Brilliant Light - Danny and the Champions of the World

Track list:

1. Waiting for the Right Time
2. Bring Me to My Knees
3. It Hit Me
4. You'll Remember Me
5. Swift Street
6. Consider Me
7. Coley Point
8. It's Just a Game (That We Were Playing)
9. Never in the Moment
10. Gotta Get Things Right in My Life
11. Waiting for the Wheels to Come Off
12. Don't Walk Away
13. Hey Don't Lose Your Nerve
14. Everything We Need
15. Let the Water Wash over You (Don't You Know)
16. Long Distance Tears
17. The Circus Made the Town
18. Flying by the Seat of Our Pants

Running time: 78 minutes
Released: 2017

I have a love-hate relationship with Danny and the Champions of the World. Well, more like love-ambivalent really. Love, because I found their eponymous first record to be the best of its year, ambivalence because everything that has followed has not made that level. More than that it veered in a different direction, one that gelled less with me. I vacillated a little over whether to pick this one up, then, but I was in a spend to feel better mood and ended up adding it to another order (one which brought me the excellent Every Valley by Public Service Broadcasting), so here I am. Not heard this yet, so first impressions ahoy.

The opening guitar riffs are the latter-day Champs, rather than the iteration I fell in love with a decade or so ago. It's safe indie rock. Not bad, but not an exciting start from my viewpoint. I like the vocal - Danny's gravelly voice, and the interplay with the backing both work quite nicely, even if the song itself becomes repetitive, the title incanted again and again.

Insert usual excuse here for lack of posts. Formulae need to be stuck to!

I think my "problem" with the evolution of Danny and the Champions of the World is that the sound has become less distinct, it has less of a unique selling point than that debut. That was rough and ready, folksy and raw... it played directly to my tastes and sounded different, engaging. This rockier sound... it could be any number of bands. It doesn't have the big sky Americana feel of Grand Drive, not that back to basics sound of the first Champions disc. Both of those sounds resonated more with me. There are hints of Danny George Wilson's musical roots here, but they feel marginalised, made small elements in a less distinctive overall sound.

Having just said that, more individuality has been injected in It Hit Me. Weird comparison of the day, but this has a tinge of Madness in the horns, a frisson of lounge in the keys, and a more open sound. This is less rock song and more crooner ballad, but with an arrangement that does more than make you lazy. Maybe I am just calibrating myself to this... it seems to be growing on me. I have been putting this post off for length, dodging it by way of excuses about tiredness, poor sleep and work stress. When I started this project - 3 years ago now! - I had no responsibilities worth the name and more free evenings and weekends to give over to it. I look at the rate I managed that first 4 months now and my mind boggles. A post a week is beyond me at the moment, let alone 3 or 4. In the last couple of months I have probably bought more than I have heard - this album included - and that is not a recipe for finishing, well, ever.

There is an Americana of sorts about Swift Street, it's the high guitar line that is redolent of country primarily, but when the chorus kicks in the whole sound of the song embraces that slightly corny commercial country sound unashamedly. The next track has a poky little riff in it, though it drops out for the chorus. An interesting sound that I can't quite find the words to describe. There is a better pace to this, though I find myself thinking a smoother voice would be a better fit with the song in place around it. The livelier number is welcome though. I could see this song becoming an earworm - it has that sort of "grower" feel to it... y'know a song that is just OK the first time you hear it but which with continued exposure builds into a favourite. I think, though, the runtime probably knocks that on the head. It sounds like the song should be ending around the 4 minute mark but there is another 90 seconds plus of extended lead out to put up with. That might work in a live gig, but not so well on .mp3.

This is definitely eyes-west though. The guitars continue to hum lines that have an American tinge to them, the pacing is slow, rural... It isn't the same Americana as Grand Drive were, and I maintain that it is more bland (or perhaps familiar?) than that big sky sound but it is slower pace, rural and small town in a way that doesn't feel quite right coming from a British band somehow.

If I didn't know this was from 2017, I wouldn't have a clue where I would place it. It sounds out of its time somehow. The opening track was pretty nondescript 00s rock, the heart of the album I am buried in now has an older feel to it... 80s maybe, with flashes of even earlier. I associate sounds like this with (mostly bad) films watched when I was a teen. I couldn't name one if pushed, but that's the direction my thoughts float on It's Just a Game. When that track ends they launch into another which could have been a continuation in some respects.

At this point I think Wilson's voice is starting to grate. He sounds older, more worn out, on this record and whilst that can really work for some performers the longer I am exposed to him here the more I find that roughness annoying. It probably doesn't help that his style leaves a lot of words open... long sounds that seem not to finish before the lyric moves on. This gives me a scratchy kind of feeling, rather than a cultured one... more "I've been singing too long" than "years of booze and fags to shape it". Not that the latter is better or should be aspired to! The music has receded back into a generic ameri-rock pattern for now, very 80s guitars making my ears glaze over some (who knew ears could do that too?).

I am half way through. It is worth mentioning that the physical copy of this album is 2 discs.

This second half has a couple of really long tracks, the first of which is unfortunately forgettable, It seems to have set a musical theme that I am less than engaged with and there is an awful lot of title chanting in the lyrics right about now. The first half had its moments of difference though so I am hopeful there will be more, and my hope is rewarded almost immediately with a slow number. Don't Walk Away is the stand out of the album so far. I love the female voice added here, I like the muted horns under everything and the space the arrangement gives the voices. It's a little unexpected gem.

To underscore how unexpected it is, the next track adopts more tried (almost typed tired, which might be true, but a little harsh) and tested structures. It is another slower number and brings to mind a whole genre of country tracks that populate radio stations in TV shows. This is the second 7 minute track (rounding up) and it goes on, and on, and on... sucking joy from me as it does. Endings, people, endings are a good thing!

Oh geez. I typed that at 5 minutes. There's no pace, no interest, just hold and sway - this is not a dance hall and I am alone so it is filed under delete. I don't normally like to cut things on first listens because music really can grow on you, but I have limits there.

I will say this... the use of the sax gives things an odd tone in that it is not entirely in tune with the Americana theme, a little bit of incongruity that freshens up what might otherwise be stale.

I like the riff for a change! Let the Water Wash Over You has a hum to it. Very generic light rock hum, but it is still pleasing. I think I am running out of things to say though - fighting the urge for single sentence paragraphs and dismissiveness.  A long day boardgaming half-fried my brain and now words are far from my grasp. 3 hour round trip driving tomorrow too... busy weekend. Of course - the weekends I am busy are the weekends that the weather would have supported being outside doing useful stuff. Such is life.

Oh dear, the end of the song is a weird old let down. Thankfully the following sound is brighter, and we're on the final stretch now. Overall I don't really know what to make of it. Probably I shouldn't have bought this one, but then again there is an obvious high point in there and another couple or more that could be growers. Others are formulaic in construction, repetitive and overly reliant on a small number of lines lyrically. There are grand moments of Americana, and petty faux-pas of Americana. What there isn't is a consistent feel to that theme - it darts about from dull to impactful and back.

Oh that was horrible sentence construction. Nevermind... a less gravelly Wilson and very country guitars are sliding me along to the end of the album. Flying By the Seat of Our Pants is onto a loser though, because the title is so close to I'll Fly By the Seat of My Pants by King Creosote and it puts that other tune - one of my all time favourites - into my head instead. So I end the record thinking of something else rather than paying attention to this one, which is a little unfortunate, because I think this might be one of the better songs on this album.

The summation would be thus: alright, might grow on me if I gave it a chance.

Boxer - The National

Track list:

1. Fake Empire
2. Mistaken For Strangers
3. Brainy
4. Squalor Victoria
5. Green Gloves
6. Slow Show
7. Apartment Story
8. Start A War
9. Guest Room
10. Racing Like A Pro
11. Ada
12. Gospel

Running time: 42 minutes
Released: 2007

I saw this around everywhere before I finally picked it up. Can't for the life of me remember why I chose to grab it though, but I seem to recall liking it, and I bought the follow-up too so I must have had an affection for the way The National went about things. I can't really remember any of their songs though (save Rains of Castermere, of course).

We begin with a bouncy piano in isolation, but as soon as the vocal starts I am reminded why I liked this. The deep resonant tones of the singer give a really nice round sound, convey a sense of distance and space and... yeah. One aspect of music that made it over the pond, which is rarer in material of these shores, is that big sky feeling. Its the same sense of openness that drew me to Willard Grant Conspiracy, Grand Drive (though they were based in Blighty) and... someone else I was going to mention specifically but who I have completely blanked on now.

The second track is pacier, more constrained and percussion led. It sort of works, but I feel that it probably is not playing to their strengths as I perceive them; there are better proponents of this kind of song though again I fail to bring any to mind at the point where that would be helpful! I am taking a quick (well... 45 minute I guess!) break from cleaning - a chore that was very desperate and will carry on into tomorrow; part of the need for a week off, and it is nice to have a relatively bite-sized album to dive into. The tune has grown on me whilst I have been digressing and I find myself enjoying it more as it fades. Brainy keeps a similar pace and percussive bent, but lets the vocal free again. It is like Mistaken For Strangers was stuck in a tunnel whilst before and after the songs have clear sky above. My problem with tracks that are driven by rhythm like this one is that the beat pattern becomes so front and centre that my mind can't tear away from it. This poses me issues in true enjoyment because I then inevitably latch on to how repetitive that sound is (let alone that that is the point of rhythm) and grow tired of the track because I followed the wrong thread. This is my issue, not the song's.

I like the interplay between forceful drums and soft, understated keys - but I would, ideally, favour the keys more than the drums in the balancing. Not so the production on Squalor Victoria, or maybe that is me grabbing the wrong straw again; either way the track breezes by and we get a very different feel on Green Gloves. The percussion is noticeably missing or stripped right back early on, nice little riffs replacing it, it gives a much more relaxed air to the piece.

The vocals really are the star though. Drawl. Tone. Atmosphere. In the right place and right time... I wouldn't want to listen to this style all the time but when paired well with sounds to support it, that easy, lazy sound of a throat I imagine wetted with whisky and parched by tobacco (whether that applies to this frontman or not) has an appeal. I think The National do a pretty decent job of fitting their music around the distinctive voice and approach. One thing that surprises me a little - but shouldn't do when looking at the number of tracks and total running time - is that each song is over very fast. I tend to associate Americana like this with longer tracks, more time to go with the sense of space. Not so here. Unlike Lambchop (they were whom I was to reference earlier and forgot), here that openness is conveyed whilst still sticking pretty closely to a radio-friendly song structure. I find this to be a plus point, because it takes a fair amount of craft to create time and space when so limited, and I find myself appreciating that. Limits are good for creativity, not bad for it. They may be bad for vision, mind.

Start a War is more subdued, tired, and it enervates me. Suddenly I just want to sleep. That unfortunate effect aside I like the tune, but my heavy eyelids disagree. It's the middle of the day for hell's sake. Guest Room returns to the previously established standard and I find myself wondering if a whole album isn't a little too much of a good thing. There is a touch of samey-ness about it that builds a sense of ennui - or perhaps that ennervation just switched me off their wavelength.

It was a choice between listening or shaving as a break from the cleaning (bathroom next - joy), and this won out. I do desperately need both shave and haircut though; I'm feeling decidedly unkempt. Hopefully the half term haircuts are mostly out of the way by now and Friday wont see a massive queue at the barbers. Find out tomorrow. On the record, we have another softer, percussion-light piece and I am not really engaged. Perhaps it is just the repeated lyric "You're dumbstruck baby" grating; I am anything but. I suspect on its own it would have come across better. That said, I really like the tune on Ada, and when the piano, and horns join the appeal reaches peak. This is a really nicely crafted song, though the vocal is less appealing here than it was on the first few tracks of the disc. Some of that might be the clarity of the lyrics and how trite I find them, so I try to tune out the singing and just follow the flow of the track. I enjoy it more that way.

Final number now. Gospel is slower, voice and guitar base, support added. It feels a little weak compared to what I was hearing half an hour ago. This just makes me appreciate the short songs more, though; shuffle isn't so different to radio, and these feel radio-friendly. I don't really begrudge these last tracks even though I have found them less engaging than the early ones and I can see them being more enjoyable in a different context. So, silence falls and I must depart to get the rubber gloves on...

Beware - Bonnie 'Prince' Billy

Track list:

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

Running time: 45 minutes
Released: 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Being Alive: Loose Wheels and Latchkeys 2000-2005 - Grand Drive

Track list:

1. Shake My Tree
2. Something to Believe In
3. I Know There's a Place
4. I Want You (And I'm Right)
5. I'll Be There for You
6. When a Champ Hangs Up His Gloves
7. Being Alive
8. The Fair Goes Slow
9. Holding On
10. Rolling Over
11. She Loves the Jerk
12. The First Time Again
13. Wing in the Wind
14. Hearts of Stone
15. The Premise

Running time: 77 minutes
Released: 2005

I first got into Grand Drive through Danny and the Champions of the World (what lead singer Danny George Wilson did next), I think. LastFM featured somewhere in there too, as their strains of Americana cropped up on more than one station I found myself listening to. There was something evocative about their best work, some ramshackle charm and simple pleasure. It was only after I bought everything I have and he saw them on my shelf that that I found out that my brother had worked a little with them on one of their albums (I forget which now), and that I crossed the road from which they took the name on the way to his last house. Or something.

This is the "best of the rest" type of offering - you know, the "we've been around X years now lets put out the unreleased material" jobbie. At least, I guess so - the title kind of implies it. There are some things on here that light my memory strongly and positively and others that I just do not recognise or cannot recall. I think this will be a fun one to listen to, but for the length - my staying power isn't great at the moment!

Shake My Tree is an odd choice to open with. Its very unlike the rest of their oevre and starts slowly. Once the vocal comes in it is more recognisable but the pacing and rhythm is still rather odd, more reminiscent of ska, or at least more claustrophobic in character than most Grand Drive tracks - like the one that follows. Higher tempo and a floaty melody to open puts me back on more familiar ground. I have always liked Something to Believe In, the constant of the guitar, the harmonies in the vocal, the expanse of the track as a whole.

"Americana" is an odd genre; I couldn't describe the genre to anyone concisely but I feel like I would be happy to assign it on hearing things. That said the list of artists under the genre on Wikipedia is rather wide-ranging with plenty of people that are not at all familiar to me. I have also seen Grand Drive tagged as alt-country, which I think is utter tripe as a catigorisation. Americana seems to fit though - certainly the larger, open sounds are characteristic - and hey, that Wiki list contains swedes, so I guess London-based Australians can qualify too.

I Want You returns a little to the slightly darker tones and less established rhythm of the opening track. I find myself not really recognising the verses, and the chorus is strident than I remember. The song is really not what I recalled at all. That is no bad thing per se, but it is a bit jauntier and less purposeful for it and I think I like the misremembered version in my head a bit more. It's like the musical equivalent of sportspeople looking like better players when they're not in the team.

Stretching the sporting analogy past credibility (I'm sorry; I've been watching rugby - still am, in fact as the women are currently losing to France - all day and am working off the disappointment of England coming up just short on points difference) this album is like the subs bench. A couple of really good players ready to come on and shake things up but mostly stocked with those not quite good enough to have made the first team. That is to say the songs are solid enough representations of Grand Drive's work but not many of them are real favourites. There are exceptions - Something to Believe in was already mentioned, and She Loves the Jerk is upcoming.  However the majority of these songs are unspectacular, inoffensive easy listens. Honestly the biggest take away from many thus far is the general atmosphere of the album. That may sound negative, damning with faint praise but I assure you it is not meant like that because I find the soft edge and open sound to these pieces a very pleasant and relaxing one.

Danny's voice is not the strongest, but it has character that serves him very well. Character is not quite enough to carry a song like Being Alive off without a hitch - it is too quiet, leaves too much to the slightly frail, quavering nature of his sound - an edge that works in more bombastically delivered songs or with more in terms of support from the arrangement, but that lets him down when left to stand along. In some respects I find the vocal a little reminiscent of King Creosote, whose singing voice I once described as "brilliant and broken in equal measure" (or something along those lines). The middle of this album exhibits the broken side of that dichotomy too much and, in a show of nominative determinism (I love that, by the by), The Fair Goes Slow is far too slow to be of any interest at all.

The chorus of Holding On, by contrast, plays on that broken edge and frailty in the voice by being both a slightly more sombre song (the title phrase is almost plaintive in nature and forms a major part of the chorus) and by offering the right kind of support from the instruments to create the appropriate crucible for it to shine. That said, I am a little glad when Rolling Over has a little bit more tempo to it.

She Loves the Jerk is apparently a cover (yes, I just looked that up). I loved it the first time I heard it, mostly for the narrative imagery and the capture of a feeling of frustration of being on the outside. We then get treated to a much more richly arranged number, brass and all sorts appearing. I generally prefer Grand Drive when they have a bigger sound... or at least, I think I do but I am sure that does not always hold true.

Just a few to go now, and I know the last track well, but not the two preceding it. Wing in the Wind is stripped back again, back to soft, pleasantly relaxing. There is a nice sway to the verse, a decent enough arrangement. It works without ever standing out. Oh, turns out I do recognise Hearts of Stone - the chorus at least rings a bell. Its a little too slow for me really, at least at this time of night on a day of disappointment (England Women have indeed just succumbed to defeat to go with not quite taking the men's title earlier).

The Premise is our closer, it is almost like one long outro really... an 8 minute instrumental number with a catchy, clappy, rhythm a hooky guitar melody. I have heard it a number of times on shuffle, and the first few I had to look up who it was by as I could never place it as it really does not sit obviously alongside the very song-centric output of Grand Drive's other work. I kept thinking that it must be from some soundtrack album or other because it feels like title credits music more than anything else. The repetitive nature of the track plays into this pretty hard - its like a one-trick pony, relying on its trick so long and hard that you think in its original form there must have been something else to back it up somehow. Thankfully its a pretty pleasant trick and it plays into the overall atmosphere of the album.

So as it closes, I will be getting rid of one track - in addition to being too slow, The Fair Goes Slow is also too long. The rest... everything has a place. Largely in Grand Drive's case that place is in a playlist of similar material for me - but that is a playlist I can see myself returning to in future.