The Clock Comes Down the Stairs - Microdisney

Track list:

1. Horse Overboard
2. Birthday Girl
3. Past
4. Humane
5. Are You Happy
6. Genius
7. Begging Bowl
8. A Friend with a Big Mouth
9. Goodbye It's 1987
10. And
11. Harmony Time
12. Money for Trams
13. Genius
14. 464
15. Goodbye It's 1987
16. Horse Overboard

Running time: 73 minutes
Released: 1985

Microdisney. Genius that I was too young for at the time and which I have since come to adore. My copy of this is a re-issue with bonus tracks - alternate versions. I have the majority of these songs on the Daunt Square to Elsewhere best of anyway, and/or on Big Sleeping House too, but sought out original material for what I was missing. Less than I would have thought, to go by the track list.

This album starts with a trio of tunes I am well acquainted with. Light pop-y tones, spangly little guitars, snappy beats and Cathal Coughlan's vocal... lovely and lyrical, yet far from the sweetness and light you get from tone alone. This is an 80s I could have stomached; the majority of stereotypically 80s fare leaves me cold. Ever since I first heard Microdisney I have felt that the juxtaposition of nice clean and wholesome tunes with such dark and acerbic lyrics was a stroke of genius. Look this way, don't see what we are really doing. Entice with the shallow, reward with depth.

This is comfortable, familiar. Birthday Girl, then Past... the other way around than on Daunt Square, but that's a minor quibble. They both fit squarely into the mould - pop songs with dark centres. Approachable and identifiable, pop-filled with personality. The version of Past here sounds a little muted to my ears, the intro not having quite the same resonance to it that I am used to. Subtle differences in the recording perhaps, or just an artefact of it not being the disc-opener? The tune is just so... nice and enticing, I guess. The lyrics are sad and despairing, threatening, defeatist even but Coughlan's singing is pitched so well as to make it engaging and poignant without making it anything other than an enjoyable pop song at the same time.

Humane is the fourth track, the first that I don't really know (we have another triptych of familiar tunes to follow it). This sounds tinny by comparison to what came before, thinner. The vocal is edgier, less melodic, but just as pointed. The tune is definitely less immediately engaging - in places it sounds flat and repetitive, the workload and heart of the track shifted to the singing. The long bridge with no vocals... no, the long outro as it turns out tries to do something to liven up the accompaniment but frankly it feels a little weak. Perhaps that is just unfamiliarity winning out in the bias stakes because as soon as Are You Happy starts I am back in my comfort zone. I do prefer the lusher background sounds. This song is slower, a stately pace giving lots of space between lines, letting the vocal breathe. It's never been amongst my favourite Mircodisney tunes but I find now that I really like this effect and the lack of sparkle in the tune is apt.

This is becoming a blow-by-blow, if only because my head is emptying as I relax as a result of not being at work. Genius sounds different. I guess that makes sense in that the other version of this tune I have was presumably recorded live - it is on The Peel Sessions. Here it has a sort of stately edge to it, a slower tempo than I associate with the chorus when I hear it in my head. Oh, definite difference... a verse in the middle is pretty much spoken here where it is very definitely sung in the other version. This feels flatter to me, but then we get a nice melodic outro which pulls the whole tune up with its peppy, light touch.

It does not surprise me that Microdisney weren't a big hit at the time, any more than it surprises me that clever songwriters of my era seem to fly under the radar. That said, there are clearly enough pop sensibilities in these tunes that you could see many of them as radio hits - not all of them, by any means; the slower tunes are not for the mass market, but the livelier numbers could have belted out from radio sets all over and not been out of place.

The songs are clever, on-the-nose. The dark anger, acid and indignation are concealed under a veneer of wholesome pop. I imagine that a lot of the lyrics are incredibly pointed - though it is not always clear, through the fog of 30 years passing (and, perhaps, my not being Irish) what they were pointed at. In some cases it is very clear indeed either directly from the lyrics or through documentation of their targets (though my go-to examples are noticeably not from this disc). I find myself looking up and finding a song I really don't recognise playing... Harmony Time and Money for Trams are two tracks that I don't have in other forms, and the former came on just now. It has a different feel to it, faster-paced, skinny guitar, synthetic keys, a rough-and-tumble rhythm. It almost feels like an improvised tune cribbed out at the end of a concert rather than a planned recording. There is something about it that reminds me of For Those of Y'all Who Wear Fanny Packs - a Ben Folds Five tune where the trio were pissing about in the studio, which was released as part of Naked Baby Photos.

Money for Trams was, I guess, the original end point of the album. This has a slow pace and a cop-show edginess. Vocals are spoken with a PA-like effect. It feels like tense movie music. After a bit of a pause in play - things come up even during time off it seems! - I resume and the same repeating bassline meanders along. Coughlan screeches something over the top, a very different tone of voice to the majority of the lyrics here. All in all I think the song is pretty dull, then we are into the bonuses, which a bit of Googling suggests are Peel Session tracks... so I have these elsewhere.

Genius is indeed faster, and better for it. 464 was not on this album; in fact it seems to only have been on the Peel Session - a bonus track then in truth, though one that made the later anthology. I find myself too much in a stupor to offer much on these closing numbers... though when Goodbye It's 1987 starts playing again it hits me that this was not on the Peel Sessions disc I bought so... well. You know - I can't actually compare the two versions on this disc even. I don't specifically recall enough of the first time it came about. I guess I have been stuck in a relaxing reverie. This second version is light-touch and open, soft and... lazy? Lazy in a good sense - like a Sunday afternoon: easy and to be left to wash over you.

I get the feeling I should perhaps kill some of the duplicates but I also don't feel moved to do so. As I stare blankly at the screen, Horse Overboard finishes for the second time, and suddenly I am done. Ho hum.

Clannad - Clannad

Track list:

1.Níl Sé Ina La (Níl Sé'n La)
2.Thios Chois Na Trá Domh
3.Brian Boru's March
4.Siobhán Ní Dhuibhir
5.An Mhaighdean Mhara
6.Liza
7.An tOileán Úr
8.Mrs. McDermott
9.The Pretty Maid
10.An Pháirc
11.Harvest Home
12.Morning Dew
13.An Bealach Seo 'ta Romham

Running time: 43 minutes
Released: 1973

I don't really recall the wheres or whys of this purchase. Why this Clannad album (and no others)? Why Clannad at all? I can make a guess at the second question - it must have been after I fell in love with the sound of Gaelic folk song from hearing Julie Fowlis - but the first will remain a mystery. I have preconceptions and prejudices going in here, and I suspect that this might not be the most interesting thing I ever hear, but you never know. It packs 13 tracks into the same time that Vangelis used for 8 on The City last time out, so at least it will keep things moving.

We open with a chanted Gaelic vocal over some resonant drumming and with a suitably ethnic sounding string section. It wanders a bit then falls into a bluesy, bassy solo. It really is a very odd track. I rather like the music but the vocal is atrocious. The overall sound is a hodgepodge of weirdness.

What follows is a more traditional Irish folk sound, the strings  and vocal harmonies both harking back to rural folk music. I am far from impressed or enchanted with it though. A tinny quality to the sound really dates this record, and the sensibilities are more faux-folk than sounding genuine. It's as inaccessible and bland as the ancient film version of Around the World in 80 Days that I have on silent is utterly awful. I find myself more drawn to the subtitles on the film than the notes on the album though; I should turn it off really.

Track 4 seems to be Scarborough Fair by another name - at least the first melody is straight from that standard. Folk tunes were certainly shared and re-used so I guess that is no great surprise. The number is more agreeable for the familiarity, but I have to say I am not enamoured of the female vocalist at all. There are some less aggravating moments here, but I find myself paying less attention with each passing note. It somehow seems to combine the excesses of 70s rock with a horribly cliched approach to folk. It's all so... ridiculous, stereotypical and off-putting.

The extent to which this mess is dated is quite remarkable. Simple harp tunes like Mrs McDermott are on the better end of the offerings here, but even here there is a twangy quality to the sound that is really hard to like. 

The Pretty Maid is actually in English, but the switch of language doesn't help. I have absconded, run out on my duties here... stopped paying attention. None of what I am hearing is engaging me at all. Too bad. Unfortunately not bad in an entertaining way either - it didn't offer me a lot to write about. Repeating the same observations many times does not make for an interesting writing or reading experience, and there isn't anything funny about my dislike of these pieces either. Too cliched is about the size of it. If I didn't already know the date I would have put it as late 60s rather than early 70s, but it has none of the enduring appeal of classics from that age - probably because of the tweeness, and the fact that folk has moved on into more agreeable areas. 

Just waiting for it to stop. There. At last.

Cara Dillon - Cara Dillon

Track list:

1. Black Is the Colour
2. Donald of Glencoe
3. Craigie Hill
4. Green Grows the Laurel
5. The Lark in the Clear Air
6. The Lonesome Scenes of Winter
7. Blue Mountain River
8. I Wish I Was
9. The Maid of Culmore
10. She's Like the Swallow
11. I Am a Youth That's Inclined to Ramble

Running time: 45 minutes
Released: 2001

We side-track into folk songs now. This was Cara Dillon's debut solo work and one of the first folk albums I remember buying after getting into traditional music in my early 20s. I can't recall what drew me to it - I am almost certain it was bought unheard - but I did rather fall for a couple of the renditions on this recording, particularly the opening track, and liked it enough to buy at least one follow-up.

The piano part that opens traditional tune Black Is the Colour is polluted a bit by the organ accompaniment but that is easily overlooked once Dillon's voice joins in. There is a lovely tremour in her delivery, a slight warble that lends a warmth to the track. The song is sung faithfully, which is to say that  she hasn't gender-flipped it and made it about a black haired lad. All through I find myself drawn to the piano line (should be no surprise by now), a gentle repeating loop that gives more structure than real melody but captivates none-the-less. The tune whizzes by and it never seems to grow to the extent my recollection of it would suggest but it is still hugely pleasant.

Dillon's voice keeps her accent - or enough of it - intact. I think that was one of the major draws for me. Too many singers flatten their voices in song, ending up with a generic (if brilliant) singing voice as a result. Of course, having claimed that I am struggling to think of a clear example where the speaking and signing voices sound so very different. Typical. The second track has none of the warmth of the first; sounds a little tinny, a bit flat, phoned in. Less so in the vocal than in the arrangement to be fair, but it all feels a little disconnected. Craigie Hill, which follows, dispels that again by stripping everything back to voice and keys. Harmonies in the vocal, and a really nice swaying rhythm to the lines sell this track hard, and I feel the hairs on my arms standing in places. There is a bit more of a rich arrangement after the first verses are done, but the drumming is subtle and supportive. That the track works so well in both light and rich arrangements is because the singing is freed to star throughout.  Dillon's voice rises and falls, speeds through and draws out as needed and works really well with the layering effect; I think its production rather than backing vocals that gives the harmony.

Her voice is interesting. It does not always sound the strongest; at points in Green Grows the Laurel I am far from convinced by the singing. Yet at other points she clearly has something special. I think it better suits some songs, some forms. Oh god, mind blank. My eyes have shut as if lead weights were hung from my eyelids and along with that my brain has lost all train of thought. Sudden tiredness is weird.

A couple of tunes drift by whilst I try to reform my thoughts and focus on my task at hand. I find myself thinking Dillon sounds much better in harmony than alone. There is something about the timbre of her voice that is amplified when offset and that is where the really warm, engaging sounds are found. These are all traditional songs, but there are points in there where the more modern arrangements clearly stand out and add their own sense of things. The confluence of voices and instrumental crescendo on the chorus of The Lonesome Scenes of Winter is one such time, where the electrified guitar part and the rich interweaving of the wider arrangement really lift the track. As the tracks pass me by I find myself recognising large swathes of each which is something of a surprise because I don't really have any sense of listening to this at length for more than a decade.

The louder, richer moments - voices blended together, whether multiple sources or technical effects, and deeper arrangements - are the heart and soul of this album. They take the otherwise nice but plain tunes and inject a sense of personality, a stamp of ownership. A reason to listen to these recordings of them. I find my mind drifting more in the softer and quieter verses, but being dragged back on track by the choruses - I Wish I Was being a clear case of this, even though the choruses concerned lack discernable lyrics.

There is a chill sense to The Maid of Culmore, the more mournful tone and sparse opening bars cool the air. It is a tuneful take but a little too slow and sad for me to really enjoy in a state where my eyes want to droop. Two to go; I think I don't recognise She's Like a Swallow to start with, then the other musicians all come in and memory returns. I don't think it is a great tune, but it is a very comfortable one. Simply put, all the stresses are in the right places for me, and the way the piece comes together - again, energised by the crescendos and ensemble play - raises a comfortable and knowing smile. It just works.

As with the rest of the disc, the strongest moments in the final track come with the central theme. Not a chorus this time, but a repeated bridge that has solid playing and a hummed vocal melody that envelops the listener with warmth - it is a swell, another crescendo that is mirrored behind parts of the verse too. Its a lovely effect, the intertwined vocal lines really making it. Cara Dillon - best in stereo, or something.

At Swim - Lisa Hannigan

Track list:

1. Fall
2. Prayer For The Dying
3. Snow
4. Lo
5. Undertow
6. Ora
7. We The Drowned
8. Anahorish
9. Tender
10. Funeral Suit
11. Barton

Running time: 39 minutes
Released: 2016

So a second interlude in the midst of the DiFranco discs. This arrived before Astronaut Meets Appleman, but I didn't get to it before the latter arrived, so At Swim got relegated. It has now been sat around, un-listened to, for over a month.

I was trawling around online looking for new music and saw that Lisa Hannigan had a record out. I raised an eyebrow - whilst I loved Sea Sew, I found Passenger much less interesting. However I looked into it, to find that this album is produced by Aaron Dessner of The National whose work on This is the Kit's Bashed Out I liked a lot. Sold, then. Now to find out if that was wise...

It opens with a gentle little strum, and then a typically husky intonation from our singer. It is a laid back beginning, low key and approachable. Ooh, a swell and a hint of harmony in the vocal; pity it comes on wandering, directionless notes not in more defined lyrics. That said, the general tone of this first track is a big winner for me. It harks back a little, more reminiscent of Sea Sew than Passenger for me. Before Fall ends I find myself getting impatient for the close, but that did not manifest until the denouement so I don't hold too much against it. I'm sure the second track will be cheerier... oh, wait. No - it matches the title in tone.

The reasons for the sparse September around these parts are many and varied. From business travel to Boggle, family to fatigue, spending to... exercising? I am trying to shake some of my overall inactivity in favour of a healthier approach. Time is yet to comment on the merits or longevity of this idea. I find Prayer for the Dying quite tiresome on initial exposure. It sounds as though there might be something of interest there, but it is buried in the supporting sounds if so. The vocal is drifting, the pace plodding and my overuse of alliteration is annoying even me by now. This is a candidate for the chop, but as with other things in the past I don't feel that ridding myself of tunes I have given no chance is helpful. It might be a grower.

Ah! More like it. Snow has a simpler sound, and a hushed, whispering singing that feels like a caress to my ears, gently drawing attention away from the nice but muted melodies that hide behind Hannigan's song. I love this woman's voice when she uses like this - all soft edges - it has a soothing quality. The synergy with the rest of the composition is pretty great too, in particular the way her tones interweave with the piano part in the arrangement. Its glorious how my ears did not know which to follow, drawn keenly to both. If this isn't the stand out track from the album I will be very surprised.

I am feeling good about the purchase at this stage - actually I think Snow probably justifies it outright for me. It is not a complete retread of old ground. The general sound of these tunes is different from either of the other albums I have thanks to changes in the arrangement - Dessner's impact perhaps? I like that it is so, for as much as I love Sea Sew, a retread offers nothing (and a retread of Passenger would be forgettable I suspect). It isn't all great, but there are some great moments.

Undertow is an odd track. I suspect it is a grower. My initial response to it is not positive, but there are elements there that I really like - the staccato strings, the general progression of the backing that provides the rhythm and structure - and I think with a few listens I might appreciate other elements of the sound more. That said, by the end of the piece it felt a little repetitive and I am glad when the next number reverts to piano to support Hannigan's ethereal singing. Her vocal style glides over and under and around the tune, which left to itself is nice distraction but no more. The song finishes rather abruptly - or it feels like it does to me, at least.

It is not a cheery album, not a bit of it. Any uplift comes from the enjoyment of her voice and the occasionally light touches of the keyboard. Pace is generally slow, funereal even, and tone is primarily sombre. This does not prevent it from having moments of real charm. There is a spot in We, The Drowned where the arrangement is left to it that is wonderfully tuneful, peaceful and absorbing.That tune is replaced by an a capella number which showcases some unusual harmonies and choices in terms of the singing. I am not sure what I make of it. On balance I am probably glad when a more expected song structure returns for Tender. Having said that the slow tempo and downbeat nature of the songs is starting to wear on me a bit.

There is real beauty in her singing, and I can hear touches of class in how the pieces have been put together. It feels really well crafted more than anything. However the darkness of the tones starts to grate after a while. What it needs is another Snow to pull up the rooting doubts. However a song titled Funeral Suit was never likely to be the shot in the arm I was after, and indeed it isn't; more of the same - nicely sung, nicely played, nicely put together but overwhelmingly morose. I think I would enjoy this more in bitesize installments rather than as a full meal. They say the album is a dying art, as good as dead, even; maybe I am finally starting to see it that way. Or maybe I am just tired; that seems more likely.

To say the last song is cheery would be misleading, but it doesn't have the same tones that have grown to irk me. There are some nice uses of electronics here too - it has a very different feel, actually and does work as a nice closer, cleanser, even uplifting things. The key line is crucial to the lightness here, but it is the electronic percussion that makes the track - a really significant part of the arrangement, front and centre in its usage but with subtle application in that despite being the thing that most draws my ear it never dominates. Most importantly it synchronises darn well with everything else used.

I feel much better about the album after that final track. Two standouts then, but if asked to pick I would have to chose Snow every time. Hannigan returned, I am happy for that, but I doubt I will consume all of this in album form again; maybe once in the car to try to let the other songs grow on me, perhaps...

Blue Lights on the Runway - Bell X1

Track list:

1. The Ribs of a Broken Umbrella
2. How Your Heart Is Wired
3. The Great Defector
4. Blow Ins
5. Amelia
6. A Better Band
7. Breastfed
8. Light Catches Your Face
9. One Stringed Harp
10. The Curtains Are Twitchin'

Running time: 54 minutes
Released: 2009

Random insert time. No - not another videogame post (though part of me wants to write something about Cities Skylines and how... I love the game by find myself happier to watch others play than play myself), but an album from a band that I cannot for the life of me recall why I picked it up. Apparently this was Bell X1's fourth album. I'd never heard of them or heard the other three, and haven't heard or looked for anything since. Something must have linked them to other artists I was enjoying back in early 2009, that's the only possible explanation. No idea what though, so this will be a discovery listen.

It starts with a pretty dull drum pattern and an odd synth tone. Breathy vocals over an Eighties-sounding backing is not really what I was expecting - I don't know what I did expect, but it wasn't this. It's the bad synths that give it a dated sound, and additional electronics appear as the song moves forwards, whilst staying very much the same. Then it goes all dramatic, introduces handclaps and a tinny piano. Hmm this is not really for me, though I do quite like the vocal, there's a charisma to it, a purpose that seems a bad fit with the cheesy backing and the oddball lyrics.

With the songs on average over 5 minutes in length this could end up feeling like a slog unless the output improves. How Your Heart is Wired is better. Whilst it has hints of 80s rock, it does a good job of communicating a sense of loneliness in the big city that I rather like. I have heard something similar to this recently but I can't place it... perhaps shades of Talking Heads, but that wouldn't be anything that I have listened to of late. In any case this is a much better song, until it sticks in a rut and I realise that I have actually been listening to A Better Band because like a doofus I forgot to switch off shuffle. Doh! The actual second track is a low key vocal over snappy synth-sounding drums and a self-indulgent guitar noodle in places. It has flashes of pleasantries and, yes - there is a distinct hint of David Byrne in the vocal to my (admittedly unfamiliar) ear - but it's not a step up really. I am left with the distinct impression that the group don't know how or when to close out their songs as much as anything else - there are great swathes of dead space in the latter half of the track that frankly add nothing to a recorded delivery. Live, such space might give room to work the crowd, allow highlights of individuals or so on, but on disc it just drags out the tune and causes me to lose what little interest I still had at the point the vocals disappeared.

Track 3 starts with sounds reminiscent of cartridge videogames, which if anything just strengthens the 80s rock feel. The 2009 date would put this at the early end of the 80s revival of recent times, I think, so if anything this release may have been ahead of the times as weird as that seems. That said, it is truly 80s - less homage or inspired by, more direct copy that could have come out of the decade itself and been sat on for 30 years. I have perhaps rather grown into the sound, as The Great Defector is a very enjoyable track - there's a life, a vibrancy, to the chorus that is pleasingly happy and twangy.  It is mid afternoon on a Monday. I have the day off because I was up too late last night, having seen Bellowhead in Aylesbury - 25 minutes one way from me, then driving a friend back to Witney, 25 miles the other way. Good gig as ever - consolation prize for not having been quick enough (inside a couple of minutes) to get tickets for the farewell gig at Oxford Town Hall.  I am feeling lethargic today, most of what I needed to do over the weekend completed on the actual weekend, and somehow lying in this morning left me empty and lacking energy. A bit like Blow Ins, which is never unpleasant and actually has a nice piano melody, but is so bland that even amongst longer tracks its 4 and an half minutes seem to last an eternity.

I rather like the staccato construction of Amelia's main theme and the cadence of the verse but it is rather too sparse for me to want just shy of 7 minutes of it. I am really hoping that there is a change up somewhere in here to make it worthy of the length, but I won't hold my breath. It's a shame because the duration aside I like pretty much everything else about the track - the vocal is good and engaging (consistently the best part of Bell X1's repertoire on the evidence of half a disc), the backing that swells and falls away behind the main theme is sparkles in a night sky pretty, and appropriate. But the song is done at about 4 and a half minutes. Why do we need 2 and a half more of un-innovative repetition?

Speaking of repetition, I think I've heard this before... yep, back to A Better Band. I don't mind listening to the first 3 minutes of the track a second time because it really works, and could have come straight from an 80s movie soundtrack. However about half way through it devolves to boring instrumental. This is the point that I checked how long the song had to run, to realise I was listening to the wrong track earlier in the disc and, alas, the answer is another 3 minutes. Crappy guitar masturbation is not what I signed up for, and when an awful wailing is added to it I despair: end your damn songs within a minute of running out of words and your output could be so much better! I might even say you would be a better band.

The next track is dull, the vocal muted and less distinctive, the guitars much rockier and more generic for it. So bland I have nothing to offer, and I find myself reading up on Talking Heads on Wikipedia instead; bad habit but it is hard to stop the mind wandering sometimes. All sense of pace is bled out of the album now. A slow piano melody replaces the guitars of nothingness and in a different context I might enjoy this song more but here and now... it does nothing to make me love it after the previous track disengaged me from the disc quite thoroughly. The vocal at least has some character again, but not enough to elevate a featureless song and melody into anything worthwhile.

There are some really dubious lyrics in the mix here too. One Stringed Harp's title line is applied to someone fiddling with their underwear... its really not very clever or interesting, a bit like the music that goes with it. I see flashes over the course of the disc that I like, but as a whole it all falls a bit flat, overrunning, taking their eye off the ball and ultimately delivering an air shot rather than a screamer into the top corner. Torturous football analogy aside, I am now into the final track and the other sin seems to be that the second half of the album loses all energy. Breastfed - the loud bland guitar rock - aside the mood has definitely been on a downswing and what that achieves is simply nullifying the best bits of the singer's style and replacing the 80s vibe I got from the early tracks with a tired and tiring downbeat direction. Couple that with songs dragging on past their prime and, well, the album as a whole is a massive disappointment. I do very much like The Great Defector though, so not a complete and utter wash out.

Black River Falls - Cathal Coughlan

Track list:

1. The Ghost Of Limehouse Cut
2. Officer Material
3. The Bacon Singer
4. Black River Falls
5. Payday
6. Dark Parlour
7. Out Among The Ruins
8. God Bless Mr X
9. Frankfurt Cowboy Yodel
10. NC
11. Whitechapel Mound
12. Cast Me Out In My Hometown

Running time: 51 minutes
Released: 2000

Ah, now I get to revisit a real gem, a true favourite. Black River Falls might be 15 years old now but its been in my life a bit less than that. I've written briefly on Big Sleeping House about how I stumbled on Cathal Coughlan and his fantastic singing as a result of a cover version on a special edition I bought because James Yorkston is one of my favourite ever music people (even if his most recent work drifts out of my interest more than I would like). Coughlan absolutely nailed his cover of Tender to the Blues and so I just had to go find more of his material. Whilst I love Microdisney as a result, it is this album as my perceived pinnacle of his solo work that shines brightest and longest, and it has a timeless quality to me.

It is from here I took the title for my Albion game - Out Among the Ruins - and from the very opening thrum of The Ghost of Limehouse Cut through to the sinister sounds of Cast Me Out In My Hometown it is a magnificent aural journey we make, traveling on the back of that rich and emotion-filled voice. The first number is an example of crime that doesn't pay, a nice tempo, a threatening riff, real darkness in the construction. This post is coming 3 days later than planned after evenings wiped out by bad circumstance. A pity, as I was really looking forward to to doing it Wednesday evening. Now it's Saturday and I am just about starting to feel human again. Coughlan's acerbic vocals are perhaps not what you might think of as relaxing, but there is a warmth in there too. Somehow he manages to be both welcoming and dismissive at the same time.

Officer Material has a very different feel, wistful, and more melodic. I really like the lilt of this one, gently rolling with a much slower pace to the song and open and accessible passages, not closed off and tense as in Limehouse. The piece degenerates a little in its closing but not enough to make me think anything other than fondly of it, before a driving percussion and stand-up (I reckon) bass combination comes in to drive The Bacon Singer. This tune was never the favourite others here are and I am forever thinking this track is actually on Foburg rather than Black River Falls. It moves at a clip, which I rather like, but it is the chorus that falls slightly flat for me. I do love the mic-drop at the end though, and the way that gives way to a really tense acoustic guitar opening for the title track.

Black River Falls gives Coughlan ample license to show off his vocal talents. Light little guitar, haunting strings, melody floating up and then diving down, there is drama in this telling. It feels like a performance or a tale to be shared rather than a simple song, the atmosphere dripping off it is just fantastic, mournful and compelling without being overpowering. I am hard pushed to call a favourite tune from the disc because it is filled with moments like this, and the next tune up is no different. A really solid base, with a nice little melody layered on it, then expression galore from Cathal's voice. Payday is a dark song, dark and slightly crazy. I think my love for these songs can be tied up nicely with my appreciation of the dark, thematic aspects of  urban fantasy/modern occult stories. They share that atmosphere and tension, yet with moments of lightness that surprise you. The capacity of music to create vivid imagery never fails to astound me. A strong lyric can help a song build a really clear picture but it is far from required. 

I am but half-way through but it feels like it will be over too soon, cocooned as I am in wonderful swirling melody and most pertinently the highs and lows of Coughlan's vocal. Out Among the Ruins is another real favourite, again combining a light touch composition with air and space with expression that goes from intense to soaring. There is a line in there that mentions Opus Dei that makes me long to run a conspiracy game, but it was the title itself (also a chorus lyric) that flooded to mind when I was thinking about how I might structure a game in Albion - a post-environmental apocalypse Britain where modern life has returned to renaissance-level technology, even though the song itself does nothing to speak to that. 

The next couple of songs are probably the weakest on the disc, but I would still choose to listen to them over much else that I have waded through in recent posts. At the risk of becoming repetitive, which even the best creators do sometimes (and I am not that!), it is all in that voice. There is no end of expression in there, depth and range that gives us tenderness, sadness, tunefulness and anger, oh my the anger. This is not screaming mindlessly. No, this is rage enunciated and delivered with precision and disdain. I am fond of a little bite in my music... the principled angst that appears on early Thea Gilmore records was one of the main draws for me. Coughlan takes that to another level. Where conveyance of that bite is often reliant on sharp and witty words, lest the song not carry a tune well, here I get the impression he could make a child's bedtime story sound like the world's worst insult whilst still keeping impeccably in tune and building an audible pleasure.

I am mildly distracted by both hunger (I am snacking on crackers, not great for me, but tasty!) and the closing moments of the first quarter final of the Rugby World Cup where Wales are just edging South Africa somehow. I think part of my problem is that I am very familiar with these tunes - the disc has been in my automotive selection for as far back as I can remember and it regularly gets pulled out of the 50 or so offering to serenade me as I make my way to work. As the disc winds down (in concert with the Rugby where the Springboks have just taken the lead at last) we are treated to a slow, descriptive number with menace present in the cleverly used guitar. I am struck by how much atmosphere is smashed into these tracks with relatively little instrumentation. A few well-chosen notes are all that is needed to create that tense, gloomy and oppressive sound - as typified by the final number. This sort of composition is simply made for Coughlan's voice and it delivers time and again on this record. So there, a true favourite, and one that I would heartily recommend anyone who likes broody atmospheric songs, performed with an unmatched aplomb and which manage to enthrall rather than overwhelm.

Big Sleeping House - Microdisney

Track list:

1. Horse Overboard
2. Loftholdingswood
3. Singer's Hampstead Home
4. She Only Gave In To Her Anger
5. Gale Force Wind
6. I Can't Say No
7. Angels
8. Mrs Simpson
9. Armadillo Man
10. And He Descended Into Hell
11. Rack
12. Big Sleeping House
13. Back To The Old Town
14. Send Herman Home
15. Town To Town
16. Begging Bowl

Running time: 62 minutes
Released: 1995

Ah Microdisney. I got into them through the retrospective double album Daunt Square to Elsewhere after loving Cathal Coughlan's contribution to the special edition of When the Haar Rolls In, where he covered James Yorkston's song Tender to the Blues, and his solo work. Black River Falls is a real favourite.

I loved Daunt Square so went looking for more, only to find most of it out of print (a couple of albums have been re-released since). So although many of these tracks I already had, I was pleased to find this best of which, nevertheless, offered me tracks I did not otherwise have access to.

This version of Horse Overboard is tonally different from the Daunt Square version and - having heard the other first, I prefer that to this. The song is a typical example of the somewhat off-the-wall lyricism of Microdisney. There are stories in there, there is feeling, but it is all dressed up in somewhat absurdist imagery. I find this rendition of the song too slow. The tun is all there, and OK so its in a slightly different style, but its the lower pace (or at least the feeling of it) that makes me not appreciate the song so much.

Loftholdingswood has a similarly modified tone to the music to the other two versions I have (Daunt Square and The Peel Sessions). Again the effect is to make it feel like the tempo is lower behind the lyrics and the top notch delivery of them. That said, I think this is pretty much my #1 Microdisney song, the chorus resonates with me in both literal and acerbic interpretations, I find it clever. Meanwhile the composition behind it is pleasingly simple but staggeringly effective. Simple loops, melodic though. It all hangs together nicely. This is not my preferred version of the tune though. We then dip into invective and the glorious disdain that is Singer's Hampstead Home. OK, so it's not exactly big or clever to write songs to launch into other people in your industry as this tirade, reportedly aimed at Boy George, does but the song itself is gloriously poppy whilst thriving on the back of Coughlan's animated vocal. The man can really sing. It is the way he manages to be so tuneful but still convey anger and other negative or destructive emotion that keeps me captivated.

I am less fond of Microdisney's slower numbers. In my epoch-dismissive way I think it shows up the limitations of 80s tone and pop composition. The (I reckon) synth drums and slightly tinny pop sounds are much better employed at higher pace and with a bit more going on. Gale Force Wind starts as I finish that sentence, and is a good example. This tune is so 80s it is amazing. 80s in tone, 80s in composition, 80s in how much it rails against the age - capitalism, AIDS etc. Its like the decade in microcosm. If I had to pick one song to sum up the world during the first 10 years of my life, admittedly as someone who generally dislikes the 80s music he is familiar with, this would be it. The moment I actually realised what this tune spoke to lyrically I was completely re-sold on Microdisney all over again.

We then get a novelty track, where Coughlan is replaced by a (to me unidentified) female singer who sensually spins out a number that is so cheesy it has to be a complete piss take on the part of the band. This interpretation actually makes it amusing and enjoyable, and based on the other output of the band there is no way I can take it at face value. That is followed by Angels, a song I haven't listened to much as I think I only have it on this compilation; it feels like a little bit of a nothing song in the context of the tunes around it. Not bad, but not stellar like Mrs Simpson which follows on its tail. This track is another real favourite, despite my earlier assertion that I do not like the slower tracks as much. This gets away with it because it is not as full of pop sounds, and is more a fully composed and arranged number, the strings that support the main themes are superb at framing the lyrics, delivered as ever with excellence. I think I also bring more to this track because of the construction of the album on Daunt Square, where it culminates a run of four favourite tracks.

Ah, Armadillo Man. This song makes me smile in its caricature of an American anti-communist, gun-nut. It is all too cheery for a song about the absurdity of the Cold War, and Microdisney have form for that... Town to Town (coming later) is cheery even in the face of Armageddon, or nuclear winter anyway.

Despite finding slower songs weaker, in general, I can't bring myself to divest of tracks like She Only Gave In To Her Anger or And He Descended Into Hell, or indeed Angels. I am also finding myself reticent to make the decision to cull the tracks that I have other, preferred versions of. I suspect this is because I actually want to maintain as much of a representative picture of Microdisney as I can because I wasn't there at the time they were producing this material, but 2 decades on from that they became real favourites in a way that endures.

Rack is stunningly good, again full of question, anger and incredulity at the powers that be. Angry demonstration is not something I think is generally successful, but channeling that vitriol through the medium of music is powerful when you have a voice as good as Cathal Coughlan's to spit those lines out. Again it is a nicely arranged piece with an integral string theme that picks up the all too catchy structure of the bass and turns the song as a whole into something transcendent. At least for me. The title track is a sad song really, but there is nothing sad about its construction. Another example of being upbeat about things that really we should not necessarily be upbeat about. These tracks later on this disc don't have the odd differences from the versions that I first heard that were present on the opening couple. Listening to this rendition I can't identify any obvious variation from the recording on Daunt Square to Elsewhere that I first heard. This makes Rack and Big Sleeping House candidates for cutting in a way that Loftholdingswood clearly is not. I don't think I will though; I like weighting the old RNG of shuffle a bit in favour of tunes I really dig.

Two more tracks that I believe I have only on this disc now, and both are catchy in different ways.  Back to the Old Town is punchy rhythmically in a way that is uncharacteristic of the group. The vocal is very consistent, but the structure of the song is a nice change up. In contrast, Send Herman Home is very much the epitome of Microdisney, bright pop sounds layered underneath a song with a message; that it opens and bridges with what I can only assume is a send up of the late Reverend Ian Paisley (the less said about that man, the better) leaves me in little doubt that this is another "sound friendly, hide the meaning" song. I might be way off base, and there's nothing quite like half-arsedly interpreting something 30 years after its creation to make you look a fool!

There's Town to Town; so relentlessly nice in tune and tone yet so amazingly bleak when you listen to the words. It is an astonishing contrast - instinctively you might think it would be a mess but there is real craft in the pairing and the dissonance you expect it to cause just never arises. At least it doesn't for me. Ooh, there's a real feeling in the mouth organ that opens Begging Bowl; that's a really nice touch, the fading, unclean edge to the sound that is missing from other versions of the tune. It soon becomes an irrelevance to the rest of the track - the sound does not make another appearance - but it puts me in a good mood to enjoy what I normally consider to be one of the weaker tracks that I still listen to a lot.

Overall I am not sorry I picked up this compilation for what amounts to three tracks I really like and four that are not as strong as the material I had already. That said, whilst I would happily recommend Microdisney to anyone, I would also counsel picking up Daunt Square to Elsewhere over this if you want a snapshot of their career.

All Is Violent, All Is Bright - God Is An Astronaut

Track List:

1. Fragile
2. All Is Violent, All Is Bright
3. Forever Lost
4. Fire Flies and Empty Skies
5. A Deafening Distance
6. Infinite Horizons
7. Suicide by Star
8. Remembrance Day
9. Dust and Echoes
10. When Everything Dies

Running time: 48 minutes
Released: 2005

God Is An Astronaut were another LastFM find, on some kind of Post-Rock station, probably based on Mogwai, though there is not really much resemblance between the two - with this Irish group being much more electro/synthy in their approach. I remember being taken in by, I think, From Dust to the Beyond (on The End of the Beginning) and then just picking up a few albums blind. I have no real familiarity with these songs by name, but I am sure I will recognise a few as they play.

Fragile is an interesting opening, slow and gentle to start with, it feels - and this is something I find myself saying about a fair few opening tracks - more like a closer than an opener. I could not say whether this is just me though, perhaps I look for different things in the first song on an album than others. Primarily I want one of two things:

1. A statement that sets the tone for what is to come; or

2. A slow build that grows into the rest of the album.

 (3. Bloody lists don't play nicely with the image opposite).

The latter is half true here, but overall Fragile has no build - it starts pretty one-paced and one-tone and maintains that slow, low feel throughout. It is far from an unpleasant listen but it just lacks any X factor as an opener. Thankfully the title track picks up the mantle a bit better, and has some real energy about it by the time it comes to close.

As Forever Lost starts I am noticing a pattern here though. The sounds used in these tunes are all very similar. There is distinction between the songs in tempo, volume, etc. but fundamentally they all sound... if not the same then a bit too close together to really enthuse about them. Moreover I think that extends past this album to the other 2 and a half (one is very short) that I have. I am getting a picture of God is an Astronaut as a "do one thing, but do it well" sort of band forming - but it is unfair to judge that description final just 3 songs into the first listen on the basis of my (already documented to be wonky) memory.

Synth/programmed keys, guitars, drums all present. It is a formula that seems to be doing them well and I'll be clear here: for all the over-familiarity of each song there is nothing here that would move me to remove this album from my library. It just feels as though the tunes are a little too uniform for back-to-back appreciation of the sort this blog is about. The combination of the programming with the live recording settles into a regular pattern. The guitars do "X" the keys do "Y" and the drums do "Z". Often - in the case of the keys and guitars, using similar tones and changing the patterns from song to song. This is almost certainly a grossly unfair criticism in terms of the actual process; I am not a music critic just some dude writing a blog with no real experience.

But you know what? I have a sneaking suspicion that what I see as sameness between the tunes is probably a fundamental keystone of their appeal. GiaA are a "safe" band, you know what you are going to get and if you happen to like that, its all good. And how many people today actually consume music in the way that I am doing for this project? I would guess relatively few, which means those similarities becomes less of an issue, less of an irritation. Those similarities though? They make it really easy to identify a God is an Astronaut track in a rotation.

For my part, I prefer the louder and brasher tunes on this album. When the volume and tempo go up the (by now) genericisms of the format and reuse of the same notes fade as issues, getting lost in the more vibrant sounds, the fuzziness introduced by more notation and the energy transmitted through the songs. The slower, sparser pieces - whilst possibly more melodic - allow my ear to latch onto the common theme(s) and refrains more easily. I wish I could transcribe by ear to investigate my own point more thoroughly, but alas that is beyond me.

Wow, this has been an overtly negative post for being about something I like and will be keeping all of... how can I address that?

First the oddity: there are a few tracks here where the smoothness of playback is interrupted near the end of the song. I cannot tell whether this is an artefact of the rip from CD or a genuine article in the work (where perhaps the original track lines were different). I suspect the former, but if so to have it occur 3 or 4 times in one disc when I do not consciously recall every having heard it elsewhere it interesting to say the least.

Finally, to end on a positive note: do one thing and do it well. We could latch on to two different sentiments in that sentence: limitation, or quality.  The rest of this post bleats about the limitation. The quality though? Well, until the last track (which to be honest has a problem with dead air and a hidden track that should probably not exist) they keep track length well in hand, which is unusual in this sort of instrumental rock and there is not a single unpleasant song here. There is a good mix of slower melodies and faster riots and examples of both are sculpted into compelling soundscapes and catchy loops that will stick in your head and be recognised whenever they pop up again. It takes real craft to be that immediately identifiable in a field populated by everyone and their dog using the same tools to sculpt the same material.

It's just that you will never be sure which statue you are looking at.

9 - Damien Rice

Track List

1. 9 Crimes
2. The Animals Were Gone
3. Elephant
4. Rootless Tree
5. Dogs
6. Coconut Skins
7. Me, My Yoke and I
8. Grey Room
9. Accidental Babies
10. Sleep Don't Weep

Running Time: 67 minutes
Released: 2006

Sheesh, this is the best part of a decade old now, and there has been nothing of note since. Wikipedia suggests even this second effort was only at the record company's insistence. Looking down the track list stirs some memories. 9 crimes evokes strong memories and in times past I found solace in the fierceness in Rootless Tree and Me, My Yoke and I. I wonder where those memories will stand once I listen anew?

Mind you I remember some dross too, and the 21 minutes assigned to the last track suggests a whole heap of silence before a disappointing secret track (I don not remember if there is one). I hate that practice, by the by. Aside from being outdated in the digital age, it was never a reward for the listener, it was a penalty of having to put up with playing a silent track.

Why it did not appear before 9 Dead Alive in this list I do not know. WMP and its crazy ways. Amusingly Damien Rice apparently gigged with Rodrigo y Gabriela, too.

The gentle keys that start 9 Crimes immediately put me in the right mood for this. On this track, I am sure, my memory will be lived up to - although I find Rice's voice a bit off for some reason when it makes its entrance before it smooths out. There is a pleading quality here that reminds me of past times and low feelings if not specifically the relationship trouble it seems to hint at. The song is over before it has begun and I almost want to restart the listen.

I always hated the line "I love your depression and I love your double chin". It feels lazy, it feels trite. It feels like filler. Yeah - I was never a fan of The Animals Were Gone. Musically it does not inspire, lyrically it feels like a whine. A kind of pernicious whine at that... eating away at friendships by claiming to be hard done by. It is probably not a fair criticism but its the one that comes to mind. It is the kind of song that makes the idea of Rice being pressed into making this record ring true. And yet... and yet.

Elephant reminds me of Amie, from O. Apparently it was originally The Blower's Daughter part II, but it feels like it has more in common with Amie - and that puts it on the side of songs I like (not that I dislike The Blower's Daughter), even though again the lyrics feel forced in places. Admittedly I have not listened to O for a fair old while and so the comparison may be made on the basis of false memory.

Ah, gratuitous swearing, where would we be without you? Yeah I am not looking back with any pride on taking pleasure in the obscenities screamed out during Rootless Tree. It is hard to deny there is power in the delivery though and the overall effect is still cathartic. The more aggressive vocal works with Rice's voice to make a pretty compelling sound, but there is no repeat of the solace that I used to find in the tawdry "f*** you" refrains. It sits particularly badly with just having heard that my niece is in hospital after an accident and that may scupper their family holiday plans. To which end I need to pause now.

Phew. Picture through, she's OK and smiling, though going into exploratory surgery as I type. Fingers crossed for a full recovery. Nowhere I can get to to offer support, alas, other than to be on the other end of a phone.

The high points stand out pretty far on this one. Rice is more compelling when imparting anger. A slightly tinny sound ruins Me, My Yoke and I but it is the tune I remember, and so the three pillars that supported this album when it came out all seem to be in place still. In between is a bit of a mix. I missed Dogs (which I recall liking in the past) and Coconut Skins (which I never cared for) amidst thoughts and worry but I heard enough to not go back through them again specially.

I cannot get into Grey Room, although it has a couple of nice moments and then it gives way to Accidental Babies which, despite being a piano tune of the sort I tend to like, I find dull as anything. The playing seems flat, the vocal uninspired and the general sparse, slow and gentle tone is such a let down after the white hot burn of earlier tracks. The harmony on Sleep Don't Weep is better at making the quieter track more interesting but not much more so. The song eventually peters out before the 6 minute mark and so to the 15 minutes of guff added on the end; ambient sound gives way to a piercing warbling note which is really quite unpleasant. The effect is eerie but uninteresting, unsettling and uncomfortable. It is anything but clever and actually worse than several minutes of silence leading in to a secret track would have been. The tone eventually changes but does not improve and does literally take up until the 21 minute mark. What a load of complete tripe; pretentiousness and audience hostility summed up in a couple of wavering notes.

It is severely tempting to trim my library of several of these tunes even before I subjected myself to that outro but I shall stay my hand for now as I am not keen on partials for wholly irrational reasons. Made more irrational by the fact I have been ripping content to cover up some partials, whilst creating more (though admittedly only for singles which only contained several versions of the main track). Yeah - that provides the answer to my dilemma below, which means until I get through this project any random plays are going to have a higher level of frustration and skipping than before.

I just realised I never mentioned Lisa Hannigan, though she appears in the labels - she collaborates here as she did on O. I do like her voice a lot. Oh well. Bigger things to worry about tonight.

... Waltzing Alone - The Guggenheim Grotto

Track list:
1. Philosophia
8. A Lifetime in Heat

Running Time: 8 mins
Released: 2005

I do not know where I picked this up from and can only suspect one of 2 things:

1. A free download from LastFM; or
2. Sample music that came with WMP on a new PC sometime in the past.

I only have 2 tracks from the album, and listening to Philosophia for what I thought was the first time, but which LastFM suggests is actually the 10th in 6 years, I wonder if I should not pick up some more.

It is genre-tagged as folk; I am not sure that fits. They have a pleasant sparse, lo-fi sound though, and as A Lifetime in Heat starts I am reminded of Nick Drake by the softness of the vocal. There is nothing like the same level of craft here, though.

I also had no idea where the band were from until I Googled them. Ireland makes a lot of sense as they fit snugly with the quieter moments of Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan. I could see them providing a reasonable soundtrack to a chilled evening lounging around somewhere. However I think I will pass on getting any more... there is not quite enough interest to warrant a purchase.