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.