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.

Coconut - Archie Bronson Outfit

Track List:

1. Magnetic Warrior
2. Shark's Tooth
3. Hoola
4. Wild Strawberries
5. Chunk
6. You Have a Right to a Mountain Life / One Up on Yourself
7. Bite It & Believe It
8. Hunt You Down
9. Harness (Bliss)
10. Run Gospel Singer

Running time: 40 minutes
Released: 2010

Oh dear lord. I remember not getting on with this at all, after buying based on their cover of a James Yorkston song on the collectors edition of When the Haar Rolls In. The covers disc there led me to some beautiful things - not least Cathal Coughlan and on to Microdisney but I recall the sounds I heard as I was ripping Coconut made me sure I would never play it. Perhaps it was one bad track, perhaps there is something here... now is my time to find out.

The first strains aren't exactly encouraging. There is a nice menace to the riff but the edge into the performance is a little too fuzzy for my liking, and the drowned vocal is not really my cup of tea either, though the riff dominates to such an extent its easy to overlook the vocal almost entirely. Well, this will certainly keep me awake. In now customary fashion I remark about how few posts I make here, or rather the length of time between them. I ran out of excuses, even to myself, hence I am defying droopy eyes to listen to something I have been putting off. Magnetic Warrior's cacophony is a million miles away from the cover of Would You Have Me Born With Wooden Eyes (weird song title alert!) that led me to take a punt on Coconut. The incessant noise is pulsating... I can imagine it creating a good gig atmosphere even as I struggle with it.

The second track tones things down a little to begin with, but the echoey effects around the edge of all elements of the track is really off-putting. It is clearly a deliberate aesthetic choice rather than poor recording, but it makes me feel like the songs are rattling around my skull, concussing me rather than opening spaces for me to enjoy. For all that, I will praise them for having personality. I may not like the effect they have chosen to style the opening tracks on but it gives the album identity.

Archie Bronson Outfit seem to build songs on riffs, and filling them with sound. There is a nice solid drive to Hoola and here, the echo absent except on the vocal, their strong guitar lines are better defined, better employed. A good energy sweeps the song along, and without the brain-battering fuzziness and with a few more open holes in the wall of sound I find I rather like the song that is left. Of course, it then fills in those holes no sooner have I typed that, but it remains a marked improvement.

It has been an odd week. Many board games played, many days worked from home. Today was my first day in the office for a week and I am remote again tomorrow; it's all rather thrown me some and I need to try to establish a better pattern to life again. Clear evenings, some energy and drive at weekends... these things would be nice and conducive to building a healthier lifestyle. So far my intent to get out on the bike more have been frustrated, and I can only blame myself. After another noisome number, we hit on something that reminds me a little of Devo - quirky rock, with high pitch sounds. This lacks the offense of the louder tracks, but also the personality. Whilst there are riffs here, they are less compelling even for being clearer. It ends up being a bit of a nothing track as a result, which is a disappointment as when I first heard the change in sound I thought there might be something there for me. The track drags on a little too long, just to rub that in.

This must read as a hate on. Whilst it is true that I will be culling most of the disc when it concludes, there are elements here I appreciate. The decision to build the songs around strong central riffs is a good one, and the riffs in some cases are bold ones - statement making ones - that have real power to them. Employed with more careful support I think I could have really enjoyed some of them. It's the buzzy, fuzzy constancy of the sound that wears me down rather than the core concepts. Sometimes that sheer volume and layered sound can work, drawing me into a bubble that (stupidly) makes the ringing in the ears when it subsides feel good. Mogwai do that well, I find - building noisy but demanding crucibles. Here the edge is wrong, and it sets everything out of place. It is not a million miles from something I could really like, but the couple of postcodes are far enough in the majority of cases. Bite it & Believe it steps back the right side of whichever imaginary line in the sound I am talking about. Like Hoola before this track drops some of the overwhelming elements in the arrangement. The sound and noise is still constant, but it is constrained, kept manageable by a smaller scope.

I think it is unfortunate that when the songs are most accessible, they are probably also most dull. Hunt You Down is a good example of this phenomenon as nothing here is too loud or too challenging. It slips into a nice little rhythm early. It's nice. Then it just stays there, rinses and repeats, being nice for 4:22 without once becoming engaging. I can see more to like in tracks like the opener which I actively disliked than in ones like this which are simply "alright".

Oh, now that is more application, Harnessed (one might say).

This track has the strong riff, the driving pace, the same affected vocal as Magnetic Warrior, but a sleeker construction, less noise but more sound - refining the formula into something still powerful but more pleasing. The drive, in particular, is really nice - and whilst it does rather become a loop (and no track over 5 minutes should devolve that far) the energy is indeed Blissful, relatively speaking.

OK, that is two horrible puns on the track title in two paragraphs. I should stop. I blame the YouTube video on punning that I saw earlier, and the reminder of how good the wordplay in Arrested Development is.

It approaches time to sum up, and well... Coconut is not for me. I am less hostile to it than I thought I would be, but there are too many tracks where the sheer volume gets to me. I see nice threads running through it but ultimately too many of the songs didn't work, either noisome and violent or lacking enough beyond a riff. My ears are ringing a bit despite the fact I turned the volume way down for this one; that ain't so clever. I will however hold on to a few tracks - not really undiscovered gems, but better examples of a fine idea that didn't quite hit the mark.

Boys Outside - Steve Mason

Track list:

1. Understand My Heart
2. Am I Just a Man
3. The Letter
4. Yesterday
5. Lost & Found
6. I Let Her In
7. Stress Position
8. All Come Down
9. Boys Outside
10. Hound on My Heel

Running time: 40 minutes
Released: 2010

Blimey, is this really 6 years old? Time flies. I really liked this album when it was released but have listened to it a lot less frequently of late. Looking forward to this one.

Mason's multiple personalities have surfaced before on this blog (see Black Gold), but this effort apparently followed a serious depressive episode, which might be one of the reasons I connected with it. It has many, many echoes of The Beta Band, ditches the hardest edges of electro from Black Affair, and instead crafts very approachable songs. Am I Just a Man is a pretty perfect example of this - radio friendly rhythm, poppy tones, but with a darkness lurking in the bass. It fades in influence compared to the rather uplifting vocal and the overall message of the song is a pretty positive one despite the topic. Its a song I identify with on a couple of levels.

I missed out on doing this yesterday - time vanished on me - and somehow I have lost an hour or so this morning too. My week off is almost over, just the regular weekend to go now. The Letter continues the dark and light theme. This drops the electronica for percussion and strings and a more subdued tone. The vocal is muted, regretful, with a crescendo of support in the chorus. Its a break up song, and could be accused of being a little bit mopey except for the strings which impart a roundness to the sound that suggests that its not being seen as the end of the world. I have always liked a little dark undertone, particularly when it has something to contrast. The first four tracks all see Mason's vocal as insubstantial, soft and floating over the soundscapes he has created for them. They feel light in contrast to the lurking threats implicit in the construction of that support. The light mostly wins out. Yesterday is the weakest track so far, the blocky nature of the call/response in the composition feeling a bit... tacky.

Lost & Found was always a favourite, though I never clocked just quite how black the lyrics were. Blackness is everywhere here - from the album art which had no identifying content (I seem to recall that the back of the jewel case was similarly plain, but white) to the themes to the monsters lurking in threatening aural space. Again the chorus cuts through this though - the keys and that almost ethereal vocal provide a contrast. The light touch on the singing is a high point, exposing a little vulnerability and a voice that has a lived in quality - we'll see later when it is not quite so softly applied, I think.

I Let Her In strips away the percussive base that has supported most of the tracks. A guitar melody - simple and looping - is the only support for that almost disembodied voice until a roiling darkness swirls and rises from beneath in a subtle soundtrack-like way. It works better than I remember. We then hit Stress Position which I recall as the weakest track on the disc. This is back to full electro beat; its just a little dull. I thought Mason's voice was applied more forcefully on this track, and I suppose it has a little more body, a breathiness to the delivery, but not a harder edge which is what I misremembered. Actually the whole track is just toned down from my recollection of it, and it feels a little empty, all over the place and bland as a result.

Ethereal Mason is back for All Come Down, a tune which has an awful lot of empty space, like a gas expanding to fill a container at very low pressure. The composition is very sparse. There's a vocal backing, a medium paced rhythm and, until we hit a crescendo that is about it. When it does rise, there is a harmonic effect, a ringing that seems to help the sound expand more. My ear is not sure which thread to follow even though there aren't that many separate strands here. It feels like the song has built a sphere of noise around me and I am cocooned until the point a long fade-out begins. We then get the title track, which has a nice acoustic guitar riff carrying it, but lyrically it wavers a bit; it seems to be Mason drawing a line between his present and his past - the whole album in a nutshell. I have to say tough that whilst that riff is soft and soothing, the track as a whole is... lacking something.

My favourite track on this disc was always the last one; Hound on My Heel - the title says it all. The pacing of the track, the rhythm, the hushed delivery of the lyrics, the slow build of the support. The contrast in the chorus, the threat in the subject matter. It all hangs together in a way that has an immediate appeal to me. There is darkness here, but it is implicitly behind, not ahead, and the keys which lend the light are the dominant theme by the end.  As it closes, I don't think the album holds up as well as I would have liked, but the strong finish has me smiling at the end anyway. Its not bad at all, just a little flat in places. I have a less visceral connection to it these days too, which probably explains the distancing.

Boots Met My Face - Admiral Fallow

Track list:

1. Dead Against Smoking
2. Squealing Pigs
3. Subbuteo
4. Delivered
5. These Barren Years
6. Old Balloons
7. Bomb Through The Town
8. Four Bulbs
9. Taste The Coast
10. Dead Leg
11. The Sad Clown Cast

Running time: 48 minutes
Released: 2010

I can't remember which festival I saw Admiral Fallow at, I suspect it might have been End of the Road. I was immediately struck by their set and their similarities in origin, demeanor and sound to King Creosote. This of course meant I had to buy up their album when I got home. So I did, and here we are. I don't listen to it much, but I occasionally use Subbuteo to kick off a shuffled playlist; it is the one song I can put any sound to now. I didn't really get on with the follow up album but I am hoping that this will be going back and enjoying a gem that I have overlooked too long.

A wistful clarinet starts us off with a sadness-tinged tune supported by one-note strumming. A strong Scottish accent adorns the voice of our vocalist when he enters the piece, along with drums. The track has built nicely - keys, drums and guitars replacing the woodwind carrying most of the tune. Its a slow, downbeat number, but not overwhelmingly so - there is hope in some of the brighter notes; hope in the context of sadness. I really like the effect, even though the melodies are just recycling by this point.

It is 10.30am on 1 January 2016. I suppose I should say Happy New Year. Replacing the lush sounds of Dead Against Smoking is a lone acoustic guitar rambling through a melody with vocal accompaniment. The pace is higher, emphasised when the drums join in. I am less taken with this tune; the central hook is fine and the execution is alright but it feels as though it is lacking something relative to what went before. A great screech and crescendo adds nothing. Hah, screech is in the lyrics; funny how we pick things up subconsciously - I only noticed after using the term myself. I am so glad when it ticks over to Subbuteo - this song has a real attraction to me. Light guitar hook, wistful air, soft vocal and a less than pretty picture painted by the lyrics - it feels heartfelt and personal, a portrait of a childhood. The structure, spread out single beats below the busy guitar and supported by a background quietly laid behind it all but managing to lift it up all the same, gives a really solid core. It builds suddenly into a crashing, cry for help of an outro; I thought there was a more impassioned plea in the vocal to go with that - maybe I missed it this time, but more likely I misremembered it.

We drop back to guitar and voice for Delivered. I don't think the group are as good when stripping out the depth of sound that we have had from woodwind, strings, keys and drums. This is noodly nothingness. There is, however a great musicality in the vocal... and of course as I type that he goes for notes that don't quite work, giving a jarring sound. Not a great track, but a brief one. The larger sound is back for These Barren Years. I am not taken with what lyrics I pick up here, but there is a nice rounded rumble to the progression of the tune up until the point they start repeating the chorus when I feel that it all falls apart. It isn't interesting enough to support heavy repetition.

The album seems to alternate between big sounds and smaller ones. Old Balloons is stripped back again, a rapid looping guitar hook and piano tune. It threatens to explode into a larger number at moments but has yet to quite manage it. Eventually the electric pickup arrives with drums and it is a relief - not that the opening was bad, but that the promise to expand was not an empty one. The keys become grander in scale with it, carrying the bulk of the tune, and the keys are all that is left once the crescendo has passed and the track begins to build again. I find myself enjoying the piece despite myself when it goes all mental for the last minute. A chorus played with extra intensity, pace and volume and repeated twice is the end of the vocal and the end of the track. The build felt like it deserved that end, rather than in some cases where the explosion of activity feels unmerited.

We have a female lead vocal on Bomb Through the Town, a floating voice over a backing that grows on me as she starts holding notes for longer. The harmony when the regular lead singer joins in is an odd one. It doesn't always work, but when it does it is really sublime. The thing is their disparate voices handle some notes very differently - strain against natural inclinations - but where they are both in range they offset each other nicely, not competing for space. The tune is actually dull as anything. A plodding drone, the only good thing to say is that I only really noticed how boring it is once the vocal was no longer present. I don't know about rediscovering a gem, but this listen is interesting - a bit more thought provoking for me than some recently. For instance, I find myself wondering to what extent ones surroundings influence the creations we make, with this album clearly identifiable as Scottish even without the accents.

Taste the Coast is pleasantly happier, pacier and catchier. Harmonies again in the chorus, a homecoming tale. There is a moment in the middle of the song where the busier elements of the backing drop out and we get a simple chorus with that harmony and it is a lovely little moment. The happy buzz disappears for the lead out. Vocals start repeating a line that had not appeared to date, pace drops, a subdued piano wandering comes in... it all works much better than it should in truth. The same cannot be said of the penultimate track, a 7 minute long oeuvre, the first half of which is disappointingly barren, not much music and a vocal that doesn't inspire. We get a bit more development past the half way mark but it is still staid and plodding. The development is limited, too - I kept expecting it to build further and do a little more to replace the vocal, which has vanished, but we just repeat the same phrase over and over. This one is for the scrap heap.

The bonus track on the end (I don't think it was on the original 2010 release; the album was re-issued in 2011) uses electronics that immediately make me think of Mogwai, specifically tracks from Hardcore Will Never Die But You Will - this album being produced by Paul Savage, who has a hand in producing that record, and many others I own. I miss the rest of the tune whilst confirming that, but while it is a low key ending, it is a far more fitting one that Dead Leg's disappointment.

Black Sands - Bonobo

Track list:

1. Prelude   
2. Kiara   
3. Kong   
4. Eyesdown   
5. El Toro   
6. We Could Forever   
7. 1009   
8. All In Forms   
9. The Keeper   
10. Stay The Same   
11. Animals   
12. Black Sands

Running time: 54 minutes
Released: 2010

We circle back now to Bonobo. I loved, and still love, Animal Magic, but I have been disappointed in pretty much every other Bonobo release to some degree. I seem to keep buying them though. I am not certain why... perhaps because I want to believe the magic of that downtempo classic will be recaptured. I doubt it will be, and here we might pick up on some reasons why.

As I start this, I expect that there will be some decent tunes on here as well as disappointments. The question in my mind is in what ratio?

The Prelude has an oriental air to it, a piercing string melody that is very harsh to begin with but softens as a mellow keyboard appears underneath it. Not what I was expecting from a prelude at all; this I had almost already chalked off as for deletion but that is very unfair in truth. I like it as a starting point. There is no track break and so Kiara starts by seamless transition; somehow it completely changes the dominant theme almost immediately - whilst those strings appear again later, the track is centred around a pulsing electronica, beats and squeaks alike, clashes. It feels lacking in cohesion. Not all over the place and disconnected, just not brought together optimally. Or something. It isn't bad, it's just no Sleepy Seven or Terrapin. The curse of loving something so much that it means nothing can live up to it!

Kong is more immediately likable. From the name I was expecting more bombast but this is sweeter, lighter. The central theme, a wavy, floaty loop, gets old quickly though, and there is not quite enough else going on to cover for that until it drops out just after the 2 minute mark. Now my ear fixates on the drum loop and I am finding that has the same issue - initially interesting then turning to tripe on repetition. Funny how fickle we find we can be eh? I somehow cannot escape the feeling that I have heard it all before, to the point of desensitisation. It feels like... background noise? I don't want to damn this with the same breath as I did Quantic because it is better than that. It is more that this sort of music is so... institutionalised now, everywhere, and it is hard to call any of this particularly distinctive.

Eyesdown introduces vocals - quiet, indistinct vocals, but vocals non-the-less. This is one area where I was expecting disappointment but actually the vocal makes this tune work better than if it were not there, adding a dimension that is just not there without it and breaking up the generic tedium of indistinct shuffling patterns that feel so familiar as to be a little dull. When did I get quite so cynical? Again, not bad just a little lifeless. Thankfully you cannot say the same for El Toro. Taking a leaf out of the Prelude's book there is a strong string theme to lift this number, and the percussion is more prominent, louder and more central than the preceding tracks. These two factors elevate the tune to a

level above, more immediate and more engaging than its predecessors. It is still, alas, nothing like as immediately charming as the best tracks on Animal Magic but it is a cut above the rest of Black Sands to date. 

The next track keeps the stronger percussion and a more contrasting central theme, making it feel like he has found the voice for the record, but it has a cheesier edge to it that makes me shudder and think of bad 80s Hawaiian disco scenes in the movies of the day. Ugh. It gets better as it goes, losing the bad bongos feel to a degree but there is something in the staccato nature of the sounds here that really encourages images of gaudy shirts, floral necklaces and fat men with maracas. Do not want.

1009 returns us to more recent, but still bygone, days, its opening conjuring instead the sound of dial up routers connecting. This is just not relaxing to listen to at all, and if Bonobo does not have that, then frankly it has virtually nothing going for it. The tune gets a little more interesting and less bleepy as it goes but not enough to assuage that initial strong negative reaction and make me want to ever hear it again. I think its fair to say my disappointment is really kicking in at this stage - self-fulfilling prophecy or not. Ah, now that is better. There is a shimmering air to the opening of All in Forms that I rather like. I almost wrote "dig" there, but then I remembered this is not the 70s (when I wasn't alive to be so uncool). The track title seems odd, because the appeal of this track lies in it almost but not quite taking form. It seems to be a shift away from completeness at every step, like it is out of phase with itself somehow, and this is a really evocative ambiance for me. About half way it pulls together, losing the shimmer and taking shape as a simple little tune over a distant backing. Best tune on the disc so far - whilst El Toro was stronger and more stand out, this just has an x-factor, a secret ingredient that inexplicably binds it into a more immediately enjoyable tune.

Today is not the day I hoped it would be; not bright enough to tempt me outside, I was lethargic about rising this morning and that slowness is still with me. The music I am listening to half reflects that back with The Keeper which feels sleepy in its tempo. The vocal annoys me though - it turns what is a nice lazy tune into a bad RnB track (and there will be more of them in later listens, for sure). In my late teens I would probably have loved that, but those days were long gone before this album was released and so despite a good core composition for the way I am feeling right now, the fact I can't get past the vocal means another one for the scrap heap. If I can't enjoy the track when my brain is moving in slow-mo then I never will. I am happy to hear that mood is jettisoned for the following tune, but my hope sinks when a vocal comes in. Be fair, though... it isn't in the same boring lifeless class as what went before, and fits better with what is around it. There is a smoky, wispy quality to the vocal, a duskiness blown away by the clear melody that soars over everything else, drawing my ear away from the repetitive nature of the patterns at play. As the track ends I find myself pulled in two different directions by it which at least merits giving it another chance.

The last two tunes are longer, both over 6 minutes. This is a little bit of a concern when the style in general relies on loops and repetition to the degree that it does. However the opening minutes of Animals is pretty glorious, the percussion a rata-tat-tat of snares keeping a good pace whilst the melody wanders and wavers above. The blueprint changes up entirely just before the 4 minute mark too, meaning that the worry of long-term repeats is taken out of the equation. The high tempo beats recede a little - still there, but less audible behind a sparser and tinnier percussion and a jazz-like melody. I'm not sure which animals the track (or at least its title) is meant to make us think of, but that is an irrelevant detail I find myself unduly considering as the timer runs out on the tune. We are left, then with just the title track. 

It starts with an uncharacteristically slow pace, much more focus on the melodic than the rhythmic portions of the tune. When it develops into what sounds like a sad French movie soundtrack, a mournful quality in the clarinet(?) which carries the central tune lending the track its dominant tone. The quiet horns that rise in support further reinforce that Gallic air, whilst reminding me a little of Beirut. As the percussion picks up and becomes more of a central player you could picture Paris receding into a credits sequence. I really like this track - everything hangs together well and despite the sadness that comes through from the themes it feels as a whole like a very positive and affirmative way to close. It probably drifts on a minute or so longer than it needed to, especially as the themes are given that time to die out, sucking the life out of the track rather than closing with a positive decision but it ends the listen with me feeling much better about the album as a whole. There were tracks I will cut, but only a quarter of the disc in the end, when I feared it would be more. 

It isn't really fair to dismiss Black Sands on the basis that it isn't Animal Magic. If the same album was being trotted out several times then it wouldn't be so special, and I would likely have ranted about lack of evolution or creativity or something instead. It is totally fair to say that I don't hold this album in the same place in my heart, but there are some pretty neat tunes here all the same that I am glad to have and retain.

The Big Black and the Blue - First Aid Kit

Track list:

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

Running time: 38 minutes
Released: 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Beachcomber's Windowsill - Stornoway

Track list:

1. Zorbing
2. I Saw You Blink
3. Fuel Up
4. The Coldharbour Road
5. Boats and Trains
6. We Are the Battery Human
7. Here Comes the Blackout...!
8. Watching Birds
9. On the Rocks
10. The End of the Movie
11. Long Distance Lullaby

Running time: 43 minutes
Released: 2010

A local band. Stornoway formed in Oxford. I remember there being a buzz about them at the time. I remember picking the album up on a punt a short while later. I remember not liking it much. How much of that is true and how much is dodgy recollection is now to be tested.

What I can say before it kicks off is that I really like the album title - it conjures up pictures of recovered flotsam, curiosities from another life. It would be a shame if that is the best thing about it. The first track - Zorbing, after the hobby with the giant hamster balls - starts very non-committally. It reminds me a lot of something else - I think it may be Standard Fare, even though their vocalist is female. It has generic indie-pop all over it; fun but not too fun, light but not too light, easy to listen to, hard to like in any active perception. This sense persists as we move forward... there is none of the instant charm of Allo Darlin' here, just some very repetitive bases and lazy head-nodding structures.

It really isn't that bad, but it isn't good either. The only thing standing out is the fact it does not stand out.

There is a slight change in tone for Fuel Up - more morose, less twee - but still equally uninteresting. It is notable that there is a distance in the recording; everything seems quite soft as if it were drifting across a field rather than being experienced up close. It is not just the volume, but there is a muffled edge to some of the sounds that increases that. I think this is deliberate, it would tie in with the choice of a faraway coastal town on a windswept coast as a band name. If so, then this is the second thing to like after the album title. The Coldharbour Road makes me think back to my university years in Bristol despite being a part of town I never spent any time in - it is the best song yet and a probable keeper but I am afraid that does not say much.

It really is the vocal that gives me the indie-pop vibe more than anything else. The composition infringes on that patch now and again but the cadence of the singing is the stamp of genre in a way that I cannot quite explain. The album does seem to be getting better though even if there is still that propensity for uninteresting repeated rhythms and hooks. I find it interesting that the first two tracks - which really were utterly bland - were the singles and that I am more engaged with the disc as we leave them behind. I say that, but I have just disengaged with a Mumford moment. Unfortunately I do have Mumford & Sons to come, but I cannot stand them (another buy based on popularity which is clearly a bad thing!) and there is something about the song that just started which brings them to mind and there is nothing positive about that. The timing fits for them to have been a significant influence too, so I hope it does not go beyond this one track.

I seem to be leaving flaky skin all over my keyboard. Ew. I have noticed that my skin and lips have really suffered this winter and I hope that they recover as warmth returns to the country. Warmth may just have flashed back in the music too - bit more of a driving pace, same distance on the recording... Watching Birds is a decent start and feels like it is building - if it can continue without falling back into the same hook that it started with it might be another keeper. Alas, it drops back into the same form which worked for about 30 seconds before it got dull. There is some interest over the top of it but it has lost the urgency that it started with and the way it is presented feels like something that has been cobbled together from random bits and bobs rather than crafted with any plan and cohesion. It is nice to be listening to a shorter work though - even if I am not entirely enjoying it.

Into the run in, and there is no energy in the playing. I am listening in procrastination; I should be sorting out car insurance, credit card bills and battening for some shelves but the cold windy day is not inspiring me. That and I woke up knackered which never sets the day off on a good foot. I think a bowl of soup and Game of Thrones (Tyrion's second trial by combat) are next up and maybe this afternoon I will be better placed for productivity. This post is good for a clear-out though - the retention rate is low. I do not know how much difference it will make to get rid of this stuff - for all the chaff that I am cutting my library will still be huge and I will still end up skipping stuff freely if I shuffle it all. I suspect after I am done I will have achieved very little but having this as an outlet is a positive in itself. I have been going 6 months already at a rate of slightly below 1 album/2 days and at that rate it could be a decade's endeavour. How much new material will I buy in that time frame to invalidate my clearout?! The pile of 2015 purchases is in front of me, and it amounts to approximately one a week. That is a lot of additions but I am just about listening faster than I am buying and to be fair I have just found a couple of really good artists that prompted specific action.

Meanwhile Stornoway are concluding their effort whilst I waffle on. The run in has been nondescript and unremarkable. Nice enough, not objectionable but not anything that I feel I need to listen to ever again either. I do not feel any loyalty to local bands really, certainly not enough to overcome indifference of output. The last tune has receded and my finger hovers over delete as I plunge 9 of the 11 tracks here into the Room 101 of my recycle bin.

Bang Goes the Knighthood - The Divine Comedy

Track list:

1. Down in the Street Below
2. The Complete Banker
3. Neapolitan Girl
4. Bang Goes the Knighthood
5. At the Indie Disco
6. Have You Ever Been in Love
7. Assume the Perpendicular
8. The Lost Art of Conversation
9. Island Life
10. When a Man Cries
11. Can You Stand Upon One Leg
12. I Like

Running time: 44 minutes
Released: 2010

The Divine Comedy. I remember taping (yes, cassette) National Express off the radio years and years ago - tapes were already well on the way out! - but never really picking anything else up. I also remember not getting tickets for a Ben Folds tour because it was co-headlined by The Divine Comedy and the person I would have gone with being very anti.

Yet Neil Hannon has always struck me as a top bloke - a view he confirmed by admitting to a love of cricket with The Duckworth Lewis Method. This is the final (or latest, if they are not defunct) Divine Comedy album and the only one I have - bought because of TDLM.

We kick off with a pacey number which brings to mind of American crooners of the 50s more than a modern recording. The lyrics are more modern, mind, and the structure of the song (or rather the lack of it) is definitely not a throwback. It does seem to go on for an eternity though, but when it ends we get a reaction to the global financial crisis with a title that for any Brit definitely reads with a W. I find it hard to describe the style, but I think it is fair to say this is music in support of lyrics not the other way around, and Hannon is a man with something to say.  Generally (I always want to add an extra e to that word when I type it) there is tempo in the tune, and an airy arrangement with orchestral backing as called for. Jeez that is a nonsensical sentence; oh well.

It is cheery, not too serious, even as the message of a song may be a serious one, the arrangement is rarely less than positive in tone. Of course, as I type that the title track comes on and raises an exception. Will I never learn about speaking too soon? In other news, my first 2015 purchases have just dropped through my door (on a Sunday... how the world has changed) so the library will continue to grow as I go. I do suspect I am deleting more tracks than I am adding, but that is not reflected at the level at which I am conducting this project.

At the Indie Disco namedrops a load of 90s and noughties indie bands, and is a return to a more familiar happy-go-lucky sound. I think I would have hated this 20 years ago, been indifferent to it 10 years ago. 5 years ago when I picked it up and today? There is something nice and uncomplicated about it. I would not want all of my music to be this ... I don't know what the word I am looking for is. The nub is that as a change up this is really rather pleasant but it would get boring fast if I had too much of it. I think my ears may have been opened a little bit by getting into other indie-pop acts.

Fairly clever, fairly twee, fairly pleasant and pleasing enough that I am largely carried along by the wave of good feeling, especially when the tracks get a little more jaunty. OK, I am past half way now and there is a degree to which it becomes a little samey - but is an acceptable kind of sameness because fundamentally it is positive, happy music. I do not think I would ever sit down to listen to this album as an album again, but equally I am not feeling any drive to trim the songs from my collection. I can see their value as palette cleansers amongst a wider library. I am not finding much of note coming to mind as I listen though, just a few bits to back up the impression of Hannon I came into this post with.

You know what? I have found something more that ties back to the earlier point about old time American singers - lighter subject matter, vaguely comic with a purpose of entertainment. Light entertainment. And oh my god that is an unpleasantly piercing note held for far to long. That has to go, no place for that at all. Still, one bad apple does not mean the whole bunch is tainted, and the final song on the disc quickly pushes the horror out of my mind with another lightly entertaining positive song.

The Ayrtime.org Digital E.P. - Alasdair Roberts

Track list:

1. Babylon
2. Little Sir Hugh
3. Lord Ronald
4. The Calfless Cow

Running time: 16 minutes
Released: 2010

This a free digital-only EP available here. 

 

I have apparently racked up 9 scrobbles of these tracks without ever realising it or any of them sinking in so this is pretty much like a first (and possibly last) look.

I do not recall what exactly got me to pick up music by Alasdair Roberts. It may have been an appearance on the BBC's Transatlantic Sessions, perhaps but I might be pulling that out of my behind. I do not have much by him and have generally found him slightly too dry for my taste - simple and plain guitar and him singing in a voice that does not entirely sit well with me. That pretty much describes Babylon to a T - the song does nothing for me and his too-quick progression from line to line, as good as joining them together helps un-sell me fast.

Little Sir Hugh is more promising, a different tone and a slower, more structured vocal give this a more full, rounded sound despite the same minimalist approach. I actually like this song, and the more intricate and stronger guitar of the bridge just confirms this impression. Roberts' voice carries an edge that is tough to appreciate but to give him his due it works with certain tones, bleaker and darker themes suit his plaintive style whilst with more melodic or lighter songs it grates. Lord Ronald gives it too much space, for example, and I find that it sets my teeth on edge. Whilst the song is pretty dark, the instrumentation is not - lightly picked and with no backing it gives him the rope his voice needs to hang him from the tree of my disinterest.

The final song here is The Calfless Cow, which I have to say is a crap song title. It is a short number (sub 2 minutes) that has a nicer guitar part again. Unlike Little Sir Hugh though, on this occasion the improved instrumentation does not offset the element of Roberts' voice that wears upon me, so it will be joining Lord Ronald in Babylon away from my machine. Little Sir Hugh can stay with me.

That concludes my posting for 2014, and concludes the selection of albums, EPs and individual tracks listed under A in my Windows Media Player library. In the last 4 1/2 months I have managed 95 listens for this project - significantly less than 10% of the total. I am pleased to have got this far and still maintain the desire to continue. Looking ahead to B I can see some favourites coming up, as well as a load of random bits and bobs and the first occasions where I am likely to tinker with the order for reasons other than new purchases. Roll on 2015, and Happy New Year to the world.

And Then We Saw Land - Tunng

Track list:

1. Hustle
2. It Breaks
3. Don't Look Down Or Back
4. The Roadside
5. October
6. Sashimi
7. With Whiskey
8. By Dusk They Were In The City
9. These Winds
10. Santiago
11. Weekend Away

Running time: 46 minutes
Released: 2010

I have listened to this disc a lot. Tunng became a firm favourite of mine with Good Arrows, which I picked up after hearing Sam Genders in a radio discussion and liking the cut of his jib. And Then We Saw Land was the first Tunng album after Genders left (going on to The Accidental and later Diagrams) and signalled a little bit of a change in direction but largely retained the likeable parts.

The album opens with a sonic warp, picked up by keys, then dropped (or rather faded back) in favour of a hooky guitar riff, to which rhythm is added. Hustle is a summer song, so light, bright and fun, foot tappingly so. It is pretty repetitive now I listen again and somewhere near the end gets a rattle that overpowers, but otherwise it is a strong little number that sets a tone nicely.

Catchy little tunes are what this era of Tunng is about. Gone/reduced are some of the more eccentric samples of Genders' era, in their place a structured framework to catch you and then keep you smiling. There are breaks in the pattern (there would have to be for it to work) but they really just emphasise the format.

Guitars are the main hook, but the patterning applies to the background sounds, percussion and so on too, as well as the vocal. There is some good use of harmony and contrast. Personally I think it is a really tough call between this and Good Arrows as to which is better (I still lean to the earlier one). Incidentally, Don't Look Down or Back is available as a free download here; it is pretty representative, but not my favourite: that is to come. The Roadside opens with staccato picking that just gets me tapping along so quickly that I am immersed before the other layers join in. I am noticing the echo effect on the vocal for the first time (consciously at least) now though, which just goes to show you can generally find something new even in favourites if you actually pay attention.

I used to think that the album went downhill from this point - shot its bolt too soon then faded out. There is an element of that, but it is premature yet. October is a neat tune; the harmony between the male and female voices is great, the way they blend in together whilst maintaining very distinct tones. It is a mellow track, too - nothing brash, nothing too catchy; a nice interlude before the much hookier Sashimi. Electrics make more of an obvious show in this one; no bad thing, but it makes it sound a lot more stark, cleansing the aural palate by sweeping away any lingering expectation of muted tones.

Whiskey not whisky, eh? I had not noticed the preference for Irish over Scotch previously; no idea whether it was intentional or the most natural way of spelling it for them. There is an odd moment in With Whiskey where it goes all A-Ha on us, lyrically - invoking Take On Me in the chorus, before finishing up and getting to the awesome instrumental that is By Dusk They Were In the City. This tune I adore... tuneful, loopy base with pauses and interjections before a build to a self-gratifying guitar solo - the sort of thing I am not generally a fan of - which is so well worked in to the overall progression of the track that it does not feel so... abusive. I think it is the continuation of the main structure around it that gives it that freedom as it sparks off the loops then drops out to allow the song to close. To be honest I did not really feel this time through as much as I have others - and particularly when I saw it live, but it remains my favourite track on the album.

These Winds strips everything back, largely a cappela but with a little percussion it is a complete tone change and feels longer than its sub-2 minute length. This is the point that I lose a little of my interest in the album with the track having less to hook me. Santiago continues this trend not because it lacks the hooks, but because I find the ones it has less sonically aesthetic. Hand claps and electronics predominate and these are just less compelling than the layered keys, guitars and percussion of earlier tracks. Weekend Away is not a great closer either. I love the way the chorus works but the verses and bridges are less compelling. Harmonies again are great, but the musicality of the arrangement is lacking for a large part of the track.  When it swells up and you get more of the traditional elements, the track is stronger (they are natural crescendos in the piece too); pity they had to fall away again in the way they do. There is a secret track on the end of it, but thankfully it's only a few seconds after Weekend Away comes to a close so dead air is not an issue. There is not a lot to the hidden song and really I think we would have been better without it.

So the last quarter of the disc is a little weak, there is a definite drop off in interest driven by a move away from the instrumentation used throughout the first 8 tracks to a more minimalist style that relies more heavily on electronica. Those songs are not bad, but they do let the side down a little. Happily there is much more good than bad and the album has reaffirmed its place time and again on my commute and on longer journeys too, and now here. I am sure it will again, because life is always better when you get a bit of Tunng.

The Alphabet of Hurricanes - Tom McRae

Track List:

1. Still Love You
2. A is For
3. Won't Lie
4. Summer of John Wayne
5. Told My Troubles To The River
6. American Spirit
7. Please
8. Out of the Walls
9. Me & Stetson
10. Can't Find You
11. Best Winter
12. Fifteen Miles Downriver

Running time: 41 minutes
Released: 2010

Another McRae album that I probably should not have bought, so soon on the heels of All Maps Welcome. I am hoping, rather than expecting, this to contain at least the odd gem to vindicate the (long ago) purchase.

Staccato mandolin kicks the album off with a reasonable roll to the playing, but the rest of Still Love You is pretty boringly put together. Individual elements are nice but the construction is lacking. It is followed by a horrid interlude that really just does not work for anything but putting the listener on edge.

I will say this for Tom McRae: he has evolved between albums, at least in some respects. This is not simply an inferior version of an earlier release, there has been a shift in the arrangements even as the vocal echoes back to his debut in its strained pleading (and although that sounds bad, I actually like that vocal affectation). My problem with this is that the bit I like about Won't Lie (for example) is drowned out by the changes that do not work for me. Addition of piercing woodwind gives a fuller sound, but not one I welcome.

The addition of deeper arrangements does not always make for better music, just as it does not always make things work badly. My personal feeling is that McRae's voice has more room to do what he does well with a flatter backing. Not a featureless one, but one without folds in which to hide the pained delivery that gives his vocal an identifiable character. Summer of John Wayne starts as though it might be up my street, and I find some of the passages in this song really quite pleasant, but when the arrangement inflates and envelops I find it dropping from my interest like a stone.

Ah, now that is a more promising sound... interesting percussion and loose keys. A significant departure in direction, and to my ear the backing is too high, the vocal too low, but a genuinely different track, and short enough for the cacophony to start the ears ringing but not leave them so. This is a good form of evolution, experimentation. I think it works, but it is on a fine line that will probably not have made Told My Troubles to the River a favourite to many.

I like the way this album shifts in tone, it is far from homogeneous. Most of the tunes are not really tripping my "ooh I like this" sense and I will be cutting many, but I do want to shout out to the roundedness of this release and the progression it marks in the performer. There are themes and elements that crop up again from song to song giving a sense of consistency, but each song also genuinely sounds different from the last rather than just trotting out the same structures time after time. Bigger sounds are followed by stripped back ones, melodic songs by percussive ones. Pensive or reflective stuff by more strident material. It is good diversity, a trait I did not expect going in to the listen. I am almost sorry for cutting the first third of the disc even as I continue to listen because the approach is to be applauded. That said, my patience and my ears can only stand some of the variations presented. The middle third of the album is much more to my taste - I have dumped Please, but the rest are staying and showcase the variety well enough.

As I enter the last few tracks I wonder how it will close. Can't Find You harks back to the opening track, but I find myself better disposed to it this time around - perhaps the lyric is more engaging; I find it hard to put my finger on why. It may just be that I have worked myself into a positive mindset, something I did not have at the outset of this post, and that positivity rubs off as charitable interpretation. Who knows. I find myself indecisive about Best Winter - I think it suffers from repetition, but it is short enough to excuse it. I think it treads a line of dullness, but that is quite a pleasant dullness - comfortable. I half want to cut it, half to keep. I think I am going to be charitable - the latter half of this record has impressed me enough that I think that charity is earned and despite Fifteen Miles Downriver feeling like it went on for ages it was a very nice, low key ending to the disc.

I have come out of this surprised and impressed. I did not expect to be keeping more than half the songs from this album going in, but McRae has added diversity to his armoury and employed it well to craft a second half that is very listenable indeed. It will never rank amongst my favourites but I am happy to keep it around.

Allz Saintz Dayz - Martin John Henry

Track List:

1. Allz Saintz Dayz

Running time: 4 minutes
Released: 2010

This is a free single from former De Rosa songwriter Martin John Henry. It is a re-imagining of All Saints Day from Mend from his former band. 

I like the De Rosa recording more. This is remixed with electronics that are interesting but not particularly compelling. It is a little too sedate and does not contain the same fire in the delivery. Not sure it is worth keeping.

Allo Darlin' - Allo Darlin'

Track List:

1. Dreaming
2. The Polaroid Song
3. Silver Dollars
4. Kiss Your Lips
5. Heartbeat Chilli
6. If Loneliness Was Art
7. Woody Allen
8. Let's Go Swimming
9. My Heart is a Drummer
10. What Will Be Will Be

Running time: 37 minutes
Released: 2010

Now this should freshen things up!

Allo Darlin' was another purchase based on a discovery on LastFM and it quickly became a firm favourite. The first song I heard was Kiss Your Lips and it was infectiously fun, happy and generally great. I then picked up the album and found that there were 7 other songs just as good or better. The other 2 I am not so keen on. The group play infectious indie-pop with personality and energy and are just awesome to see live.

The infectious happiness in this album starts immediately. Nice, bright, catchy upbeat drive and a his/hers duet with interesting voices. It just oozes positivity around a simple clean structure and a hook that lasts the distance without getting dull, only to be blown away by the twangy-ness of the line that starts The Polaroid Song. Both of these tunes are busy. They are not massively deep or layered  but there is a very strong simple theme and the pacey nature of playing quite a lot of notes, in jaunty fashion gives the impression of so much going on it is hard to keep up. The actual song about Polaroids is actually quite a laid back/reflective number which makes for an interesting contrast with the highish tempo. I find both an absolute joy.

That sentiment does not go away yet either. Silver Dollars has a similar structure (upbeat bass, fairly high tempo) but more space for the vocal and more separation of tune and rhythm. It contains one very strained rhyme that has always bugged me slightly (rhyming platonic with tonic is perhaps less the issue than the delivery of the line, but still...), but otherwise it continues the theme of really cheery, charming tunes and catchy music.

Kiss Your Lips changes pace a little. It is noticeably slower, but no less catchy. I know I am sounding like a raging fanboy here, but there is something immediate and instinctive about my reaction to these songs - an unlocking of buried joy - that I cannot really explain. I doubt many people that know me would type me as the hipster who gets in on cult indie darlings but that is pretty much exactly what happened when I heard Allo Darlin' first. Just blown away by some emotional response to their genuine fun.

Heartbeat Chilli is the first of the two songs I do not much care for. Much slower and simpler it loses the energy and enthusiasm that is, for me, the real selling point of Allo Darlin'. It is also a food-centric love song and just typing that phrase seems so fundamentally wrong! Thankfully it is just a mid-album interlude in the infectious pop. Loneliness is less upbeat to start but it grows on you before the cheesy sha-la-la's kick in. As a long term singleton there are elements of recognition in this; these are geeky love songs, which somehow makes them more palatable to me than more traditional pop love ballads - I am a massive geek after all. That said, she could be singing about strangling cats on Mars for all I care. I note the words as I listen but really I am here for the the simple wonder of it, and for basslines and snazzy tempo to die for. Woody Allen has both in spades and my foot starts tapping as I type. I cannot stop smiling. It's not even my favourite song from this disc!


My favourite track, by a country mile, is My Heart is a Drummer. So joyous. It starts slow then explodes into full on catchy jangly goodness and the delivery of the chorus still gives me goosebumps. The bridge is so infectious it is unreal. Having seen a tent full of folks of all ages jumping up and down to this in a sweaty ecstasy once, I would give quite a lot to do so again but these days I do not get to as many gigs as I used to. Living in a small town not a tour spot, not knowing people who share my tastes. It saddens me some.

The album ends on a more reflective note. What Will Be Will Be is the second track I could take or leave most of the time. It is really nicely done and really it only suffers here because the rest of the album is such a favourite, and because the disc is short, you are not worn out enough to appreciate the slow-down fully.

When I bought this, almost 4 years ago now, it went into the car and stayed on a constant play cycle for an age. I put it back in often. The magic has not faded. Two later albums have come since - the second just a couple of weeks back. They have not grabbed me in the same way, but Europe was a grower, and I am hoping that We Come From the Same Place will be too. Allo Darlin' may be the best band you have never heard of. From my experience I would say listen to this disc if you get the chance - even if it is not normally your thing. You may think it trite hipster shite, or you may find, like I did, that there is something inexplicably necessary about this music.

Music is about emotional responses and this album produces one of my most enduring. A little ray of sunshine in the dark autumnal gloom. These days there are few things that I would blanket recommend, but Allo Darlin' has a quintessential simplicity and joy about it, I would quite happily do so. I do do so. It will not be everyone's cup of tea, but if even one person has the same magical reaction to their work that I did then the world is a brighter place.

All Creatures Will Make Merry - Meursault

Track List:

1 Payday
2 Crank Resolutions
3 All Creatures Will Make Merry... Under Pain of Death
4 Weather
5 One Day This'll All Be Fields
6 What You Don't Have
7 Another
8 New Ruin
9 Sleet
10 Song for Martin Kippenberger
11 A Fair Exchange

Running time: 45 minutes
Released: 2010

So this is going to be interesting. I only have vague impressions of this album - and not liking it much. Why I picked it up, my initial though was that I was on a kick for all things Scottish finding a lot of great low-fi folk and indie on LastFM, but this released to late to be in the wave of purchases that followed those discoveries. No idea how this will work out, so lets find out!

The opening is dark - footsteps... but that tone is lost with the first note, which introduces mournfulness. It is a strange opening, especially given that plus some indistinct backing is all there is to Payday.

Crank Resolutions has more to it, but there is an odd distance about the sound - both the vocal and the music behind it seem removed from their present somehow. I do not recognise this at all despite somehow having racked up 40+ plays of Meursault over 4 years. There is an electronic edge to this - not at all what I was expecting. It's not bad. Meursault are named for the protagonist in L'Etranger by Camus. This does not predispose me to like them - having to read that book, in the original French, was one of the hardest and dullest things I had to do at school. I can see why they might have chosen the name, and I guess it adds an artistic choice to the distance between the listener and the sounds recorded. Particularly the vocal, which is very muted, distant on each track so far. It is not a technique that I have (consciously) heard used a lot and it gives this album a stand out feature.

I have to say, I am enjoying this a lot more than I thought I would before I started. 

There is a touch of Admiral Fallow about Weather, another Scottish indie-folk band so I guess it is not that much of a surprise. I am not keen on the muted strings or the lyric/delivery of One Day This'll All Be Fields though the song just does nothing for me and the sounds which accompany its denouement are ugly... presaging the next track which is really rather too off-key as it launches. Nor does it improve noticeably, consisting mostly of the same distant vocal and a very bland driving rhythm.

Another swaps one bland for another (I see what I did there). This time a bland guitar melody. However in this case the blandness of the accompaniment helps the distinctive vocal style because there is no competition for attention. It makes the voice more distinct whilst keeping the distance that has characterised the album. The problem I find with the song is that whilst it has a strong character, it does not seem to have a strong heart - I find that despite finding the vocal line very clear and well delivered (I like the distance, I have decided), having just finished listening to it I could not tell you a single lyric from it. The actual content thus proves forgettable, even as  - or perhaps because - the style is very memorable.

New Ruin may be my favourite track on this album. There is good drive, neat instrumentation, decent electronics and the same vocal delivery that has marked the other tunes. Lyrically it is still unremarkable to the point of blank memory but the different elements that Meursault have shown through the disc are combined here to produce a tune I really like. 

I have finally realised what the distant vocal reminds me of: Pink Floyd's The Wall. It is a strange bedfellow, because the tone here is very different to that double album, generally speaking. There is far less anger on show. Reinforcing the idea that Meursault are odd ducks is the ode to Martin Kippenberger. It starts with great momentum but dies off and runs too long, but at least I have now heard of a hard-drinking German artist who died young. Good trade?

The album ends quietly, and that is probably a fair indication that the album has peaks and troughs. Overall it is a decent work, with a couple of disappointments and a real high point. There is a pretty strong character to the disc with the vocal style flowing through the whole thing. I thought I might be cutting this before I listened to it, but having done so, there is no call for that.

The Age of Adz - Sufjan Stevens

Track List:

1. Futile Devices
2. Too Much
3. Age of Adz
4. I Walked
5. Now That I'm Older
6. Get Real Get Right
7. Bad Communication
8. Vesuvius
9. All for Myself
10. I Want to Be Well
11. Impossible Soul

Running time: 74 minutes
Released 2010

I cannot for the life of me remember what prompted me to pick this up.  

I do not own any of Stevens' other work, and despite a friend evangelising a little over him I was never interested. And yet, here is an album; I know I bought it, I have the physical copy. I have made 22 scrobbles in 4 years on random plays but I have never sat down to listen to Sufjan Stevens before so this could be interesting. Or, given this is even longer than my last listen, but lacking the variety of say, 30 Days, this could feel like work. We shall see which!

OK, so the album itself probably isn't 74 minutes, given the last track is listed at 25. Oh joy. Either some non-ending borefest or hidden track idiocy awaits I guess.

I start playing the first track and musically it is better than I expected. Lyrically, I find I cannot really take in too much when I am concentrating on typing up immediate thoughts, so I have presumably been missing a fair bit - at least in the music I did not know before. I am not sure how I feel about that. On the one hand, the exercise of listening is definitely exposing me to stuff I had not made time for, and I am getting something out of that. However I am probably still not giving them a fair crack. Ho-hum.

The pleasant sounds of Futile Devices are not replicated on Too Much. This is a messy track and too long. It could be split in two with no changes such is the change of tone just over half way through. Frankly it is not very good, but the second half does at least keep you guessing by zooming all over the place tonally. The boring repeated lyric returns ("there's too much riding on that" ad nauseum) to close the track, which gives way to the title tune. It is not an auspicious start. More of the same messy sound collage. The vocal is much more interesting but it sounds weak relative to its "backing" which is simply not musical for most of the duration. The track is also too long for something that has structure only in the loosest terms. There is no genius composition here. There is no songwriting of particular note; there is no engagement or strong thread through the piece. I was skeptical before I began this listen, the rest of the tracks need to be killer to bring me round.

The opening of I Walked reminds me of another track, but I cannot place which. It is a very small step in the right direction though - shoegaze-y, muted electronica with a more tuneful vocal overlaid. It is an OK track, but half way through I think it should draw closed, not extend. It is more coherent despite its overlong 5 minutes, and coherence is another thing the two longer tracks really lacked.

Coherence alone does not make things work though. The next two tracks have more again but still lack anything tuneful to engage me. At times, I think I am hearing videogame noises, or one-arm-bandit sounds. It is not what I listen to music for. I do not think it even works as innovation either. There are the odd moments here and there where something interesting threatens to break out but it quickly gets swamped by more noise for the sake of noise.

Vesuvius is the next song that has anything tuneful, but it too is beset by the drive to include odd sounds here and there, which means it loses a lot of potential lustre and ends up being just as unedifying as the rest. At this point I am glad for the IM conversation my friend has struck up (discussing Mascarade - a hidden roles game of chaos and bluffing). It means that I am deliberately diverting some attention from the listen, but I am still playing all the songs through and I am still paying attention. Just not full attention.

I Want to Be Well is an interesting start. This seems to use the weird sound obsession better, focuses it into a more structured format and has some drive, though that seems to get lost in the mid-song turnaround. The pace returns, but with a poor lyric. It's a better song than most of this collection, though that is not saying much. Impossible Soul starts more tuneful but I am conditioned now not to expect it to last... and anyway, even if it does, the track is 25 minutes for heaven's sake. It is getting cut along with most of the album. I'll keep the opener, and probably I Walked.

A pity. Impossible Soul is the most musical piece on the album - at least until 10 mins in when it starts using voice modulation. I am surprised the track has not gone silent. Instead it is cycling through various bad sounds, voice mods being only one component of the weirdness. Of course, I am still only half way through the track. I guess you can see this track as a medley or a mix. Unfortunately in the vein of this album it is a mess and the tuneful song that begins it is crowded out by a load of boring bits and pieces. And there is still 6 minutes left. To be fair, he has confounded both of my predictions for this track before I started.

Right, that's over now. I was willing to have an open mind; I tried not to have too many preconceptions. I even liked the first track! Alas the rest of the album pretty much confirms what I had always felt in terms of not being interested in Sufjan Stevens. If only I had not somehow convinced myself to give him a go; I would have this hour back. Ah well.

10 Songs for the New Depression - Loudon Wainwright III

Track List:

1. Times Is Hard
2. House
3. On to Victory, Mr. Roosevelt
4. Fear Itself
5. The Panic Is On
6. The Krugman Blues
7. Halloween 2009
8. Middle of the Night
9. Cash for Clunkers
10. Got a Ukulele 

Running Time: 29 minutes

Released: 2010

His middle name is Snowdon. Loudon Snowdon... wow, what parents!

I recall I first heard of/saw Loudon Wainwright at the Cropredy festival in (I think) 1998. I remember him being an engaging performer, funny and interesting, but I recall none of the music played. I only picked up any of his music a decade later, after I had become familiar with both Rufus and Martha's work (I have mixed feelings on both). I do not remember what prompted it... probably impulse and seeing a familiar name in the "new releases" list, but almost certainly influenced by his offspring's work.

This whole work is a shill on economic hard times, "cashing in", and with a short total runtime at that! These songs, this artist, is more about lyrics than the accompaniment. Not to say he cannot play or sing (though no-one would claim he is superb at either) but more to say that it is really not background music. If you are not listening you will not appreciate it. It is the kind of album perfect for this project... except that as I type, and consider my words, I am missing too many of his.

Not all of the lyrics are clever or brilliant but they are considered and used to paint pictures in bite-size pieces. I appreciate the use of lyrics in this way, even if 90% of my music consumption means I miss it. Yeah, songs do not need any lyrics, let along intelligent ones, to be good... but if they have them it opens the door to a whole different way of appreciating an artist's work. I am sure we all have songs we love lyrically or musically but not both.

There is more depth musically here than I initially gave credit for. Nothing particularly complex but more variation in style and approach than I remembered or expected. As you might expect, it is all rooted in folksy, bluesy tones - which fit the theme perfectly, by the by - but tempo and approach change from song to song and that is actually a pretty important touch here, to elevate the listener above the temptation to get bogged down in the less than cheery subject matter. I like that most of the songs are really quite short, too - another light touch that helps the album sit together well.

Middle of the Night is probably my favourite track, its core refrain of "It's not the end of the world/it's just the middle of the night" is pretty no-frills, delivered many times with different inserts, but it has a simple truth to it, and fits snugly in a simple, twangy sound. Cash for Clunkers follows it and it's the only one I honestly dislike. The title is blah, the delivery is blah, the backing is blah. However these days, only one "bad" track on an album seems like a good return; I own several like 9 where the decent tracks are outnumbered by the dross.

I would never place Loudon Wainwright III as one of my favourite artists, but you pretty much know what you are going to get and either like what he does or don't, and in my limited experience of him (one gig 16 years ago and only 3 of countless albums), I do.