Comfort of Strangers - Beth Orton

Track list:

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

Running time: 44 minutes
Released: 2006

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Clayhill - Clayhill

Track List:

1. Figure Of Eight
2. Northern Soul
3. Mystery Train
4. Face Of The Sun
5. Grasscutter
6. Funny How
7. Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want
8. Disscordents

Running time: 36 minutes
Released: 2005

And so I come to a draft that has been sat around for a couple of years.

This post almost appeared titled incorrectly as "Acoustic", for that is how it lived in my library for too long. In sourcing the track list and image I realised my error and re-titled it appropriately so that it can appear in the right place at the right time. It is an acoustic album and "Acoustic" is often added to the name in references, it would seem. Oh well, correction made.

Clayhill are made up of bassist Ali Friend (of Red Snapper and The Imagined Village), vocalist Gavin Clark (Sunhouse, UNKLE) and Ted Barnes (who did work with Beth Orton, as well as solo). Friend's name may have been enough to get me to look them up, but I think I cottoned on to them via Red Snapper's Redone - an album of remixes and a notable cover of Odd Man Out. It isn't credited as Clayhill, but it is Friend, and Clark for sure; not sure about Barnes. The latter's voice was stunning and I was hooked.

This is the first midweek listen I have managed in I don't know how long, and I am able to fit it in only because I bailed on a roleplaying session after three really bad nights of sleep. I am far too busy to find time for everything I have to do and everything I want to do, and getting the rest and recuperation I need to function. Oh well; the late Gavin Clark delivers a soft, almost apologetic song over a simple guitar hook supported by Friend's upright bass. Figure of Eight is a tune based on simplicity for the most part. The trio play off each other well. The bass is subtle and fills in the gaps behind the guitar, which is plucky and bright as it slides under the nasal, drawn out tones of our vocalist. 

As much as I like Figure of Eight, there are two tracks on this album I really adore. The first is Northern Soul - though I am more familiar with the original recording on Small Circle, it is impressive how well the sound transfers to the striped back version here. This song has a punchier hook, a twangier bass, a firmer vocal and a chorus that strikes a chord even though I am a softy southerner not a hardy northern type. The little fussy, busy bits of guitar work are a joy and I imagine they had great fun recording this track - it has that kind of positive energetic style coming through the speaker. The other song that matches this is their cover of The Smiths' Please Please Please... (The Smiths, for disclosure, are not a band I have in my library - though like every human being alive I have a soft spot for the guitar on This Charming Man).

Ali Friend is a musical chameleon - a running thread through disparate groups in my collection, popping up backing people unexpectedly. I love his bass work. Videos of live sets and tracks from Red Snapper burned that love into me a long time ago and it has never left. The sorrowful twang that he gets onto some of his notes here is gorgeous and dovetails nicely with the hurt that Clark injects into his long vowels.

This is exactly the type of low-key music I need on a night like this. I go on holiday in a week, but I have a ton of stuff to wrap up before then... and my ability to do so may well depend on how well I can relax and find sleep this evening. Anything that helps me drift into a loose state is good, and there is a nice laziness to Clayhill's music that helps the mood. It's not chill out fare really, but the tones are low and soothing. The vocal is often challenging and emotional but it is the frequency of the instruments that I find cathartic - mostly the bass, but the guitar doesn't wander off too much either.

I am not that keen on Grasscutter, possibly because it features on three of the 4 Clayhill albums I have and as such it comes up more often than it should. It also devolves into repetition too much for my liking. I think I might trim this version. We then hit the final trio - songs which do not appear on the other Clayhill discs. Funny How doesn't ring any bells for me until Clark hits the chorus and then it finds familiarity. I really like the interplay here, but above all it is the tone - pleading yet wronged, defiant yet downcast. I find little contrasts like that throughout the song, which is a nice touch in my book, and makes up for the fact it sits between me and the heartbreak of Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want.

Slow, deliberate, nail through the hand hurt. Every note and word here is pitched for maximum emotional impact. As someone who has gone through periods of depression in the past where it felt nothing was going my way the song resonates. As alluded to above I am not really familiar with the original, but this is frankly so good that I don't feel the need to be. Here - I am feeling like sharing the love:

The final track is always going to be a bit of a come-down after that. It is a slow, slow number. Very sparse, drawn out words. I like it, but I miss most of it as I got distracted by a work email, just as the US working day is closing. Oh well (I seem to say that a lot).

Central Reservation - Beth Orton

Track list:

1. Stolen Car
2. Sweetest Decline
3. Couldn't Cause Me Harm
4. So Much More
5. Pass In Time
6. Central Reservation
7. Stars All Seem to Weep
8. Love Like Laughter
9. Blood Red River
10. Devil Song
11. Feel To Believe
12. Central Reservation (The Then Again Version)

Running time: 58 minutes
Released: 1999

I used to have a giant poster of this album cover - a freebie from a gig attended in Bristol whilst a student. I used to really, really like Beth Orton's music - hence being at the gig in the first place - but I found that affinity dwindling with each album after this one, and looking back before starting this playing, I think I probably wouldn't miss it if I were to cut all albums of hers except Trailer Park (which I definitely would still miss) from my collection. That said, I am sure there are tracks in here, and on her later works, that are worth my time, so lets spend some time with her now.

I remember the primary acoustic melody of Stolen Car, but not the more haunting elements of the intro and the lonely electric guitar. As I hear it now it all floods back, and I find I still really like the song. Form filling has been put off again today; painting instead. Tomorrow is the last day of the holiday, and I now have a fair chuck of things stacked up to do... how much like everyday life. Orton sings "don't you wish you knew better by now..." - yes, yes I do. I work better with deadlines though...

I have been in a strange mood today, spontaneously dancing to the shuffle earlier whilst doing other things - very unlike me. I am now into my second glass of white (my sop to New Year yesterday, left over to this evening) and forcing myself into the mindset for a post. The guitars on Stolen Car really do sound mournful, wistful, longing. I approve, as the acoustic line cycles a pleasant hook that contrasts nicely. There is a very distinct change of tone with the next track which is far more laid back. You wouldn't know from the playing alone, but I am reminded that the pianist on Sweetest Decline is Dr John. This is a world away from his New Orleans blues, a mellow jaunt. It sounds and feels a little overdone somehow - like that mellowness is being striven for slightly too hard rather than coming naturally. I think this sense comes from overproduction and slightly too much going on in the arrangement. Bongos, strings, piano almost competing. It would be better without the unnecessary percussion I think, but it could also happily lose the strings and pare down to Orton's slightly unusual voice and the melodic piano.

Snacking on flapjacks at this time of the evening probably isn't wise; they don't go that well with the wine for a start.

There are some nice elements here, but since Stolen Car finished it has never been more than "nice" - which is to damn with faint praise. I wonder if, perhaps, in another mood I would more easily overlook things that currently are slapping me around the face. The depth of production is a mile away from the last thing I listened too with its multiple layers and rich sounds and I find myself pining for the simple and genuine sounds of James Yorkston's record. Whilst Beth Orton has worked with some electronic music folks over the years, I am moved to suggest her solo material benefits most from a more minimalist approach. She has an interesting voice, one with an edge to it and a hint of dis-tunefulness and real emotion, pairing that with a simple guitar melody offers the chance to show it off more. 

I start suddenly; I am feeling cold though the room is at temperature (I've upped the thermostat now though) and it has not been that cold outside over the new year. Maybe there is a draught. I need to fashion an early night tonight and... oh carp; just remembered what I have forgotten to do today. Time for a brief interlude.

Fault corrected I resume with Pass in Time - which runs 7 minutes in length. This album is made up of longer than average tunes, there's only one below 4 minutes and the average is almost five. I think that is counting against it a little in this listen. I am not convinced these songs need to be drawn out as much as they are - and it is the first half that are longer. Ooh! Hey, that is the late lamented Terry Callier on backing, with his utterly brilliant and soulful voice. He can lift this track just by humming at the right points. That I love how he and Orton synergise (remember Best Bit) can't disguise that it is stretched past the necessary though. After the song finally closes, we hit the title track, and this does give Orton's voice the room to be the star. Soft programming and sparse bass create a crucible for a rather fragile-sounding song and I find myself smiling, enjoying it again. It suffers a bit more from the over-tinkering with arrangements as it progresses but it never gets too busy to detract from the central song.

I remember being young and angry and stupid and penning a diatribe to a radio station for playing some horrid electro-mix of this song instead of the album version once. The mix concerned was tripe, stripped out all the space that is what makes this work. Fragility needs the right support, and here the vocal really needs that openness. I am still angry and stupid, but far less young these days; I don't write to radio stations because I don't listen to them (except for sports) and I refuse to engage with Twitter or Facebook which seem to be the only modes of feedback these days. Ugh - try making a really cogent argument in 140 characters. That said, this long form pretty much debunks my ability to make cogent arguments in any medium. Oh well. I have been enjoying some good criticism of late - catching up on Errant Signal, which dissects videogames nicely in ways that I find fascinating. YouTube is becoming a more regular form of entertainment than TV for me now, even though I am pretty set in my ways and not one to over-subscribe or jump on bandwagons.

Back to the music. A series of tracks that flood back into my memory as they play have come and largely gone. I like the familiarity, but I am not over-sold on the specifics. I don't find any of them hard to listen to, or actively distasteful, but equally I do not find myself moved to comment on anything about the tunes either. I close my eyes and try to immerse myself in Blood Red River to form a more communicable opinion but it sort of slides off around me. I don't know if that says more about me or the music. I am slightly more taken with the opening of Devil Song where primacy is given to a simple voice/guitar combination. The form of the guitar work here appeals to me far more than the song itself. I like the crucible it creates, the timbre and the framing.

Feel to Believe is a pleasant surprise. I recognise it once it starts, but the name meant nothing. It has a more upbeat tone to it and that feels a little overdue somehow. There is a touch of awkwardness between one of the choruses and the next verse - the tune loses its structure and tempo and falls into limbo a bit before pulling it around by returning to the tone that was set at the start. Orton's voice sounds strained and emotional here - it adds an undercurrent to the piece that I appreciate even as it sounds less tuneful than on many of the other tracks.  I think I have a thing for unorthodox voices.

We end with a mix of Central Reservation which starts to fill in the spaces around the vocal more - electric pacing elements are introduced as percussion, the beat is rather annoying and distracting, but the song actually works with the higher pace. I prefer the more sparse version earlier on the disc by far, but the verses and choruses do actually fit well enough in the busier environment created for them here. I actually find myself more attracted to the words in this context, but the voice in the previous one. Odd dichotomy that. The disc ends horribly with a fade out rather than a proper ending, leaving me to consider the whole. There is no doubt that for me it doesn't stand up to the love I once had for it, that in places it is over-produced, over-long or otherwise disappointing. But there is also magic buried in here - a couple of complete tracks, or just moments or movements within others. I could axe it and not miss much, but I really wouldn't mind hearing just about any of these tunes again.

Best Bit EP - Beth Orton

Track list:

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

Running time: 24 minutes
Released: 1997

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Alive - Terry Callier

Track List:

1. Ordinary Joe
2. Step Into The Light
3. Lazurus Man
4. Lament For The Late A.D.
5. African Violet
6. You're Gonna Miss Your Candy Man
7. What Colour Is Love
8. Dancing Girl
9. People Get Ready
10. I Don't Wanna See Myself

Running time: 71 minutes
Released: 2001

Terry Callier is one of my favourite vocalists of all time. He came to my attention in a duet with Beth Orton (Lean On Me - a Callier cover) and I instantly loved his voice. I smiled every time I heard him. His passing at 67 in 2012 was a sad day.

This album was passed to me by a friend who had bought it and not got on with it very well. Unsurprisingly, given the title, it is a live album. Two of the songs stand out to me at a glance: Ordinary Joe is pretty much the definitive Callier song and Don't Want To See Myself was my favourite track from the first album of his I picked up. They bookend these performances; lets find out what lies between them.

I love Ordinary Joe as a song it is just so uplifting whilst having an edge of self-deprecation. This delivery though is a little too quick - the tempo is higher than recorded versions and it spoils the cadence of the lyric a bit for me. The arrangement is also damaged a bit by the pace. It is a fully understandable difference from record to performance but a regrettable one - especially given the extended duration which calibrates as less song, more tune and it is the song I adore. It still has me tapping my foot, but it is a tempered pleasure, not an unbridled one.

I can see why my friend passed on this with the review of "it's too jazzy"; there is a definite light jazz vibe about the instrumentation and an hour and more of it may well wear me down, let alone someone who is not keen on jazz in the first place. I can cope (for now), largely because Callier sings more on Step Into The Light, though it is too much repetition of the title phrase for me to hold it up as a good song. Repetition that is mirrored in the arrangement.

All the tracks are too long here - an affectation of arrangement and live performance for sure, but a 10 track record should not go on for 70 minutes when your tunes are normally sub 5 minute length. That this one does even with one track that runs only for 68 seconds is not a good sign. Oh well - I can always switch off and enjoy the voice. Lazarus man (and Callier was, career-wise - with a long break from recording and performing) is half sung, half spoken, but shows off Callier's soft, expressive and soulful voice brilliantly in both moods. My only issue with it is the length, and to avoid repeating that about each track I should stop typing now... Seriously though, stretching tracks like this just leaves us with dead loops, repeats and rambling passages that lose their way.

Lament... is a tribute, apparently to an unarmed man shot by New York police. Police carrying guns is still thankfully rare in the UK and I hope that can continue for my lifetime but I am far from convinced that it will. I say that not to denigrate those police that do carry (here or elsewhere) but I remember when I went to the US actually feeling less safe seeing police with firearms walking around. It is a visceral thing, and not buying in to the idea of a cycle of escalating violence - after all if one "side" carries, then the other will more likely do so too.

African Violet... I could have sworn I had other versions of this song, but apparently not. Oh wait - somehow, probably thanks to me misreading/mistyping, I have it down as American Violet on Fire on Ice (great album). Duly changed. Stupid fingers and eyes making mistakes years ago when I originally ripped all my CDs. I find the version on Alive too full of dead space, filler sections... I am sounding like a broken record again. As it ends and segues into You're Gonna Miss Your Candy Man the pace and tone changes up a gear. This is a nice lively opening. I have this track down as You're Goin' Miss Your Candyman more than once in my library and that returns hits on the web too; I suspect the source of my track list was wrong. Not Amazon this time though, but I still cannot be bothered to change it now I have noticed. It is a livelier track, and I needed that. There is still too much repetition though, the bass and rhythm sections are particularly guilty of that here. The song has a decent groove, but too long without modifying it dilutes that effect. Thankfully the whole tune is a bit shorter and overall I think it is my favourite so far on the album. The quicker pace is not maintained though, to my chagrin.

Dancing Girl is not a tune I recognise (I appear not to have a recorded version of it) but it is a good vehicle for Callier's vocal, with a low-level accompaniment behind it that is in places reminiscent of certain film soundtracks. The song is 11 minutes, but really it feels like more than one track as the tone and instrumentation change so the length does not come across. Actually the track flies by much faster than some earlier (shorter) tunes and suddenly we reach the closer.

I Don't Want to See Myself was one of the stand-out tracks on Lifetime, the first Callier album I bought, and this performance, whilst it contains longer bridges, is pretty true to my memory of the recording. It is a nice way to close - higher tempo, more upbeat. The bass errs on the side of cheesy at times but that is forgivable. It is not a fantastic tune, but it is a good one that leaves me smiling.

All in all, Alive definitely has its faults, but I find it hard to part with any of the tracks here. I do not have any other live work by Terry Callier, and there will be no more to replace this with something better - may he rest in peace. I challenge anyone to listen to Terry Callier and not fall in love with his voice, the man had more soul than many much more acclaimed stars. He remains a firm favourite, with much better albums to come in due course.