) so I've never heard one of his shows but he seems a particularly unlikely pick for the role, even amongst American front men.

Aw crap. I forgot to switch off shuffle after having some background music yesterday while I was mocking up a Crew for Blades in the Dark - an awesome-sounding RPG about heists in a fantasy-industrial age setting. It's nice and evocative, harking to series such as the Locke Lamora books by Scott Lynch, and videogames like Dishonoured. I kinda want to run it, but I don't really have enough surplus mental energy to do it well when I am working. It's a pain. I find this out as the third track had me thinking "that sounds a lot like the title track, how lazy" only to find that it was. I don't know what that second tune was then... It wasn't Passive/Aggressive as I have just cued that up.

Oh, it was track 3. Skip!

Scooby Snacks is the stereotypical Fun Lovin' Criminals track in my mind. The audio clips from Tarantino movies (he gets a composition credit in my track metadata) give it some real character, but it doesn't ever feel like a serious song - because the title, which appears prominently in the chorus, is so ridiculous. It ends rather suddenly, too... it is easy to forget that these were designed to be radio-friendly singles, because with so much of what I buy that is simply not a primary concern.

It really is a surprise how many of these tunes are lodged in my subconscious to one degree or another... 7 of the first 9 and the title track, for a 60% hit rate when you factor in the second version of I Can't Get With That in the bonus tracks.

Today is a light one in the context of the week off. My final day of vacation and - a big shop this morning aside - one where I am not doing anything productive. I am seeing family though, so it's not "time to myself" relaxation or time lost to games of one sort or another. Tomorrow is clearing out my back room (not a euphemism!) and Sunday involves ironing and cleaning the oven. Joy. Still, if I stick to the plan and achieve those things it will have been a very successful week in all. Then back to the grind. Speaking of grind... whilst I like the smooth and lazy tone of I Can't Get With That, I find it grating on me. I am not in a wind-down mood right now and so this kind of bliss-out, hang about sound is not what the doctor ordered.

There is a nice rounded sound to the guitars on the cover of We Have All the Time in the World, but not for the first time the vocal lets it down. It's always going to be hard to live up to Louis Armstrong through. I don't actually have the Armstrong version, but I do have a take by film score expert David Arnold and Iggy Pop. When this overly laid back song gives way to Bear Hug its a bit of a switch in tone. Darker, hoarsely-voiced, edgier. The change is welcome, but I'm not sure that the song is any good. The group seems better when they're doing their laid back stoner chic; these tracks are tighter, sit together better. As the title track starts for the second time (I didn't run it to completion before, so no skip here) I am struck by the understated guitars. The percussion and rhythm sets the tone, but the background guitars are what make it work.

It strikes me that whilst this is never something I would choose to put on if I weren't directed to it, I wouldn't want to part with most of these tracks because they hold up surprisingly well. There are some exceptions - Bear Hug didn't work, and Crime and Punishment sounds to be going the same way. However the general level of appeal has surprised me.

Methodonia is one of those tracks that is very recognisible once it is playing - it sounds like you've heard it a thousand times before - but is completely unrecognisible by title. It also sounds like countless other songs that you cannot place (or at least I cannot place). There is a comfortable familiarity about it. I am only referring to the composition here, not the lyrics; they're less comfortable and familiar.

Then we're into the bonuses... an even more laid back version of I Can't Get With That (not sure how this is possible) and a 90 second closer. The Schmoove (their spelling, not mine) Version uses horns to craft that smokey late night atmosphere, and the vocal is spoken like a beat-poet. It has more cool about it, and despite not really being in the mood for laziness, I find I prefer it and find no reason to maintain the main album version as well. There is a nice little blast on the end - a bit more urgency - but outside the context of a lazy long-player before it I don't think I would ever want to hear Coney Island Girl again.

So, there we have it. Through a 4th listen in as many days. Good use of vacation time. Surprisingly happy with this one... just a small amount of fat to trim.

Come Away With Me - Norah Jones

Track list:

1. Don't Know Why
2. Seven Years
3. Cold Cold Heart
4. Feelin’ the Same Way
5. Come Away With Me
6. Shoot the Moon
7. Turn Me On
8. Lonestar
9. I've Got to See You Again
10. Painter Song
11. One Flight Down
12. Nightingale
13. The Long Day Is Over
14. The Nearness of You

Running time: 44 minutes
Released: 2002

Yes, I own this - along with everyone else on the planet who bought music back in 2002. It was pretty hard to avoid Norah Jones' debut. What I don't remember is whether I picked it up because I'd heard it and liked it, or whether I picked it up to see what all the fuss was about. In either case, it's next on my list.

After two discs pushing the hour mark with relatively few tracks it is nice to have something short and quick through the numbers. 14 tunes in 44 minutes doesn't give each tune long to make a lasting impression, but then I don't really expect this album to leave a mark from individual tracks, rather for it to work as a mood piece. Jones' voice is lovely, and the simple and open jazzy arrangement is relaxing.

There is a lazy afternoon feel to the opening couple of songs and this is pretty much what I was expecting going in - nevermind that it is 9.30am and this is not even the second thing on my hit-list for the day. Vacation? These days time off work seems to be code for "do chores at home" as I find it tough to fit them around work days.

Jones' tones have a smokey quality to them and she sings in a way that makes the notes sound lower than they are in places. It's mass-market appeal, but that doesn't make it any less appealing. The simplistic arrangements might start to wear on me as the disc progresses though, and I can already see why opening track Don't Know Why got all the play as the next couple of songs haven't had nearly the same level of polish. This is lounge music, noughties style, falling into the semi-conscious background almost by design; I'm sure the performers would protest, but that's the purpose of mood music.

Title track Come Away With Me is next up, and even this lacks the impact of Don't Know Why. I seem to recall that the title line was featured heavily in advertising (for obvious reasons) but even that doesn't have the same easy approachable immediacy of the opening track. This short song is less afternoon, more evening, and totally inappropriate for a bright morning. Shoot the Moon is the first time I think the mark set by the first number is even close to being met again, and whilst it is cheesy in places (that guitar, really...) the sound has a nice womb-like quality, and the pacing of the vocal fits nicely.

It doesn't really feel as though the tracks are flying by, which I suppose means that some of them, at least, are rather dragging.

As much as I appreciate the ability to set a mood and nail it, as much as I like this sort of mood in the right context, and as much as I could see this as a nice enforced slowdown... It isn't morning music. Not in the slightest. I am also now convinced that I bought this to see what the fuss was about. This is going to sound bad, but to paraphrase someone I once knew it feels like "music for people who don't like music" - that is open and approachable, perfectly fine and even enjoyable, but lacking a real hook to get people to want to really pay attention. I suppose that is basically guaranteed in something that hits the critical mass of mainstream appeal across demographics, otherwise it wouldn't have got where it did.

All of which is a long winded way of saying that I like it, but I don't like it; I am happy enough hearing it, but I don't want to listen to it again. There isn't an anchor pulling me back in.

Looking down the track list in my media player, it seems that the most impactful tracks have a composer in common. Jones is singing tunes written by others, and the ones that have stood out to me on this pass through have all been credited to Jesse Harris for composition. That name means nothing to me, so I have no idea whether these are older tunes dug up, or composed for Jones by associates. In either case, Harris is credited for the three best tracks so far - Don't Know Why, Shoot the Moon and I've Got to See You Again. I don't know if this is priming, but the opening bars of another Harris-penned tune immediately seem to set a better tone again with One Flight Down. It's funny how the mind can do things like that. The song doesn't go anywhere great thereafter though.

The longer my exposure to this album the less positive the overall impression is becoming, the less it feels each new track is adding to the mix. It seems to me that you could distill the essence of Norah Jones down to a single track, play that and wow people, then leave. Which I guess is what happened around Don't Know Why. You have to hand it to her marketing team for that... selling a whole truckload of albums all around the world based on one song. In hindsight I feel suckered, I think I probably was. (I think a similar thing happened a couple of years later with Corinne Bailey Rae, too).

Not to be negative or anything (I fucking love W1A) but whilst there are some really strong points to Jones' recordings my take away from this is more one of disappointment. Her voice is smooth and pitched nicely, but it needs pairing with better arrangements, more interesting songs, to make it into a bigger selling point. As nice as it is, it isn't a voice that I would want to hear "sing the phonebook", and some of the tracks here leave me as cold as that document would.

Comatised - Leona Naess

Track list:

1. Lazy Days
2. Charm Attack
3. Chase
4. Lonely Boy
5. Anything
6. Chosen Family
7. Comatised
8. All I Want
9. Northern Star
10. Earthquake
11. New York Baby
12. Paper Thin

Running time: 58 minutes
Released: 2000

This album was a favourite of mine for a while back when it first came out. Another blind punt that paid off for a bit. I somehow doubt that my older, wiser, self will be as struck by it but we'll see.

I didn't know what to put for the nationality tag here, so I left it blank (first time for everything, so they say). Pan-Scandinavian parentage, London upbringing, US base. I think it's probably fair to say that the latter is the single biggest influence on her sound, but the title is spelled properly (i.e. with an s).

The opening track lives up to its name. Lazy strumming gives a very laid back feel. I am not really feeling the nostalgia though. The chorus brings with it some more life and a bit more to like, but it's all a little too low key to be really engaging. When I picked this up I was on a real kick for female singer-songwriters and quite obnoxious about it. Some of the things I picked up as a result of that mild obsession have stood the test of time for me, others have certainly not. Lazy Days suggests this might be in the latter camp, but I am pretty sure that there are better tracks than this one to come.

Like Charm Attack, for instance. This was the single and it shows immediately. There is more drive, more snap. The vocal is almost disinterested, too cool for school. It's not a sound I appreciate so much now but it was more inviting to younger ears.  There is again a bit more engagement with the chorus. It's fluffy pop-light stuff but it also has a nice tempo and a decent enough change up to make me see why I liked it. That said, the closing of the track is awful, chucking out the nicest bits of the sound to build to a "big" finish.

Looking down the track list I can hear a few of them coming back to me before we get there. Some definite snorers there, but also 3-4 that I am genuinely curious to hear again.

I am fitting this in mid-morning, with a chile cooking in the oven, clothing and bedding ordered and washing done. Later in the day I will be lugging unwanted crap to the tip as part of my regime of getting stuff done during my "vacation" so this is a little interlude of calm. I am struck by how the first three tracks all have a different sound, a sequence broken when Lonely Boy returns to the overly laid-back style of Lazy Days, though it does build on it a bit more. No, scratch that. The rhythms are different here - faux Hawaiian. It really doesn't work, especially at the points where the vocal goes all strident suddenly. Any appeal this track had for me must have been based on relating to the subject of the song because musically it does not hold up at all. It feels like a melding of two things that should have been kept far apart.

I am more hopeful for the quicker, angsty, Anything. I'd rather like this one to hold up, even if there are no illusions about it being a great track.

The pace is there, as is a grungier guitar. Then when her voice goes lighter on the chorus it offsets it nicely. This, more than the preceding tracks, does indeed match my memories of the song, and I still find myself rather charmed by it. It's schlocky and daft, but the punchy tempo and the guitar work are mass-appeal, lively and fun. It's not a great song, but it is an enjoyable one.

It's a pity that pace doesn't carry forward. There is a horrible bit of casual homophobia in the opening lyrics of Chosen Family that is really jarring to hear in 2017. Combine that with the dull and soporific cadence and this song is a slow-motion car crash. The title track is still soporifically slow, but it is at least more positive in outlook. Slow tempo is not necessarily a sign of dullness, but if a track is going for a low energy approach then it is on the performer to bring something else to keep you interested. Here there is a swirling background that just about wraps me up, but the saving grace for the track is that brighter sound... rather than being slow and down, it is slow but soaring. The vocal goes a bit girl-group pop in places which is a turn off, but it just about works. The contrast between these two tracks is interesting because the pace is similar, but the overall effect and outcomes are completely at odds.

I almost get the feeling that Naess was holding back on some of these tunes. I certainly feel they would be a bit better with some more gusto. There are clear moments of crescendo in a few of the songs, but they are not followed through - it rises a bit, but doesn't commit. Take All I Want - the rise of the track suggests that she is about to cut free and thrash a statement but it doesn't dare go there, settling instead for restraint and mediocrity. It wouldn't have had to go much further to work - say to the level of Anything, which is still constrained but has enough room to run and bounce that energy around.

I guess at this point, now that it is clear that her work hasn't held my interest in the same way as some of the other artists I got into at around the same time, I should try to contrast Leona Naess with those that have, but I find that kind of thing difficult. The two names that jump out at me are Thea Gilmore and Heather Nova. These two still work for me for very different reasons. Gilmore is more incisive, wittier and a far better songwriter, but Heather Nova feels like she occupies the same sort of space as Leona Naess - woman with guitar singing mostly love songs with different twists. Nova added an edge though, more emotion transmitted through her notes and lyrics; Naess feels cold, message received but not felt, by comparison.

New York Baby is understated but it has an appealing riff, and is one of the better moments on the album. The running time of the disc is inflated by a 10 minute counter on the final song, which smells of Hidden Track Bullshit... I seem to recall that the track hidden is another version of this song, with less interest. Before we get there we get the waffle of Paper Thin.

Waif like vocals over an arty and sparse piano. Neither aspect of the song are strong.

I have found myself not getting on with Naess' voice on this listen. It's tighter, less full than I remember it and it feels genuinely weak in places. Paper Thin shows this up more than anything that went before as a result of the arrangement choice. I just don't think she has the chops for that kind of wandering tune. Happily the hidden track is not actually buried after tonnes of silence. A crowd hubbub comes in within a few seconds of the closure of the album proper, then an understated take on New York Baby does indeed strike up. Actually I find this stripped back approach to the song works surprisingly well, especially given what I just wrote about her voice not working in the lighter-touch arrangements. The key here is that this recording does convey emotion in spades, there's a longing inherent in the arrangement and the long notes. The blue sax might be taking it too far though - especially as the already stripped sound goes to the improv. percussion only after that.

Overall, well... there are some nice points and some dross to clear out. More of the latter. Fundamentally have my tastes shifted? Yes, I am listening to more folk and jazz than I was 17 years ago for a start, but I haven't entirely moved away from women with guitars. I am certainly more discerning these days, however.

The Collection - Runrig

Track list:

1. The Greatest Flame
2. Wonderful
3. Dance Called America (Live)
4. Skye (Live)
5. Only The Brave
6. Small Town
7. The Cutter
8. Pride Of The Summer
9. Harvest Moon (Live)
10. Alba (Live)
11. Meadhan Oldhche Air An Acairseid
12. Lighthouse

Running time: 57 minutes
Released: 2009

This was an ill-conceived purchase insofar as it was blind, and I don't think I've ever sat down and listened to it. I bought it at a time when I was picking up Celtic music, having just discovered and fallen in love with Julie Fowlis' songs. I cannot recall what drew me to this specific disc - not why Runrig, not why The Collection (which doesn't seem to be listed in their Wikipedia discography). This isn't meant as a pre-emptive strike against the album, so much as against my purchasing habits, and resulting lack of enthusiasm for a post.

I have it, so I'll hear it.

An odd artefact as I start, the first song came in at the 2 minute mark, in mid flow. After a reset, the same structure actually fires up from a base. It gives me an 80s chart rock vibe more than a folksy (or even folk-rock) one. Oh so forgettable, like it is going out of its way to be bland in order to not be actively disliked by anyone. It just is, there in the background, with no real appeal but no real repulsion. The voices aside, I would have pegged this as American radio fare, perhaps with even less edge. Not a strong start, then.

Wonderful has a bit more life to it, whilst still having the same overall sense of characterlessness - like a cheap knockoff U2. Two tracks in and I can honestly say that not only was this purchase blind, it was off target by several genres; yes, I am regretting it... I have better things to do with an hour of a day off, really I do. Having said that, I did catch myself involuntarily tapping my toe with the rhythm here.

It somewhat beggars belief for me that on the first of four live tracks on the album you can hear a throng of an audience singing along with gusto. Not because there is an audience for this, but because there is an enthusiastic audience for it. I can just about, if I squint, make out the appeal of inoffensive and characterless music. Pleasant enough sound to fill a hole in the background of a busy life and all that. What I find harder to pin down is what would get people excited, rather than, say, comfortable.

There is a brighter sound on Skye that actually in places makes me think more charitable and positive thoughts. Little intricacies in the guitar that remind me of indie-pop; that can be a bit Marmite, something that risks being disliked to deliver.

This has turned into both a blow-by-blow and a rag-fest. Neither of which is a positive direction for the post, so I will digress a bit for a moment. Last week was an odd one, finalising plans for some business travel, an unexpected request and some potentially exciting news on the job front. It was a bit of a whirlwind week all told, and it feels odd to go from that into a week's vacation, booked well before hand. I have a long list of tasks that I want to achieve in this time off - including posting some more here - and whilst I crossed through a number of them yesterday the problem with having that list is that it doesn't really feel like having a week off. The other side of that coin is that if I hadn't listed them out, I wouldn't get anything done and whilst I would end the week rested, I'd feel annoyed with myself for not being productive. #LifesLittleFrustrations or something.

In the meantime Runrig have got through one more number. These tracks average out at just under 5 minutes each, which feels too long to me. But then as we've established above, I am not really falling for this sound, and the extra runtime on each track simply hammers that home.

Here and there the Celtic roots are shown. I can't help but think if the balance between that and the generic rock sound was re-calibrated then these tunes would have more personality and more appeal. In places it feels like they are consciously mimicking traditional instruments and arrangements with their rock band tools. For me, I would much rather they just used those traditions straight up, but at least songs like Pride of Summer have more personality about them.

My chain of thought has pretty much come to a halt with regards to this disc; I cannot come up with interesting ways to rephrase and repeat the same points that stand between me and enjoyment of this music. I feel bad for that in a couple of ways. First, I am not so sure that Runrig really deserve the scorn. Their output here is not for me but it isn't tacky or crass or even bad, really. They sound earnest - particularly on the live tracks - but ultimately they are peddling a style that is a little too flat and open to all for me to get excited about. This isn't a case where I hate the sound, tone or direction so much that I could happily spew indictments and not feel bad about it. I just have to leave it as not my bag.

The penultimate track is Gaelic lyrics and theme crossed with the orient in terms of certain sounds in the arrangement. I cannot accuse this of not having some personality. I'm not a fan of the guitar work on the track, which becomes more prominent as it goes, but up to that point it has been by far the most interesting number on the disc. Not enough at this point to salvage anything but a nice note of difference and of positivity that was unexpected.

When it comes, the end is sudden. No long lead out here, just a final trill. I will not miss this.

Art in the Age of Automation - Portico Quartet

Track list:

1. Endless
2. Objects to Place in a Tomb
3. Rushing
4. Art in the Age of Automation
5. S/20005S
6. A Luminous Beam
7. Beyond Dialogue
8. RGB
9. Current History
10. Mercury Eyes
11. Lines Glow

Running time: 50 minutes
Released: 2017

A new purchase now. I was idly casting an eye over what had come out recently when I spotted this I bought Portico Quartet's Mercury nominated debut, Knee Deep in the North Sea at the time of its nomination, thought it interesting but not outstanding and barely thought of it since. That was about 10 years back I think. I spotted this, recognised the name and then got surprised by the write up in a way that made me want to buy this. How good or bad was my decision? Time to find out.

The opening reminds me of LCD Soundsystem (I have that one album, y'know... Sound of Silver, but tired of it fast). That sense quickly dissipates though as the jazzier elements come in. The resonant sounds I remember from my other Portico album are here, but supported by a lusher construction. Layers of percussion, a solid wall of background swell and strings above. I'm quite taken with Endless as an opening track. Today was originally planned for gardening, but a wet week and uninspiring skies put paid to that early. I fill my afternoon with this instead, wimping out of biking in the cold. If the rest of the disc follows this lead, it will be a worthwhile choice.

There is a soundtrack-like quality to the early sounds... TV more than film perhaps, an instrumental where the top end could be suppressed to give a swirling background suitable for many a scene. It feels a tiny bit soulless, actually in places. Cold, lonely and distant despite that constant movement. Cold may be appropriate for grave goods though, so there is that. I am reminded a little of the Cinematic Orchestra, but without the genius use of space and emptiness to give tracks more warmth. As that track ends and we rush forwards to the next the repeated piano chords that gave me the LCD vibe are back, and left to go on longer. Too long, really.

The track gets better when that pattern is broken - or at least harnessed better, less obviously - but it is flat. Again it has the air of a soundtrack - music to accompany something else, not music to drag you in. A little over half way through there is a major shift in direction; I like that, and yet it does not really address my issues with the track. It remains at arms' length, nice enough background but no centre, no heart, no soul. The trumpet which provides the main narrative is decent, but it provides a melancholic lead not really supported by the fast tempo of the drums... and this sort of sad horn against a background of electronics is done better by others. I hope that there are tracks here which expose more warmth and draw. The first impression was bad, that was reformed quickly, but as it settles down into its stride, so far I am finding it a little empty.

The title track has more to it. Deeper, rounder sounds. And a less obvious percussion. They can do it, but it seems they don't always manage to.

I can't quite shake the feeling that I have heard this before... the best moments are reminiscent of the Cinematics, or Molvær, etc. It's a feeling that keeps me from really engaging with the album, even whilst quietly appreciating certain elements. The best tracks seem to be the ones where they employ the deep resonant tones... I can't for the life of me remember the name of the instrument, but I seem to recall that it was one of their gimmicks. This works well for me, perhaps because it harks back to their debut and matches expectation, but I think mostly because that timbre of sound appeals strongly on what is a very autumnal day. It is fair to say I am not relishing the onset of fall and winter, inevitable though they are, I prefer the lighter and warmer months.

There are moments here, though. For all that negativity above, I find the opening 90 seconds or so of RGB a joy. The track goes a little off the rails thereafter - a little bit flighty, all trills in the top end - but after a solid opening that had me nodding appreciably. This tune - those high notes aside - seems to fall just on the right side of background soundtrack vs. engagement. Those around it fall on the other side of that imaginary fence. Pleasant enough sounds but with a blandness to them. I am hearing nice rhythms, I rather like the background soundscapes but those things alone don't necessarily make something good to listen to. The main themes are just a little too absent, lines are there but end up subservient to structural elements rather than being supported by them.

One to go now and it opens brightly, its electronics painting a different, livelier tone. They are soon faded down - not out - and moved behind the percussion as the main element of the piece. The melody doesn't arrive for over a minute, and when it does the horn is a little lost in the forest of beats. Oh, you can hear it cleanly enough, but again it is not the star, not framed and promoted in the way that more practiced hands manage. That may be a deliberate choice on the part of the group (who am I to say?) but it does not really work for me. The rhythm dominates too much. It isn't that wonderful, but it is sharp and punches firmly through the other sounds.

Overall then... an album with a few high points, but primarily a sea of serviceable background tracks. It's a real shame that they don't manage to do just a little more, focus just a little bit differently on one or two of these tunes and they could become really nice pieces. My final impression though is of a largely empty shell or a house without furnishings. The structure was all in place, but the key elements that would make the house a home were absent.

All Hail West Texas (Remastered) - The Mountain Goats

Track List:

1. The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton
2. Fall Of The Star High School Running Back
3. Color In Your Cheeks
4. Jenny
5. Fault Lines
6. Balance
7. Pink And Blue
8. Riches And Wonders
9. The Mess Inside
10. Jeff Davis County Blues
11. Distant Stations
12. Blues In Dallas
13. Source Decay
14. Absolute Lithops Effect
15. Hardpan Song
16. Answering the Phone
17. Indonesia
18. Midland
19. Jenny (alt. take)
20. Tape Travel is Lonely
21. Waco

Running time: 61 minutes
Released: 2002

OK, we have an unexpected repeat now. I somehow missed that a remastered version of this favourite was available, complete with a bunch of bonus tracks and new liner notes by Mr Darnielle. I kinda had to pick it up once I saw it existed. I toyed with the idea of just listening to the new stuff, but... nah. I don't think I'll be able to make comparisons with the prior release because I'd have to listen to each track twice back to back. Just previewing it whilst ripping it sounds clearer in places but that could be kidology. 

This may have been available at the point when I bought All Hail West Texas for the first time; I don't really recall how long I have had, and loved, this material. Still, here I am, with something to listen to...

There is still a crackle at the opening of The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton, and Darnielle's voice sounds properly scratchy. Actually I catch myself thinking that the remaster may have more scratch and interference on it than the original issue. This feels rawer, fuzzier and harder to like, but I suspect a lot of that is rose tinting from the time since I last played the record. The fuzziness is unavoidable in a way that perhaps a flatter mastering tempered. What do I know? Nothing, that's what.

Colour In Your Cheeks is peppy, the riff is a little blurred by the recording but the punchy, separated blocks as it cycles through the keynotes are genius in terms of pacing and framing the track. On this track the vocal fares better - clearer for sure - and this carries over into Jenny, though the clarity here comes from proximity and volume, with the voice blocking out the general fuzz on the track. There is a really nice snap in the post-chorus guitar. Whilst the buzz on the line (as it were) is ever present, the vitality and essence of these songs is immense and immediate. I recently picked up the Goats' latest issue, Goths, and despite the more modern releases having more sophistication in terms of production the songs have but a little of the compel that I feel from these. Maybe that is the younger, angrier nature of things shining through and bringing energy, maybe it is that the creative well ran deeper, maybe I'm just so not a goth that an album of that name couldn't inspire... who knows.

Balance is a fucking awesome track. One of my all time faves. The guitar work guts me, the vocal punches the scar. It rips through me and leaves me happier for it.

Somehow that tune also seems to avoid the interference from the artefacts of recording, but I suspect that's my mind screening it out because of what the song does for me. In any case, I notice the buzz back hard on the follow up, which has a softer tone - what with dealing with new parenthood and all. At times it feels like the tape hum is being employed as a bassline, at others the frequency is subsumed by the lower thrum of Darnielle's guitar.

In truth I am not sure what the remastering adds (or removes) - no surprise there - but I am really looking forward to the new tracks. This is a first listen, albeit one where the first 66% is familiar. There is a nice clarity to the strumming on The Mess Inside, a rougher edge to the emotional, almost shouted vocal. The melody supports that emotion well, the lyrics demand it, and the track is powerful as a result.

Summer is gone; travel schedules have been messed up, it's raining heavily (or was until recently), and I've been feeling lonely of late. Making space for this listen is a good enforced stop and take stock. The songs on this disc are ones where paying some attention yields rewards, but they are also familiar friends by now. Walking the line between giving my ear, relaxing into the familiar structures, and actually commenting on things is a tricky one. I realise that I didn't really comment too much on things with the original listen - there is a bit more here already than on that post - but I don't necessarily feel a strong need to say much about these tunes. Yes, this album is a strong favourite, and one that I could evangelise about to someone I thought might appreciate it, but I have long since backed off from spreading the word into a soundless void, and on the off-chance any human being stumbles over this post then the only ones who read it will be familiar with the work anyway.

Ugh - that last sentence is my mind in a microcosm right now. Wrapped up in self admonishment and self pity. That's what I started the listening to push back against. Funny how bringing it up worked as a sort of focusing device, and not in a helpful way.

For what it's worth, I haven't really got any more fond of Blues in Dallas than I was originally.

The plus point of that observation is that we are almost onto the bonus tracks, the things I haven't heard yet. There is a little bit of trepidation there - I might be building them up too much, putting too much wait on their being contemporaries of the original set. They will be of interest, at least - even if they disappoint.

There is a lovely road trip image associated with Source Decay, partially from the lyrics, partially from memories of driving to it - even if that driving was on my regular commute. They are nice images, those memories - fields between villages, few cars on the road. They're probably not reflective of the actual journeys. I find myself drifting a little, then refocus my thoughts. I suspect that the remaster concentrated on cleaning up the guitar parts, because this is always pretty clear. The hums, thrums, and fuzzes from the recording are ever present, but they generally affect the voice more. In all - I don't find any significant differences in the fourteen original tracks.

There is some dead air before the bonuses begin - silence on the end of Absolute Lithops Effect. Then some oddities. Then Hardpan Song. First impressions are that it is sort of bland. Darnielle speaks his way through his lyrics as much as anything, and whilst there is clearly some urgency in the guitar work the riffs  don't have the immediate pull that they might have. That, though, is remedied on Answering the Phone - which harks strongly back to The Mess Inside, but veers into darker sounds rather than raw emotional ones, with lyrics to match. The sound here is raw, much more so than the previous tracks, but that doesn't seem to be universal to the bonuses as the next song doesn't have that same feel.

This track is busier, faster guitar work - fitting more notes in, rather than genuinely maintaining a faster pace. Its a nicer song for it. The strumming has a depth and melody to it that is often lacking on this album, and provides a welcome change. These bonuses are short numbers on the whole, racing by before I can really coalesce any worthwhile thoughts. I'll settle for a nod that they do, generally, fit with the tone of the core. That is helped, I guess, by one of the new ones being a re-recording of Jenny with a few variations in guitar and different pacing in the vocal in a couple of spots, but it definitely applied before that tune hit.

It still applies to Tape Travel is Lonely, though only just. There are definitely common elements here, but this song feels different in vocal style and lyrical focus. Less personal somehow - meaning less about people more than anything else; the track also ends abruptly, a little oddly. Then I am on the final stretch.

Last track Waco ends abruptly too, and the room falls silent. Run out of tape, John? Overall I am glad I bought this, and whilst I could probably cut the original album at this point I don't feel inclined to as having both gives more chance for those songs to come up! I might make a gift of the original hardcopy though, try to find someone to induct into the world of The Mountain Goats.